Senior Book 3

Here is another look at another senior book (please read prior blog).  Since this is their last project of the year, I let certain things "slip by".  I do this because my hope is that they will take this book home and keep it for a long time.  Then perhaps one day they will open it up again and see for themselves who they once were and what it was they were thinking of at the time.

Senior Book 2

Here's a look at another senior book (read last post) created by one of my seniors. 

Senior Books

At the end of every school year I assign my senior adv. students their senior book project.  The kids have to create a book that reflects on their years as high school students.  I give them some guidelines and a list of page themes.  For example:  "Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?"  "If you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would they be?"  "Favorite hangout?"  "Page dedicated to friends"  Well, you get the picture, right?  They also have to dedicate their book to someone or something. 

I still haven't been able to resolve my issue with blogger, (thanks, Phyl, for the suggestion) I will continue to look for a resolution.

I will be posting pictures of different books throughout the next few weeks.  This particular book (all of the pictures are from one book) is one of my favorites.  Every page folded out in a different manner.

Blogger Problems

I've been having trouble with blogger for a few weeks now.  When I press the 'sign in' tab on the top of  my blog page I am taken directly to my dash board, then, when I try to view my blog or comment on my  blog or other blogs, I am signed off.  Because of this I have not been able to respond to comments.  I have searched for solutions and have written about this issue under the 'help' section of blogger, but have had no resutls. 
I'm posting this to see if anyone else is having these issues and could be of some help.
Ok, now to other business.  I will be posting a few more lessons from the end of year projects very soon, including the senior books I have my (you guessed it) seniors create.  Yesterday was the last day of school and I have a few home projects I'd like to get to.  It is also time to get back to creating some of my own art.
I hope you have a restful summer.

Finished Mandalas

My students finally finished their mandalas. It was the best final project, it kept the kids working till the very end. Don't mistake the mandala for a kaleidoscope, it is completely different.

All of the mandalas had to have a "castle" and four circles-lotus circle, diamond circle, fire circle and tomb circle.



Oh, by the way, one more day of school!!!

Mandalas

My Art 1 & Art 2 students are creating mandalas. I first heard of mandalas from a friend a few years ago. I was searching for an end of year project that would allow the students to relax a bit, but still challenge them. Most important, I needed a project that would continue until the end of the year.

I did some research and learned quite a bit about mandalas. I found the information very interesting. I changed a few things to fit into the time span and the kid's technical abilities. We have been working on them for two weeks now, the pictures show the progress at the end of the first week.
I was relaxing in bed and happened on a documentary called " Lost Caves of Tibet". It was very interesting, the documentary showed cave paintings that could possibly be 500+ years old. Also in the caves were manuscripts and small offerings. The reason I'm bringing this up is because during the documentary the explorers show an abandoned temple that is being restored. Guess what was painted inside. A mandala! I can't wait to tell my students about it tomorrow.

Collage Paintings

These are some paintings that my Art 1 students created before the puppets. I had forgotten to post these. The kids weent through different magazines and created a collage. I asked them to think about composition and to add graphics. After creating the collage the kids created these paintings. I think they did a great job with these.