Florida Art Education Association Elementary Art Educator of the Year

 I'm so humbled to have been recognized by my statewide peers!

Let's get Ready for Duval Homeroom: Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio

Introducing Art Teacher, Mrs. Woodlief

 

Virtual Spring Arts - Student Artwork Created in Duval Homeroom

Alimacani Elementary, a school rich with traditions, had many adjustments to make this spring due to the COVID-19. 

Big plans for our Annual Spring Arts Event, founded by my good friend, retired art teacher, Michelle Corely, went by the wayside.  We absolutely had to find a way to carry on the tradition she established during her many years as art teacher at Alimacani of showcasing our students' artwork.

Instead of the Spring Arts Event, virtual slideshows for each grade level were created of student artwork created online in Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio.  The recorded slideshows below are a sampling of work created by our amazing art students at Alimacani. Please, enjoy!

Kindergarten

Paper Plate Fish

Fish Bowl Drawings

                     1st Grade
                                          Paper Line Sculpture

Robot Drawings

Symmetrical Geometric Butterflies

                     
                    2nd Grade
                 Above & Below the Sea Seascapes

Flower Garden Paintings

3rd Grade

Life Under The Sea

Insect Collage 

                                                         

Cityscapes

                            

                                       Block & Bubble Lettering

4th Grade 

Fruit Bowl Still Lifes

Botanical Illustration

                           

5th Grade

Kitchen Still Lifes

Value Trees Landscape

                      
                          4th/5th
           The Getty Challenge:Recreate a Masterpiece 
                        

DUVAL HOMEROOM GALLERY OF FINE ART

Congratulations to these 5 Alimacani Artists who are featured in this district-wide Duval Homeroom Gallery of Art! This is a BIG honor as only 19 pieces are in this exhibit!  (FYI: our two 5th graders, Chris and Carla are Lavilla School of the Arts bound!)

To see their work in a virtual gallery setting, just follow this link:  https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/835025/duval-homeroom-gallery-of-fine-art

Chris Ayotte - 5th Grade 

Carla Negrette  - 5th grade

Chris Ayotte  - 5th Grade

 

Olivia Andry & Lily Houser - 4th grade

Lilah Colacurcio - 3rd Grade

                                                             

How DEEP (How much depth?) is your Cityscape?

Alimacani Students continue to learn virtually in Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio!

This week, students are led by art teacher, Mrs. Woodlief in drawing a cityscape. In this recorded drawing lesson, students learn how to create depth in their art by overlapping to create a foreground, middle ground and background.

Why don't YOU watch the video so you can be artists like these 3rd grade students?

   

Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio: Let's Draw Geometric Butterflies!

Alimacani Students continue to learn virtually in Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio. Primary level students are led by art teacher, Mrs. Woodlief and her puppet Arturo, as they instruct viewers, in a recorded art lesson, how to draw a symmetrical butterfly adding geometric shapes. Reflecting on lessons learned in math, students use circles. squares, ovals, triangles and rectangles to show their knowledge of math concepts such as symmetry - the same on both sides. Check out the video to see how it all happens!

                                                     

Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio: Michelangelo Upside-Down Drawing

In this art assignment, my intermediate students will crawl under the kitchen table, lie on their backs and make art just like Michelangelo when he painted the ceiling of the sistine chapel.

Virtual Drawing Lesson: Botanical Drawings

Alimacani students continue to learn virtually in Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio.  In this recorded lesson, students learn about the science and history of botanical drawing.  

Travel into Mrs. Woodlief's front yard in search for the perfect specimen to draw a botanical drawing of a plant.   Students learn that long ago, before the invention of photography, scientists relied on artists to draw accurate drawings of the plants they were studying.  Each species was carefully studied, drawn and cataloged for documentation.  

The video below shows students the steps to create their own a botanical drawing. 

Click to view How to Draw a Botanical Drawing.

Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio: A New Way of Teaching

 Yes, things are changing!  With the outbreak of Covid-19, we are practicing social distancing.   As a result, we have a new way of learning art at Alimacani Elementary - 

in Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio. 

