Subject area help!

Hello students and parents! I would like to take the time now to list off some great sites for help in the visual arts area! We will be doing lots of projects that invite parent involvement in or out of class. I encourage you to look around and find the answers to any questions that you may have about the visual arts!

1. http://www.artjunction.org/
The Art Junction is a great website for getting ideas on projects and teaching strategies. But not only is this a great place for teachers, but also for parents. I suggest to all my students to explore this website with a parent! Here you will find great tips on project management, materials, topics and different ways of exploring an idea through the visual arts. The projects link takes you to a page of some suggested projects for all different groups or individuals. The blog is a great spot to hear about what is going on in the art world! It is really important that my students and parents stay updated on current events in art because we will be talking about it in the classroom. Students may be asked to find a current event on an artist or museum and be asked to present some information on it. This makes this site so valuable! Great inspiration, feedback, current events and a great way to get help with a project or gathering ideas for an assignment we may do in class! Art junction is a great tool for students and teachers alike.


2. http://www.artlex.com/
ArtLex is a great place to find more than 3,600 terms from the visual arts world, as well as images and quotes to support you in your exploration! I encourage my students to go on this site, with a parent, and do a search on the specified unit or lesson plan. To use the example of our Native American pottery unit, you could look up America Indian pottery and the artlex search engine will bring you to an appropriate page with other references, images and very thorough information. This is a great site to just explore and to have students and parents look further into the topics we will touch upon this year. It is always important to find ways to apply what is done in my classroom, in the student's everyday life. If you have no specific search ideas, you can use the alphabetized list on the far left side to bring you to some pretty exciting pieces of art in history or art cultures to discover.


3. http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/artartists/artartists.html
What is art? What is an artist? This website truly explores these questions through links to exhibitions. The student could choose their area of interest, or what we are focusing on in class and further develop their understanding by viewing hundreds of examples of the arts! On the far left side, the exhibition categories are listed from decorated pottery to painting. This categories are key in narrowing down your search. Let's say the student wanted to do some follow up research on our unit on Asian prints. The student would go to the prints link and then go down to the Color woodblock link. There they can see more examples of the work that they will be shown in class. Under the image of the designated search is tons of information solely on that topic. This is a great way for students to look further into the art that we will be looking over and for them to truly grasp key aspects of the art. I may use this help site as a way to see what my students can gather on a subject before introducing it to the whole class. This way the students can all become "experts" on a specific topic covered in class!

Hope you enjoy these links and truly get an appreciation for the visual arts and cultures that we will address this year. It is so important to dig deeper into subjects covered in class to truly allow the students to jump right in and explore!

Have fun and let me know what you find!
Miss Fontaine