The 2nd graders continued to explore the question of "Are spiders artists?" over the last two weeks. On the 4th, they alternated examining abstract art pieces and books about spider webs as they graffitied their thoughts and answers to questions such as "What do you think the artist/spider was thinking while they worked?" and "What do you think the artist/spider's purpose was to do this work?" The students then learned about famous abstract expressionist Wassily Kandinsky. I highly recommend checking out this video that helps kids (and adults!) understand abstract expressionism. We used this video as a springboard to try our own hand at abstract art. We played a game where the students were told to draw two lines, but one had to represent one emotion and the second represent a different emotion. For example, the first prompt was to draw a happy line and a sad line. They practiced guessing what their tablemates' lines represented and then practiced explaining their rationale for how they drew their lines. I think we could have played this all day! It was a ton of fun and a great way to practice thinking abstractly.

On the 11th, students applied their understanding of abstract art to create an abstract art piece that represents their life. They thought about what abstract lines, shapes, and colors they could use to represent important milestones in their lives. We then held a gallery walk where students could leave notes with questions, positive words, or interpretations of their classmates' art. We finished the day by having each student add a video to their Book Creator portfolios explaining the meaning behind their abstract art piece. You should definitely check them out!

Since we got to practice being abstract artists this week, next week, we will get inside the minds of spiders and build some webs of our own!

Thank you so much to last week's class helpers, Amber and Anna, and to this week's class helper, Zibby! You are so appreciated!