Welcome to my art page!

This first posting will be about the first project that we did for class, our foot autobiography.  This was a great project to do at the beginning of the semester because it allowed us as a class to get to know each other better and to feel more comfortable around each other.  As a future teacher, I think this would be a great project for the first week of school.  It will give your students the chance to be creative while telling you important things about them.  Another reason why I liked this activity was because it had a framework to guide us when we got lost, but also provided us with enough room so that everyone's footprint was different.  

To make our footprints, we first traced our foot onto construction paper and cut it out.  Then, we were told to find items that related to our life.  These could be nearly anything, and it was required that we use three different mediums, which pushed us to be more creative.  

This my final product for the foot autobiography project.  The photo on the right is of my sisters, brother, brother-in-law, parents, niece, and myself.  I included this picture because family is very important in my life and they have always been there to support me.  The photo on the left side is myself with my niece, Kira.  She was born when I was a junior in high school and lives in the same town as my parents.  After she was born, I became much closer with my sister, her mom, and have learned a lot about myself.  Now that I have moved out, I miss Kira quite a bit, which makes our time together even more special.  The drawings in the middle portray my love for the outdoors, which includes camping, bonfires, and fishing.  These are all activities that I enjoy doing during the summer and whenever it's warm enough.  The rose petals of either side of the foot represent the five summers I worked at a greenhouse/nursery throughout the last couple years of high school and the beginning of college.  While working there, I learned more about plants than I ever thought I would know and also learned the importance of hard work.

This activity would be great in nearly all ages and can be easily adapted to fit the age you are working with.  For younger students, you might want to consider limiting them to what they can include on the foot.  This way, you won't get any bugs or worms glued on that might be better represented by a drawing.  On the other hand, for older students, you could only let them draw one element and require that each element is a different medium.  

Another extension of this activity could include doing a hand biography of another student in the class.  This will allow the students to get to know each other even better and will also let the students work cooperatively.