Post It Writing Activity



The colors have no meaning- just gave a different color to each table section.

 It's quick, painless, and there is no wrong answer.  I put up 3 landscapes for the 4th graders to look at.  They differed in land form, time of day, and overall style.  We discussed how a color scheme can affect the feel of a work of art.  I gave each student 3 post it notes, and had them write one word for each picture.  We then stuck them up over the pictures.  The students were interested in who else wrote the same word as they did ( I banned "good", "pretty" and "nice"), as well as the variety of descriptive words for each painting.  It very quickly gave me a chance to fit a little writing in, and let everyone be involved in the critique. 

Saving a project

Not too bad, she got the basic idea

Another ok one

The majority turned out like this.

Sometimes, I have the best ideas but they are torn to shreds by my students.  This is one of those times.  My thought was, that I would give them a variety of materials, and we would look at photo-montage/collage as a self-portrait technique.  In my head, the students would create "posters" about themselves as a beginning of the year intro.  I took their pictures, thinking they would have fun embellishing them with colored pencils/scrap materials, and the posters would be a sort of self-portrait, inside and out. And, it would give me a chance to work with them on emphasis, balance, and craftsmanship.  Don't think they got that memo.  Despite my best efforts, this project did not turn out as planned.  I was determined to make this a valuable use of time and material though, so I decided to have them work on their critiquing skills.  At the end of the 2nd session, I paired them up, gave them a think sheet, and had them evaluate each others' poster, after a clear conversation about constructive criticism and not bashing a classmate's effort.  At the beginning of the 3rd class, I had them read the critiques of their own poster, and use markers to try to make any fixes or changes that may have been brought to their attention.  Then, I had them self-evaluate using the same think sheet.  So, even though I feel that in general, this project was not my most successful, I think the honest conversations afterward maybe made a tanked project worthwhile.