Last night Hannah and I got to do pre-assessment surveys with East Sylvan and Vestal. This is what we found out about Sharon Bird’s class at Vestal: All 26 students make art at school, although only half the students raised their hands at first. Later it was clear that they all do, upon telling me what art they participate in at school: •Raindrop Poems made with painting, paper, and descriptive words •Drawing a self-portrait, learning where eyes, nose, mouth and ears go •Close, Closer, and Closest: looking at a flower first with just your eyes, and then through increasing magnification, and then recreating with with art materials, including black glue •Flower Portrait: Taking a photograph of themselves, using a flower-shaped stencil on that photo, and creating petals around the portrait with words about themselves. •Snapshot of a Scientist: Making a drawing of a scientist and writing down the biographical information about that person 22 out of 26 students said they make art at home. This includes: •Drawing pictures of characters they see on TV shows, or drawing comics •Drawing birds, flowers, and people •Making murals with black and white and paper •Making “weird things” out of paper in a collage with glue This class said the following things were art supplies: Pencils, paper, crayons, colored pencils, rulers, paintbrushes, pictures that you can photocopy or trace, paint, markers, razors (for cutting paper in waves!), camera, glue, a pencil sharpener, and anything you can see (because you can draw anything you see) The class agreed that you can make art with other people, you don’t have to make it by yourself. When asked “What is creativity?” students said: •Hunter: “Like when you make up your own picture, it could be a dog with five heads, and eight tails, and seven eyes.” •Sarah: “Being yourself.” •Monica: “Expressing yourself.” •Sophie: “Drawing yourself and your friends.” •Noah: “Having crazy and cool ideas.” When asked if students ever learn about other things by making art, students said: •”You find out what something looks like when you draw it.” •”Math, and geometric shapes.” •”You learn about how talented you are.” •”Science.” •”Drawing is like taking visual notes.” This class was excited about sharing! They had a lot to say about their experiences and knowledge of art.