teaching

well, I've yet again become "Miss Molly"... teaching in a fun summer arts program at the wonderful Savannah Country Day School.

Last week I was assistant teaching in Lori Corbus' drawing class in the mornings. We had a very colorful group of 7-12 year olds! It was really interesting for me to be in a situation where children are given very structured projects, because I think that most of the places that I've been -- as a kid, or as a teacher, have had fewer apparent guidelines. I didn't realize that I have been living in a reggio world as much as I have been!!
***see these links to read about reggio: http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Fundamentals/
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Reggio_Emilia/

One of the projects that Lori did was to hand out line drawings traced from either Grant Wood's American Gothic or Van Gough's Starry night
The kids were encouraged to color them in their own way using oil pastels and colored pencils.

Here is Austin's American Gothic



I love the way he colored her dress. Austin has a lot of energy and is an exceptionally free thinker. it's hard for him to follow the rules. This means that he is also a pretty fabulous artist who brings his own little flare to everything that he makes!
... here he is working on it



and again with his buddy Zachery!



In the afternoons, I tought a GREEN SCULPTURE class. I sent a letter to the parents asking each child to bring a collection of found materials to the first day of camp. Also we sent out this link to a great story about working with found materials--
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/nyregion/01trash.html?_r=1&emc=eta1


On Monday my students cam in with bags and boxes bulging with stuff. we sorted everything out... here is a little bit of it:

I brought in an Alexander Calder book. Everyone was particularly interested in his CIRCUS

Zachery said, "It looks like he made this whole thing out of little stuffs that he just had. or he just found and thought, oh yeah... I could use this to make this really really amusing circus made of stuff."


We decided to make a museum, with a space departement



A zoo




Little Betty's animal house




And a worm house!!



here is Wormy himself, hanging out in the living room!



Mikayla said, "my cheeta doesn't actually look like a real cheeta." Alyssa replied, "that's okay. actually it's better because if it looked real it wouldn't be as creative." how splendid, don't you think?!?


This week I'm teaching a cute little paper sculpture class in the mornings and then I have the afternoons off to do some work in our new studio!!