just make art, right?

Students learning how to cut glass.

When I went to my principal with the idea to start an after school art club, I was like heck, let's see if they let the first year ever art teacher do what she wants.  Well, thankfully, they did.  Since then, I have been coming together with sixty (you read that right) 4th and 5th graders every other Tuesday for an hour after school these past few weeks.Mind you not the headaches and running around like crazy adding something else on my to-do list as been, nothing tops the student who ran up to me after each student received their own sketchbook today.  She looked at me like I just gave her a new iPod.  

When we are creating and exploring after school, students are more focused on the creating and doing rather than the structure they find by being in school.  Of course I've created planned projects to guide students, but I think the best urge for knowledge comes from a witty comment I received from a student who asked "We get to just make art right?"

I've included some works of art and times spent in our little art club.  We've only had four sessions so far, but we collectively created an "art quilt" to hang in our school, had a visit from a local glass fusion artist who let us make some glass fusions of our own, and explore new drawing techniques as we continue to practice.  But most important of all, we've just been making art.

snowmen shading 12/6/11