Art Teachers around the world are taking their lessons online. Teaching art from home is a challenge but my goal is to teach meaningful and inspiring lessons that keep my students engaged.  

In the next few posts, I will document some of the art teaching taking place in Mrs. Woodlief's Virtual Art Studio.  

This video leads my students through the steps of mixing colors using what students might have at home in the kitchen.  

Mrs. Woodlief & Arturo


This hands-on lesson allows students to experience the magic of color mixing. 
They also practice recording their data like a scientist.  

Color mixing with Food Coloring

Art Beyond Sight

Ever wonder how blind kids make and share art?  4th grade students at Alimacani had an unusual experience - creating art while blindfolded to experience how it might feel to make and share their art with no or low vision. 

My objective was for students to learn about how people with low/no vision create a portrait using materials that blind art students might use. Using their background knowledge from observing their own image in a reflection, they created that image using these unusual or unconventional art supplies. They were actively engaged in the process of creating, interpreting and responding to art.

My secondary objective was for my students to learn about and to honor others in worlds in which we live, this time in a world of darkness experienced by people who are blind. As an unexpected outcome, students acquired empathy and experienced a sensitivity to the ideas of others. 

Here's a video that gives my students background knowledge to create art while blindfolded.

Origami Collage: Japanese Culture, Math & Art Come Together

Origami (折り紙, Japanese pronunciation: [oɾiɡami] or [oɾiꜜɡami], from ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper" (kami changes to gami due to rendaku)) is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture.

4th grade students at Alimacani practice math and learn about Japanese culture by creating origami then creating a radial balance collage.  

Art & Math: Alimacani Students Make Art Out Of Fractions

Alimacani art students learn about math in art class as they create a radial symmetrical collages using fractions of two geometric shapes. They were instructed to use whole, halves, and quarters of circles and squares.  

Watch this instructional video to see how they did it!

Thanks to Donors Choose: Hooray! A BIG New Screen!

Much thanks to the many wonderful donors who supported the Alimacani art program by contributing to the purchase of our new, big screen.  Now students who sit in the back of the room can see all my demonstrations and instructional presentations with ease.  Now, "My Students Dont Need Binoculars to See the Screen!"

Core Subject Integration: It's a Win/Win Situation!

Core subject (math, science, social studies and language arts) integration is my passion!  When I incorporate these subjects in my art teaching, everybody wins! I win as my students already know the content, the classroom teachers win when I reinforce their core subjects, and, most importantly, the kids win by making valuable connections with what they are learning in their classroom.

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 Students paint using their choice of warm and cool colors.  Next up:  create a symmetry collage!

MAFS.4.G.1.3  Recognize a line of symmetry for a two-dimensional figure as a line across the figure such that the figure can be folded along the line into matching parts. Identify line-symmetric figures and draw lines of symmetry.

ontent Complexity: Level 2: Basic Application of Skills & Concepts

Art & Science: Liquids into Solids

Alimacani art students are learning the science of the clay making process.  We compared the steps of making a cake in a kitchen oven to that of clay fired in a kiln explaining that the application of heat makes big changes. 

 


We discussed how primitive cultures fired their pottery by digging holes in the ground, filling with dried leaves and twigs, and placing pottery on top.  They started a fire by rubbing two sticks together, then covered it all with dirt.  Days later, they dug up their clay pieces to find then strong and hard.

Stay Tuned For Pottery Projects at Alimacani!

Such great news!  Thanks to the Alimacani PTA and all the students who participated in our Turkey Trot school fundraiser, we have a new addition to our art program:  a new, state of art kiln so our students can create beautiful pottery projects!  This long overdue piece of equipment will allow every student at Alimacani to create a clay project to treasure a lifetime.  We are SO fortunate to have a committed PTA and supportive families to help make this happen.  

Not only will students create a clay masterpiece, they will learn the science behind the firing process and how Native Americans and other primitive cultures around the world created and fired pottery before the invention of electric kilns.

Ask your students where we would go to find clay for pottery and how primitive cultures fired the clay to become strong and hard.