Searching for the next Picasso, Warhol, or van Gogh

ART! 

A piece of art in the art gallery at St. Lucy's

I love art. Someone's art is a window into their soul. The Rosella Class has art on Monday mornings with the art teacher Marci. Each week the kids have a new exciting project or medium to work with. I have really enjoyed catching a glimpse into the minds of the boys in my class as we worked on their masterpieces. 

St. Lucy's is extremely lucky to be equipped to have a kiln in order to fire clay. The kids in my class rolled out clay using rolling pins and then etched designs into them. Each student created their own design, but food was a popular subject! My buddy Harvey worked with a volunteer to make this apple (his favorite type of juice) on his clay slab.

Clay was extremely fun and constructive to work with for the kids. Some of the students have some strong sensory needs and clay is a material that they can mold in their hands and feel the texture. Many students with autism or down syndrome have these sensory needs that can be met in art class. (Of course, a few kids tried to eat the clay, but I mean... they're kids!)

As you may remember from one of my earlier posts, the Rosella integrated work unit for the term is landscapes! This theme carried over into art where we did printmaking. The boys each had a turn to carve a design of a cityscape: buildings, windows, and bridges.

I asked a few to name their cities as they worked and these were what I got: "Eggland!", "Sydney!" "My City!", "Harold!" and "Chicken Nuggets and Chips City!" I have some very creative boys in my class, don't I?

They finished up their city printing by painting the clay with an ink and pressing their papers down onto the surface. It is really great the way Vanessa, the Rosella teacher, and Marci, the art teacher worked out their schedule. We split the class in half and they each come for their own session. During the first part, five of the students come to art and the other four stay and work on their maths. During the second half, we swap the boys. This means that each student gets a lot of individualized attention in both maths and art. This 1:1 work is really integral to success with students with disabilities as the close attention means they can get the assistance they really need to be successful.

Another session of art the students did some painting and stencil work. I really enjoyed the work the boys did this time and I snagged a few pictures of their work. Above is a painting that Luke did. We stenciled flowers over each of the paintings that the boys did and put glitter on them. One of the boys really likes glitter and had a ball with that.

Now may be a good time to mention a really cool program that St. Lucy's has for the kids: their scholarship program. If a student shows a lot of promise, enjoyment or seems to get a lot out of a certain activity, they may be eligible to do extra of that activity. These are offered (to my knowledge) in art, drums, dance, theater and more! These are different from afterschool programs. The scholarships take place during the school day and the students get to take some extra focused time with a group of other students with similar interests to explore their preferred activity! One of the students in my class is a part of the art, dance and drums scholarships and always comes back with a huge smile and lots of stories to share. 

I am just so happy to have gotten to see these boys really enjoy art and flourish. Since I have such a strong appreciation of art I enjoyed seeing some of these students paint and etch with such purpose. The art program is one of the programs at St. Lucy's that I think is really awesome and more schools should follow their example.