Cafeteria Zentangle Challenge

We asked the students, "What would make the cafeteria better?"

I can't begin to tell you all the suggestions: karaoke machine, swimming pool, large screen TV, basketball.  One thing seemed unanimous... drawing. 

And so begins the zentangle drawings!  Can each student in the school make a doodle drawing?

We'll see.....

Writing an Artist’s Statement

It’s extremely important to be self-aware as an artist.

We should always be thinking about our processes, our decisions, our strengths and weaknesses, and our prejudices. Knowing these things will help us learn from our mistakes and use our strengths to their fullest advantage.
Grades 3-5 write artist statements with almost every project.  2nd grade will start soon and in k-1, we just talk about it.  Here are some suggestions that the students use to get started. 

•     Title of the Piece – this alone helps the viewer understand the subject or makes him/her think about the work in a different way
•    The process I used was….. (Describe the artwork, including the medium, subject matter, and inspiration.)
•    My artwork was inspired by (whom or what?)
•    What happened along the way? (Did anything interesting or unusual happen? Did I solve any problems in the process? Did I change my approach to doing the project? etc.)
•    Did the project turn out how I expected? Why or why not?
•    What did I learn through the art project?
•    What would I do differently next time?
•    This piece is important to me because….
•    Which elements and principals did you use?.
•    I know when I’m doing a good job because…
•    I solved one problem I had by……
•    I planned my piece and then changed it by……
•    This project helped me learn…..
•    My favorite part is……
•    Is there a story or personal reason for making this piece of art that you’d like to share?
•    Do you know anyone else who uses this technique? medium? style? subject?
•    I like making art because…..

"I wrote my name and wondered, "How can I make it different from my other zentangles?"

"You can see some circles in this drawing.  I like to improvise."  

"It was hard so I was surprised when it came out good."

"I drew a cheeseburger in my zentangle to show what I love to eat."

5 DOTS

We love doing squiggle drawings.  

A squiggle drawing is when you get a piece of paper with a black squiggly line already on it.  You need to use your imagination to come up with an idea to make it into. 

 5 DOTS is the same basic idea. 

 You glue 5 dots onto a piece of paper.  You draw a black line connecting the dots.  You do not make a polygon.  They can be connected in any way.  Next, you turn the paper around and around until you think of something to draw it into.  We even practice not going with our first idea.
These were done by 4th graders.

The purpose of this lesson was to teach artistic behaviors (risk taking, playing and experimenting) and using our imaginations as a source of inspiration. 

3rd, 4th and 5th graders wanted to doodle.

These are examples of their work.

see below for artist statements

"I wrote my name and wondered, "How can I make it different from my other zentangles?"

"You can see some circles in this drawing.  I like to improvise."  

"It was hard so I was surprised when it came out good."

"I drew a cheeseburger in my zentangle to show what I love to eat."