Incorporating an Artist Study

Monday, June 3, 2013

This year, one of my student's asked me out of the blue, "WHY DON'T WE DO ART?" Um.......(crickets.......) Since we had been so busy with test preparation, art was certainly an area that had been lacking in my room. So, I felt the best approach for incorporating art just prior to open house was through a lap book. This way, the students had something concrete to display and then to take home as a finished product. First I started by allowing students to discuss which artists they already knew, even if it was simply their name. Students came up with Van Gogh, Picasso, Leonardo DiCaprio(which the other students were QUICK to correct this girl on!), and Monet. After a class vote, Monet took it! Monet was our first artist study (and ONLY for this year, but really hoping to do more next year!) :-)

After reading books from our school's library about Monet, we filled out the follwing graph to organize our information. (The books can be found in the widget below!)

Students completed recreations of Monet's water lilies for the covers of their lap book, studied on the map where Monet lived, and analyzed a time line of his life.

Students filled their picture pockets with important photos relating to Monet's life and added this to their lap books.

We also had a discussion about his artistic mediums and strategies

like impressionism as seen below.

Here is a picture of the finished product as seen on the inside!

Other ideas that incorporate Claude Monet projects...
Art with Ms. Chiddo created Monet inspired bridges. Click on the picture to be taken to the site. These look fantastic!