Author Archives: Erica Gorzen

“Under the Sea” Room Decorations

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This school year I have decided to run with a water theme to help incorporate a few things that I feel will connect with my older students as well as my younger students. I have added some stuff from Finding Dory in my room as well as water Pokemon to connect to the Pokemon Go craze!

I like to spread my theme across the school in a couple different ways. I have my hall boards that reflect the theme, I have the kids create projects that relate to the theme, and the past few years I have been having the staff a the school draw/color/design something that relates to the theme and display it outside of their classroom.

Here is my classroom before it was completely done and in progress!

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I love decorating my room! It takes a while especially when I decide to draw out new decorations but it is a great way to get into the swing of school. This year my two year old was “helping” me get my room setup so it took a bit longer that I expected, but it is ready for school to begin!

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Hope you all have a great school year!

Under the Sea Hallway Boards

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My hall boards were installed a few years ago when another school donated them. I have been decorating them as well as having students help me at the end of the school year to create unique designs for them that relate to the theme in my classroom.

I have three boards that are displayed across the school. The decorations have to be appropriate for all ages since they are hung in a Preschool through 12th grade school. They also have to get the kids all excited about Art (like they really need a poster to get them excited about Art!)

In the hall closest to my little ones I have a Finding Nemo / Finding Dory themed board. I drew out Crush and Squirt and laminated them before I added them to the board. Might need to add a few more things to the board but they were good enough for our school’s Open House.IMG_20160815_160203453

The next board that I created was from Finding Nemo as well. I love Bruce from the movie and thought that he would be a great board. I also so a similar idea on Pinterest but adapted it for Art! I painted Bruce directly on the blue paper that I hung up.

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The last board that I created was inspired by Pokemon Go. I saw a similar poster on Facebook and had to incorporate it this school year. I also drew out the Magikarp and Gyarados then laminated them before I hung them on the wall. I made sure that I used the team colors from Pokemon Go as the background colors!

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These boards are one of the ways that I get back into the school mood. I get myself excited as I plan to get the students excited!! Looking forward to the new school year!

Middle School Chalk Drawings

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I saw a project on Pinterest that was for an art club chalk project, where the students had an entire day to create large scale drawings in chalk of famous artworks. I decided that I wanted to challenge my 7th graders and give them a little bit of art history by having them do something similar.

To begin the assignment I decided to select various Artists that had bright colors, bold designs, and would be challenging yet do-able for students in chalk. I created a project where each of the students had to research one of the Artists that I decided on, they included Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Romero Britto, James Rizzi, and Peter Max.

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I gave each student a worksheet that had the Artist’s name and one of the Artist’s artwork, that I selected and printed out in color for them. The worksheet had several questions to answer about the Artist and the Artwork. Once they completed the worksheet, they had to do a practice drawing in full color before they moved out doors for the assignment. I had them practice in full color so that if anything were to happen while they were working on their final design outside I could still give them a grade for their work!

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We went over the grid technique and how to enlarge drawings using that technique. Once they understood that process they were sent outdoors. They created their grids on the sidewalk with white chalk so they could go over them with the other colors better.

I had them working on the project over several days so students would have to hope the weather held out and that no one trampled their work. They worked hard on their outside pieces and it added a great element to the school. Many people saw them in process and loved how they added color and design around the building! I loved the final pieces and so did the students!

Here is a post to my Artsonia gallery of this project: http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=975627

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Video Game Decorations

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With my room I have been having fun creating decorations that relate to some sort of theme. I have also spread that theme into the students projects as well as different activities throughout the school. Here are some of my video game inspired decorations!

I am lucky enough to have two doors to my classroom. I have a student door and I have a “teacher” door. For my student door this school year I decided to have Pokemon battling in a classic Gameboy! So many fond memories for me and a connection to students who are just getting into the games! IMG_20150916_132955984Since I have so many different age levels of classes I like to have the students activities for the day listed on the board. To entice the students to look at the board I create a drawing for the month which relates to my theme. I teach in multiple classrooms because I also teach Computers so I make sure that the boards match each other in theme across the rooms! Here are a few that I created this school year.

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I have a few boards in the hallways that I like to create or have students create decorations for. This school year I decorated them with Minecraft and Pac Man to get a variety of generations excited about Art!

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Gingerbread Houses

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I have been challenging my High School students to look at Art in different ways and find where the talents, that they possess, can be used. One way that I have them seeing Art in everything is through a unit on creating Gingerbread houses, which is food art! How can someone go wrong with food Art! For the past couple years I have had the students create Gingerbread houses before winter break. The students love creating with food and gives them a chance to create unique pieces!

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I have had the students creating these houses for the past couple years during their exam time. Thankfully I am not forced to create a written test to challenge them during that time frame which allows us a longer class period to create these large scale works.

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Before the day of, the students have many things they have to do to prepare for this event. First we work on designs. The students practice drawing what they want their houses to look like, they also decide on if they want to create the piece by themselves or if they want to work in teams. They have to decide on what types of candy they would like to incorporate in their designs and figure out what each of them are bringing! If they are working in a group they are also have to get the base for their creation.DSCN5021IMG_1951

For the project I provided each table with a box of graham crackers, paper plates and a bag of icing that they would need. I bring my mixer with me to make the icing as the students are working as need be. I make a royal icing that can hold up to the candy and the kids crazy creations!!

Lucky enough for us as well, the school’s head Chef is also an amazing cake decorator and she comes in to the classroom and shows off her tricks of the trade! DSCN5020The students have come up with some very interesting designs, they have also brought in so many unique supplies and worked well by sharing the goodies across the room! By far it is one of the things that my classes look forward to each year!

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