the thrid trimester slump

Time to start the 3rd trimester and for a variety of reasons I'm feeling a bit lack luster. I'm back to seeing kinders only once a week for 30 min and will now see each 1st grade class a second time each week for 5 weeks at a time. I only teach 10 weeks this trimester and one of those weeks has to focus on some type of Mother's Day lesson (like it or not). Despite my begging and searching for supplies we still are pretty low on materials and I need to find lessons that don't require anything more than copy paper, the secondary colors of tempera paint, crayon and what's left of our oil pastels and watercolor paints and some cheap cheap construction paper. We will really embracing recycled art come earth day! When looking back on my lesson plans I've noticed the only time we really focus on artist studies is during spring trimester. We already got a jump start last trimester though we were looking for numbers letters and shapes in art not looking at specific artists per say.

Sometimes the kids surprise me and it turns out that my kids really like seeing "famous" works of art and then doing something along the same theme. I think it gives them a clear idea of what they are trying to do and makes them feel a bit fancy. They really like it when I can tell them how much a work of art is "worth". Money talks when you are on welfare. I want to run with any success we have so we will focus on artist study till the end of the school year.
So far we have looked at:
Paul Klee
Jasper John's numbers and letters
Demuth
Mondrian and Kandinsky circles.

I like this approach of looking at a work of art because almost all the grade levels can work off the same artwork and scan for different elements and principals depending on grade level.

But if all the kids study the same artist at the same time what will they do next year when spring rolls around?! You know that is the great thing about art, their are so many different artists that I feel pretty confident that I can find 5 different artists to study each spring.

Teaching 9 grade levels a week I find if I am trying to teach too many different artists or lessons each week that I get confused and don't teach the material as well as I hope. Working on the same basic lesson across grade levels allows me to work out the kinks and help the majority of kids get a end product they like. If I'm teaching a lesson to only one grade level it usually takes a few years to work out the kinks. Working across grade level also lets me try the same basic concept in a variety of media and materials. So even if the inspration is the same and even the basic lesson plan the same I'm finding the end results to be district to each grade.

We also get some pretty cool displays when I can put up a kinder's interpretation of a artwork next to a 5th graders. I have noticed the kinder parents (I'm in the kinder hall) have been really looking at, and reading, the artist info I put up with each display. I feel safe guessing that this is the first time many of the parents are seeing these works of art. I hope by not just educating the kids, but also the parents I can take their idea of "art" beyond stick figures and smiley face suns.

I hope we can make some art based on:
Matisse goldfish fish
Picasso, guitars, faces and monochromatics
Cezanne fruit still lifes
Monet studies...waterliles, bridges, trees and such
Van gogh ....bedrooms, stary night, sunflowers
Kandinsky lines and organic, geometric shapes in black glue then painted with watercolor
Okeefe large flowers, insects or other everyday objects like keys and...

If the little kids need to fill time we have lots of small small scraps of scratch foam that would work for super simple printmaking.