First, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my subscribers—thank you so much for following along my art room (well…art cart) adventures!

I love sharing all the beautiful creations that my students make and steps for the lessons. I hope that my website is a great resource to all Art educators, K-5 classroom educators, parents, students, and aspiring art teachers alike! And well… anyone really!!

I created this website in late 2014 and it’s been steadily growing ever since. I’ve recently gained over 100 NEW subscribers in just this past month alone- that’s pretty big for me! So, THANK YOU!! (I hope that doesn’t come across as sounding boastful— that’s not me— I just wanted to share my happiness about it and express my gratitude! Art teaching is my passion, and I love sharing what I love to do!

Here are some of my 5th Graders amazing #blackoutpoetry

Many of these are still works in progress, but we are finishing up this lesson this week. I just couldn’t wait to share what they’ve created so far! I hope you enjoy! Steps and directions (with screenshots) that I show my students from my Google slides are below the artwork as well.

”We are always in the process of becoming new

Our minds are exercising “

”I can make a difference”

”Major colors can be taken further into a mound of textures”

“He is over there

She is sitting over there

They now come together”

This student wanted to do a Haiku and found almost all the letters she needed for what she wanted it to say. We used a teeny tiny bit of whiteout to add in one or two letters for it to work. I love her dedication and perseverance to create this. Look at how many letters she had to find?! It’s so simple but so beautiful!

”In the dark, there is light”

“A special space large enough for me to dream

It was something special for me

Just for me”

”Explore life

Make purpose”

”Hope

or opportunity “

”Images create the world

Making images express us and life”

”She is telling

I’m thinking

It’s time to get outside and live out there for as long as you can. I’m out in the backyard with the rest of you”

”Without response. Sinking. Fast and gone.
Flooded.
Shattered”

”Deep in

More vivid imaginations

Will arise”

”We

can’t

control the

universe”

”She copied the wisdom of a higher grade to be big”

”A human means

to touch, explore, and

create the world”

”I dream unique

fascination

I become something special

A new part of history”

Somehow I always manage to screw up the spacing whenever I hang up artwork?!!?Anyone else have this issue?? ? Hahah—-I like the letters punched out that way though! I used one of those old school / hand crank gizmo’s -called a “Cricut cuttlebug” to cut the white paper to create the letters for the board. The bulletin board is black underneath.

These are the my Google slides I show my 5th graders students throughout the process of the lesson—-This is one of my teacher examples below on the LEFT (in the box) and in the following picture BELOW as well.

These are some slides showing some examples of Austin Kleon’s blackout poetry taken from his Instagram account

And these are slides I show my students with previous 5th graders artwork and poems to give them some more inspiration. This was when I taught the lesson using only black sharpie to illustrate their poems (maybe about 10 years ago???!)

This was a 4 day lesson (taking 4- 40 minute art classes)

I thought originally it’d probably take 3 art classes, but then realized on day 3 that students needed a day 4 and I wanted to make sure I gave them the time to finish.
I have always loved incorporating writing with art lessons and I was excited to try this one again after so many years. I honestly am not sure why I stopped for awhile? Im glad I did though! Sometimes I think it’s something inside me nudging me to start writing myself.

Day 1: I showed them the slides above, explaining what blackout poetry is, and telling them about Austin Kleon’s work, and showed them his examples. I also showed them a few examples that I created and then showed them my previous 5th graders examples with their artwork too.

Then I explained how I photocopied a bunch of random pages from books that I had at home, a few books from the school library, as well as an article from a food magazine I had laying around. I randomly selected 3 pages out of the bunch and paper clipped 3 random pages together x30 per class.

I explained to students to look through each page and without reading the entire page, just look for words that jump out at them. Then to choose one page, and start selecting words with their pencil, making sure the words read like a book – from left to right- top to bottom— by drawing large rectangles around each word they wanted to include in their poem.

Once all words were selected in pencil, they traced over all their rectangles around each word with a super fine point sharpie marker.

Then they wrote their entire “found poem” out along the bottom of their paper in pencil. Then placed a sheet of printer paper under their poem paper (to protect their desks) and used a bigger “Fine point” sharpie marker to start blacking out all the other words they didn’t need in their final poem.

After that, on DAY 2–students started to draw a picture on 9×12” 80# paper with pencil that somehow connected to their poems. I explained that they could draw something very abstract (just focusing on lines, shapes and colors) to capture the feeling their poems represented or something more literal. They had a choice of what to color with —either markers, chalk pastels, colored pencils, or crayons.

Learning Goals:

• Students can see how art and other disciplines, like English Language Arts can be interdisciplinary and helps generate new ideas and supports creative thinking

• Students learn about the artist/writer Austin Kleon and his blackout poetry 

• Students develop a blend of critical reading, creative writing, and visual art skills

• Students can create images that directly support, mirror, or enhance the meaning of their chosen poem

• Students explore creative expression, using art to emphasize their found poem to create a personal, artistic piece

• Students can reflect on how their chosen words and images express their own thoughts, feelings, or interpretations
  

Here are some photos of students creating both their poems and artwork!

I’ll be updating this blog post when students are finished with their artwork very soon!
I’m also going to post this under the “5th grade art lessons” page soon at the bottom, where it’ll permanently live.

I’ll ALSO be posting a collection of my SPRINGTIME ART LESSONS within the next couple of days as well FYI – so please be on the lookout out for that!

Also— haha— yep, moooore also’s…. Have you checked out all my site has to offer? Click on the MENU on my home page and see if anything else suits your fancy 😉
I added a NEW PAGE under my menu called “OPEN HOUSE or P/T CONFERENCE NIGHT IDEA” – be sure to check that out!

I’ll be posting SPRINGTIME ART LESSONS sometime this week ( as well as some other new fun art lessons that I haven’t posted before!)

Thank you so much for visiting my website today!