Roosevelt Elementary 

Art Program

Choice Based Art &

Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB)

Choices create a nurturing community of artists. When everyone is working on different things, there is less of a tendency to compare oneself to others. Students not only feel safe to find their own ways of expressing ideas and investigating art problems but also celebrate each other’s achievements. Students coach each other, discuss artwork, share materials, and often choose to work with friends and classmates on particular projects.

Students reflect on their work. They learn to look closely at their work, ask questions, and evaluate it to decide when it is complete.  They learn how to talk about their work with others and to write about it for artist statements that accompany their display pieces for Choice-based exhibits. Artist statements address concept, technique, or personal relevancy. Students are invited to supply information that the viewer wouldn’t know about their work. Questions for student artists might include the following:

• Tell me about your work.

• What do you want people to notice?

• Where did you find this idea, what artist did you study?

• How did you make this?

First Grade

We made a collage using a large piece of colored construction paper that we folded into a square. Once it was cut into a square, we made more folds and cut more squares. We shared squares with people at our table, then cut all the corners off the squares twice to make circles of different sizes. 

We want people to notice how we layered the circles from largest to smallest to create the look of a target, or concentric circles.

We found this idea by studying the life and art of Wassily Kandinsky who was a Russian painter and known as the father of Abstract Art. We watched biographies about Kandinsky and his work and we were inspired by his painting Squares with Concentric Circles.

We made this by using the collage studio. We used tools and materials to cut, glue, arrange, and draw lines to create areas of interest and fill space. Materials we used were colored and black construction paper, tools we used were scissors, glue sticks, and oil pastels. 

Kindergarten

We made a collage using squares of paper cut into rectangles, triangles, semi circles and other shapes we invented. 

We want people to notice all of the little details we added using oil pastels like windows, words, people, cars, sun, and stars. We also want you to notice that it is a neighborhood or cityscape. 

We found this idea by studying the life and art of Paul Klee, Swiss-born artist. We looked at his painting Castle and Sun, and read The Cat and Bird, A Children’s Book Inspired by Paul Klee.

We made this by using collage. We used scissors to cut squares into other shapes, then we arranged our shapes on the bottom of the paper to show the foreground. We used glue stick to attach our paper to the large piece of colored construction paper, or the background, which is the sky.