Week 3!

Hi All!  This week was full of paint, paint, and more paint!  I think every class had me doing my favorite chore in the world...DISHES!  Paint dishes, water cups, and brushes!  And in the end, each project was so worth all that scrubbing!

Kindergarten learned about being unique and self portraits!  They got to create two self portraits this week, one in watercolor and one that we have incorporated into and ABC project where they are getting to practice letter identification and alphabetical order!  We have been reading ABC I Like ME, and they love it!  They are doing awesome!  

My 1st and 2nd grade artists learned about artists and what they do.  We also talked about how art is a necessary and awesome element in our community!  To remind them about community building we practiced our warm and cool color combos and painted in a new technique (wet on wet watercolor)to create a background for our city art.  Students then created their own printing plate of a city that they used to print on their "sunset on the river front" paper.  Although these didn't come out as clean as I had envisioned but the students loved the process and we will absolutely be using this printing process in another lesson down the road!  And I have a feeling you will notice your students doodling city-scapes here and there from now on! They loved these silly little buildings!

As promised 3rd and 4/5th finished up those awesome Southwest Crazy Cactus projects and are ready to move on to two new projects next week!  3rd will be doing some weaving and talking about landscapes and creating space in their work, while 4/5th grade will be exploring the work of MC Escher and Tessellations in art!

My persevering sixth graders will finally be wrapping up their geometric/organic reptile art this week and moving on to a project that I think we are all really excited for!  These guys and gals will be creating cell sculptures that represent plant and animal cells!  We will study 3-D art and sculpture as well as model making!

That said, check out what we have been working on!

Oh, and if you are looking for a way to support our art classes we are running low on baby wipes  and watercolors!  If you run into any great deals on these and would like to donate to our class drop them by the office or feel free to stop in and say hi to me in the art room!  Thanks so much!!

These are the foam plates that the students used to print with...almost as neat at the prints!

CRAZY Cactus

...and last but not least, here is a peek at "Broadway Boogie-woogie"  the kids favorite painting from the past 2 weeks!

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78682

Broadway Boogie-Woogie

If your kids came home this week telling you about the Broadway Boogie-woogie, it isn't the newest dance move...well, maybe it is, but it is also the Mondrian painting that we studied!  We talked about primary colors in kindergarten and honed those scissor skills.  We learned about horizontal and vertical lines (and using a ruler for a straight edge) in first and second grade.  We learned that our favorite things can inspire our art, just like Jazz inspired the Broadway Boogie-woogie. AND...we learned a great gluing song to remind us just how much glue we need to make things stick!

Third, Fourth and Fifth grade this week created amazing Crazy Cactus watercolor paintings that reflect a Southwest Theme in warm colors.  They are still hard at work on these so peek back next week to see the results!  I LOVE THEM!  Sixth grade this week took on a huge challenge!  They are doing a 2 part project that focuses reptiles in a relief piece.  They learned how to build up pastels to create a smooth surface and they created a background using geometric and organic shapes!  I cant wait to see the reptiles that land on these!  We talked a lot about the elements of art and how to find them in their work when they finish a piece. The students also worked hard to also identify the difference between the theme and subject in a painting.   Wow!  Busy week!

This coming week we will be doing something a bit different in art!  I collaborated with all of the classroom teachers to create projects that not only meet tons of art standards, but also reflect classroom work that is going on!  I am so excited to see how this helps the students that struggle in the classroom or art to find a connection that they can relate to!  Coming up we have kindergarten alphabet portraits, first and second grade city scape prints, third grade will create landscape weaving, fourth/fifth grade is going to tie in some math and create Tessellations, and down the road sixth grade will be sculpting plant and animal cells!


OH!  If you have been wildly searching your kiddo's back pack for their artwork, I have been hanging on to it.  There is so much neat stuff that I would like to display for everyone to see at this years Holiday Program and Art Show!!!  I will keep up on pictures so you know what we are up to and I promise this year for Christmas you will get LOTS of art!

Below are some of the amazing finished products for the week!

A Fan-Stache-Tic first week!

Sooo....did your artists come busting in the door after their first day and tell you all about the amazing art room this year?!  I went with a mustache theme after spending the summer doing summer camp I realized that nothing is "cool" unless it has a 'stache.  We  have a "candy 'stache" this year to reward the artists of the day, a fan-stache-tic art class contest, a "Art 'Stache" to earn super fun supplies from, and a gallery of mustached portraits through out history!  So far we have had a blast just with the room itself!  

Alright, we DID do actual art this week too!  This week we used all "DRY" supplies while we got to know each other.  We created envelopes for the students to keep their daVinci Dollars in (ask them!).  We read "The Dot" by Peter             and talked about the importance of working on their own papers and using their own ideas.  The kids learned all about being unique by looking at art work in history of Hearts and Trees.  I also challenged my older students this week with a mono-chromatic self portrait!  Using just one single color has proved to be a challenge, but I cannot wait to display these at this years art show!  Our younger artists reviewed some of the skills that we used last year.  We learned a gluing song that helps us remember why a glob is not a great way to go, and got ready to work on the cut paper portraits that we are going to do this week!  My kindergartners are getting ready to work in centers next week all about primary colors and we are really going to focus in on our cutting skills.  If you have a kindergartner, encourage them to draw large shapes and cut them out or even use an old magazine to let them cut out the pictures that interest them.  Letting younger guys and gals use scissors can be a little scary to watch but it is so good for their little hands and it will help them with their handwriting through out kinder and first grade!  

Please keep an eye out for information on Photography Club coming soon and keep us in mind when those back to school supply sales hit!  We can always use art supplies, craft goodies, and even wipes to help us clean up!  

No art pictures for you just yet, but here is a peek at our amazing classroom this year!