teaching for artistic behavior

Santa's reindeer take off in a vigorous diagonal...the second grader's body
language gives energy to her drawing. This young lady makes drawn, collaged
and paper sculpture animals every week in my classroom.

The Dream House is a group project...three 8 year old girls worked for
several weeks on this. I was interested to see how much it looked like their
drawing.

Here is the finished calico cat painting. You can see it in process in
previous posts. This painting has had many favorable comments from teachers who
have seen it drying in the hallway.

While most seven year old students work fairly rapidly, there are exceptions
to this! This colored pencil drawing has been completed since this photo was
taken. The 9x12 drawing engaged this student for five art classes. In
choice classrooms students are encouraged to find their own pace for art making.

Current events and popular media make their appearance in art work in a
choice classroom. This 8 year old student had been the see the movie "The
Incredibles" the night before. He quickly drew his impressions in Sharpie marker on
2ft by 3 ft paper.

In the choice classroom the chalkboard serves as a public drawing space.
Subject matter is often a declaration of friendship. These students are drawing
each other's portraits.

This student made a drawing of her version of her "calico" cat. She then
used the drawing to help her begin a large, long-term painting. Many students
paint directly without preliminary drawings, but some prefer to plan in
advance. Sometimes the drawing merely inspires a painting idea.

Often one student painting influences another in  the choice classroom.  A
student was attracted to the calico cats and has joined the painter to make her
own smaller version.

This student saw the large paintings from the third grade. I offered her
large drawing paper since she wanted to work on a drawing for a number of weeks.
The subject matter and composition are purely her own. This second grader
worked for three weeks.

In choice classrooms some students make similiar work over time. This
student works on complex, layered abstsract colored pencil drawings. He has
collected his numerous drawings and will display them together at the town art
exhibit.

Students in choice classrooms are encouraged to use their passions as the
content of their art work. Here is a student using part of his card collection
to inform his illustration for book he has made.