May Charter Chat

Expressions Charter Chat: May 2017 from Jenell Novello

8th grade Banksy Style War and Peace Stencil Skateboard Deck

My 8th grade students are LOVING the Street Art Unit. This most recent project involved learning about the street artist named Banksy. Banksy's work tends to reflect his anti-establishment views which appeal to my middle school students. They were tasked to create an original design that reflects their views on war or peace. Once their stencil was completed they cut out a skateboard deck out of foam board. I required some type of striping or color blocked element that was painted first with acrylic before their stencil was applied with spray paint. Man, these turned out SO GOOD!

7th grade Bradshaw Shelter Animal Collages

WOW! I could tell that as soon as my students viewed the list of animals at the Bradshaw Shelter website they were totally invested in the project inspired by artist Deborah Shapiro. Students chose an animal from the shelter website to draw and collage using thumbnail sized magazine papers. They turned out amazing, so much heart was put into these collages!

8th Grade Graffiti Art

Our Street Art Unit kicked off the day before we departed on our 3-day Ashland trip. And from my experience, trying to teach middle school students the day before an overnight field trip is like herding cats. UNLESS you are teaching students about Graffiti.
This project started off with viewing many forms of Graffiti in the US from tags, stencil murals, and spray painted messages. Then we viewed Graffiti in Argentina where store owners welcome this art form and contract artists to graffiti their storefronts to attract customers.  After viewing these contrasting intentions, the students discussed their views on the many forms of graffiti, the impact on graffiti and whether or not graffiti is vandalism.
Then the students were tasked with choosing and inspiring word to paint in the style of Graffiti.
It has been one week since we returned from Ashland AND Spring Break- with 7 more weeks of school and based on the level of engagement, effort and creativity it seems like we just started the school year! Check these out!

Donors Choose Grand Slam!!!

In just ONE week TWO of my Donors Choose Projects were funded and I couldn't be happier! The first project, We Got The moves Like Warhol, was funded by our very own Parent Organization, LEAP. I have been wanting to learn and teach screen printing for several years and now it has become a reality! I have done some research at home and feel confident that my students will LOVE this art form as a way to communicate their ideas!

The second project, Harry Potter for Hospitals, was funded during the Ashland Field trip! I had to control myself not to wake up Sierra while she was sleeping in her dorm to tell her the news. Soon, she and I will plan the delivery of the book sets to children staying in the pediatric ward.

I feel so very fortunate to work with such a supportive parent group and to teach such inspiring students. It was been an amazing year with so much more o look forward to!

Back to Ashland!

I took an 8 year hiatus from leading the 8th grade Ashland trip after the birth of my second child. Since then the trip has been reinvigorated with a trip leader named Lisa Landry, owner of Seize the Day Tours. I am SO HAPPY that I got to go back to Ashland this year with the 8th grade class! Here are some highlights of the trip!

Animal Adoption Event at Street Fair!

OM to the G! The Sacramento County Shelter has agreed to host an animal adoption event at the Natomas Charter School- Leading Edge Academy Street Fair on April 27th from 5:50-7:00. I can't wait to tell all of my students!
Some ideas for student involvement (like that will be an issue ;0) is to have a sign up for students to read to the animals while they are in their corrals on campus. As a fundraiser for the shelter, I am wanting to host a face painting booth and sell pet treats made by Winters Culinary Class that my students can sign up for working shifts.
I think it would be amazing if at our event some animals could find their Furever Homes and love that my students can possibly play a role in that #kindnessforpaws experience. <3

7th Grade Double Exposure Watercolor Animals

I really wanted to try extending the Digital Double Exposure into a painting project using watercolors, so when I created the Kindness for Paws Unit the timing was right! I had just acquired a class set of metallic watercolor that I thought would make some of the exposure effects very realistic. Watercolor is a medium that I haven't spent much time developing so I was very happy that this project allowed for a ton of watercolor exploration. Next year I am going to spend more time on the drawing of the animals along with requiring a partial or full border to take care of the negative space. Other than that, I think this project is a keeper!

8th Grade Knits 19 Blankets for Project Linus

Knitting Season is one I look forward to every year. This year the season was moved from the fall to the spring and boy it was worth the wait! We kicked off the season with a guest speaker named Susan Berbec. Susan has been a speaker for Project Linus for years and the kids really respond well to her presentation style. Then we made knitting needles out of wooden dowels. Once the needles were made students learned how to knit with the help of video tutorials and community members. It took  about 3 days for students to get over their learning curve and once they go knitting they were knitting EVERYWHERE!

Our goal was to knit 12 baby blankets which would require each student to knit a 30 " strip. In 3 weeks the 8th grade class knitted over 160 strips, forming 19 blankets! i can wait to invite Susan back after spring break to see all of the effort of the 8th grade class. SO PROUD!!!