Art + Writing

Zach Stoller over at Thomas Elementary Art wrote this post about writing in the art room, and it got me thinking about how I've incorporated more and more writing this year.  I keep some "When I did this project I learned" sheets ready to go in a box in my room, and we'll often add then to the bottom of our projects because I really do think it's super valuable to see what students learned written out in their own handwriting.  Sometimes we use a mad libs sort of prompt on the smartboard, like the writing we did here for our Animals on our Heads:

Or this sort of prompt writing from fifth grade, who's finally finishing up themselves-as-president portraits:

Hard to read,  but it says: "President Smith was president from 2046-2054.  During his
presidency he went to the moon, Helped 7036 poor familys get food,
invented the first solar computer car and a lot more!"

"President Rumsey was president from 2046-2054.  During his presidency
he gave world peace, stoped world hunger and stoped all wars."

And some more fifth grade work because it's so very good:

In a nutshell: she stopped world hunger and was a famous, well-liked president.

He helped people who needed help.  He gave money to people that
needed it to buy stuff.

She was very busy! She saved pandas from extinction,ended poverty,
ended world hunger, sent all males to Jupiter (!), gave scholarships
to girls and "was the best prsident America ever had."

She improved school food (making it "better, not as gressy"),
made homeless shelters bigger, and made "maturtie leave longer than 6 weeks."
(I used the maternity leave example in my explanation to them about what I would do.)

I love portions of this one:
". . .she ended wars very mean.  She also made world peace.
She became the best president in the hole intiver univers."

A portion reads: "She found a cure for cancer, ended poorness, and made it a law to bully.
She was a fantastic president."

As for spelling, it never bothers me if it's "inventive."  Spelling is hard! And so not my job to be the spelling police. Don't you remember how tricky spelling was in elementary school?  I found it impossible.
Writing and art go so well together, I don't do it with every project, but I do it with many of them.