With the transition to distance learning, Gaynor’s art teachers found creative ways to incorporate items students had at home to make
lessons more hands-on and immersive.
In Photography, students played with shadows by using different objects in their house and a flashlight. Students were tasked with moving the light around the object and at different angles to produce unique and interesting shadows.
In a video posted for her students, Photography Teacher Jessica Ressler demonstrated the assignment by moving a flashlight around a pineapple. Ms. Ressler encouraged students to do their best with what they had available, and to get creative with the objects they chose to use.
“Even just doing the activity of trying to look for shadows is really a very good way of opening up your eye,” she said.
This assignment also helped students look at the relationship between negative light, which was the darkness, and positive light, which was produced by the flashlight.
Ms. Ressler finished off the lesson by showing some examples of the photos she took and encouraging students to photograph shadows in different ways, such as close up or with the shadow projected onto a model.
“It’s okay if you’re viewer has no idea what the object is,” she said. “Just get creative!”
Students took her words to heart and produced the beautiful images seen here.
In Art Teacher Andrea Nelson’s class, students created many different projects utilizing objects around their home, as well as incorporating the emotions most are feeling during this time.
In one project, students learned how to draw a 3D open box. They then had to use their own creativity to draw rainbows bursting out of the box in different ways.
“We are all receiving a ton of packages right now, so I figured we could create our own package of happy, bright thoughts and feelings,” Ms. Nelson said.
In a different project, students reimagined the city of New York. They learned how to draw a skyline by putting a series of different rectangles next to each other, and they then added different details to each building, such as a crown for a roof, faces, or candy windows.
Students drew flowers or a giraffe on a cut paper towel roll for another project, and then learned how to make it stand up to display it in their home.
Another project of the week required students to focus on windows and perspective.
Ms. Nelson said, “We talked about the windows we look out of in our home, and how there are two different perspectives — one being inside our home looking out onto the street, and the other being outside our home looking inside.”
After the discussion, students folded paper and cut a window out of the center. They were then given the task to draw what they saw from each perspective. 
Art Teacher Sophia Saad tried to provide engaging and fun art activities that students could participate in independently.
“The art lessons help maintain the skills the students already learned this year, and teach them new skills to keep them motivated and interested in creating art,” she said.
Students in the EC used their imagination during one task to visualize a rainbow in an unusual place. Ms. Saad encouraged students to create a rainbow that was unique to them by color or shape.
In another activity, the students were tasked with looking in the mirror and noticing what happened to their face when they smiled. They then had to take that image and draw it.
With students in the Pink and Red Cluster, Ms. Saad had students use 3D drawing techniques to create a realistic drawing of their favorite box of cereal, as well as a bowl of cereal.
“Since we are spending more time eating at home, our kitchen cabinets were the perfect place to find a 3D box to recreate,” she said.
In their art class, Green Cluster students worked on a found object color wheel as one of their first projects during distance learning.
Art Teacher Sophie Yolowitz tasked students with finding objects of every color around their home. They then had to arrange them into the color wheel, which they previously painted in class.
“I thought this was a fun way to be active, creative, and to use the art knowledge they learned earlier in the year,” Ms. Yolowitz said.
In Ms. Yolowitz’s Blue Cluster art class, projects are designed to be more independent and choice-based.
Students are expected to log on to their Google Classroom and choose one art project to complete out of a folder of different options.
“The hope is that they pursue mediums they enjoy and develop a sense of ownership over their own style and growth as artists,” she said.
In addition to completing an art assignment, they are also expected to turn in one free art piece, where they can create anything they want with the materials they have available.
Through the use of household items, as well as creative thinking, Gaynor teachers brought art to students, despite the distance.