Language Arts with Art Integration

One of the last lessons I taught during my last practicum was Language Arts with Art integration. My students had all finished their ‘Spooky Silhouette’ paintings and some of their work was going to be in the Children’s Art Gala. Because the artwork was going to be on display, I thought that it would be a great idea for my students to write Artist’s Statements to describe their paintings, how they were created, and what they thought of them.

For this lesson, I borrowed Willow Brown’s technique when she showed us pictures that depicted chiaroscuro and had us guess what it was based on our judgments of the characteristics. I showed students images of three Artist’s Statements, and told them they had to observe the pictures and tell me what they noticed or what they saw in common between the three. All three of them even had the title ‘Artist’s Statement’ so I was surprised that students did not say that right away, but at any rate, it was a great activity for students to practice their observation skills. They finally realized that the pictures were all Artist’s Statements and then students began writing their statements right away.

The statements all turned out so well. I am proud of my grade 5 students for creating Artist’s Statements of the paintings they completed. I think for those who have their art in the Children’s Art Gala, they will be very proud to see their work paired with a statement of it.