"Keep moving forward"Â said Walt Disney. This has been my classroom theme for this year. Art teaches students how to problem solve, that mistakes are OK, and that moving forward helps us think in different ways. Help my students learn to keep moving forward in life and in art.
Who are my students?
They are a creative, enthusiastic and ready to learn bunch! I teach TAB art, also known as choice based art, in my 1st-9th grade classes. My students select from multiple mediums to express themselves after a short demo showing them how to use a medium or get ideas from famous artist from all different art centuries. This school is a Title I school, meaning that a significant number of students live at or below the poverty level.
Our charter school is also LEED certified. We have solar panels and overhead skylights that help power our school, which reduce our ecological footprint. The school has a garden, and we make several art projects where recycled items at home are collected and brought to class to create outstanding pieces of artwork. Our school is very hands-on and allows students to move around as they learn. We enhance our students lives by making our lessons as hands-on and true to life as possible.
My Project
Kilns are thousands of dollars and the high temperatures can be dangerous. If all the air bubbles aren't out of the class sculptures the high temperatures can make sculptures explode. Self hardening clay on the other hand allows students to model and make more durable creations without having to spend thousands of dollars on a kiln for the school. I have used salt dough play dough with a few of my classes and they have absolutely fallen in love with the medium of clay! The salt dough doesn't allow students to add as many details and the sculptures become flat quickly because of it's dough like qualities. Self hardening clay and the clay sculpting tools will help students become more successful at sculpture.
In choice based art education, having more mediums to express yourself with is key.
Help my students learn to think outside the box, outside the paper, outside the canvas with self hardening clay to make 3D sculptures. Remember, without art, our "eARTh" would just be "eh". Make the world we live in more exciting and interesting by helping our art class get self hardening clay. This will ignite the creativity of my 1st-9th grade students.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Argyle and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.