Inside the Art Room: Dawn King

Every semester, we have the pleasure of partnering with thousands of teachers across the country. We love helping them raise money for their school, hearing their stories, and getting to share them with you too.

We recently talked to Dawn King who is the art teacher at Glenwood Elementary School in West Plains, Missouri. Dawn had so many great comments about our lesson plans and program, that we’re breaking her interview into two posts. This week, Dawn fills us in on the Floating Donuts lesson that she used from our collection and the exciting award one of her students won:

How did you discover the Floating Donuts lesson? I have been checking AtR’s lesson plans for some fresh ideas.

What drew you to the lesson? The donuts looked so real and everyone likes donuts!

Did this lesson fit into your curriculum? Yes, printmaking, painting shadows and watercolor technique – wet into wet. The video was really helpful!

What did your students think of it? They loved it because they thought the finished product looked so real. I allowed them to decorate their donuts as they wanted. They like to have choices. Last fall, I had my 5th graders make two donut pictures for their AtR piece and then they could choose their favorite to submit to AtR. I noticed when they were adding shadows, some students were painting the shadows incorrectly. I really liked how they turned out except for the shadows. I told the 5th graders if they would make another donut picture, I would treat them to real donuts. My idea was to reteach the shadow part and hopefully their pictures would turn out great and I could submit the best two pictures to the two art contests we participate in. I was correct. Their third picture was the best and we all enjoyed eating the fresh donuts.

Dawn submitted one of her students Floating Donuts pieces to the Missouri Art Education Association Youth Art Month (YAM) Exhibit and the piece was selected as the President’s Choice Winner for Grades 3-5.

How did you decide which piece(s) to submit to the YAM contest? I chose Bailey’s artwork because of the color combination and neatness. Her artwork went to Jefferson City when she was in Kindergarten too. She is hard working and always cares about her work.

How did your student react when finding out she was the winner? What did this award mean to her? She was so excited! I was too! We have participated in YAM for 17 years and Bailey is the fourth student from Glenwood that has had their artwork chosen by the MAEA President. She received $100 worth of art supplies and she was all smiles when she opened the box.

Any additional comments? The other donut artwork went to Art Around Town. At this show, area K-8 schools enter their top 30 art pieces. Last year there were around 14 schools participating. Two judges pick their favorites and the students receive awards. The donut picture did not place but the student received recognition at the end of the year awards.

Congrats Dawn and Bailey! And a shout out to Nic Hahn of Mini Matisse for creating the Floating Donuts lesson and video. We will be back again next week to get Dawn’s thoughts on running an Art to Remember fundraiser at her school.