Kindergarten students read the book "Sky Color", then watched this great OK Go music video to review their knowledge of the primary and secondary colors. Next, they used liquid watercolors to paint a sky background, and this week, they'll be drawing 'flying' self portraits to cut out and glue to the backgrounds. You'll have to compare your Kindergartner's first self-portrait of the school year to this one and see how much he or she has improved. :)
First Grade students are delving into the musical world of Wassily Kandinsky in both the art AND music rooms! First, they listened to the book 'The Noisy Paint Box' which described Kandinsky's synesthesia, a condition that caused him to associate colors with sounds. (Fun fact: this book was illustrated by the same person who illustrated the Harry Potter books!) Next, we played a game of musical paints. Each table had a different color of finger paint, and students listened to music as they worked and let the notes inspire their painting. Each time the song changed, they moved to a new table! Mr. Peterman will be using these paintings during music class to play some tunes. It's great to see first graders realizing how art and music can inform one another!
Second Grade students have been working with some new 3D materials- first becoming 'set designers' and building clay mini-scenes, and then looking at architecture from around the world and taking on the role of 'architect' to design cardboard relief cityscapes. They saw pictures of architecture from ancient Rome all the way to modern-day Dubai, but they loved looking at the wild and modern pictures from the architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au. I had the privilege of visiting this particular firm when I was in Austria two summers ago, so it was fun to pique the students' interest in this field and inspire their imaginations for their own designs.
Third Grade just finished creating their clay looms (which they will paint and then weave on- that's a lot of different media in one project!) and in the meantime have been learning about the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. We've read excerpts from the book 'Harvesting Dreams: Hundertwasser for Kids' (I HIGHLY recommend this book- in case you can't tell, I love a good art book) where we not only get to learn about the context of Hundertwasser's post World War II art, but we also see how this lateral thinker imagined and created everything from shoes to houses to live in. To that end, students spent a day in art class experimenting with lots of different ways to apply paint to paper (marbles, scapers, texture tools, hands...you know, everything except a paint brush!) Stay tuned to see what they'll create with their painted paper.
Fourth Grade created clay vessels using the coil method, and will be learning a bit more about the history of clay across cultures once their vessels are fired and ready to be glazed. They're pretty impressive, I know you can't wait to see what they bring home! In the meantime, they're gearing up for a still-life drawing inspired by American artist Wayne Thiebaud (one of my FAVORITES- follow the link and check out some of his artwork!) We'll draw upon our math skills using geometric shapes as the basis for some (literally) sweet still lifes.
Fifth Grade has wrapped up their atmospheric perspective paintings (which turned out lovely) and are moving on to a new self-portrait lesson! First, we'll read 'A Splash of Red' which outlines the life and art of African American artist Horace Pippin. Pippin faced much adversity during his lifetime, but still went on to become a celebrated painter. As fifth graders, your students are about to embark on their middle school journey, so their next masterpiece will convey a personal goal or dream that they want to accomplish. Before we get into those drawings, though, we'll do a little practice with 'gesture drawings' of people in motion. Everyone will have a turn to be the 'model' and strike a pose!
First Grade students are delving into the musical world of Wassily Kandinsky in both the art AND music rooms! First, they listened to the book 'The Noisy Paint Box' which described Kandinsky's synesthesia, a condition that caused him to associate colors with sounds. (Fun fact: this book was illustrated by the same person who illustrated the Harry Potter books!) Next, we played a game of musical paints. Each table had a different color of finger paint, and students listened to music as they worked and let the notes inspire their painting. Each time the song changed, they moved to a new table! Mr. Peterman will be using these paintings during music class to play some tunes. It's great to see first graders realizing how art and music can inform one another!
Second Grade students have been working with some new 3D materials- first becoming 'set designers' and building clay mini-scenes, and then looking at architecture from around the world and taking on the role of 'architect' to design cardboard relief cityscapes. They saw pictures of architecture from ancient Rome all the way to modern-day Dubai, but they loved looking at the wild and modern pictures from the architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au. I had the privilege of visiting this particular firm when I was in Austria two summers ago, so it was fun to pique the students' interest in this field and inspire their imaginations for their own designs.
Third Grade just finished creating their clay looms (which they will paint and then weave on- that's a lot of different media in one project!) and in the meantime have been learning about the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. We've read excerpts from the book 'Harvesting Dreams: Hundertwasser for Kids' (I HIGHLY recommend this book- in case you can't tell, I love a good art book) where we not only get to learn about the context of Hundertwasser's post World War II art, but we also see how this lateral thinker imagined and created everything from shoes to houses to live in. To that end, students spent a day in art class experimenting with lots of different ways to apply paint to paper (marbles, scapers, texture tools, hands...you know, everything except a paint brush!) Stay tuned to see what they'll create with their painted paper.
Fourth Grade created clay vessels using the coil method, and will be learning a bit more about the history of clay across cultures once their vessels are fired and ready to be glazed. They're pretty impressive, I know you can't wait to see what they bring home! In the meantime, they're gearing up for a still-life drawing inspired by American artist Wayne Thiebaud (one of my FAVORITES- follow the link and check out some of his artwork!) We'll draw upon our math skills using geometric shapes as the basis for some (literally) sweet still lifes.
Fifth Grade has wrapped up their atmospheric perspective paintings (which turned out lovely) and are moving on to a new self-portrait lesson! First, we'll read 'A Splash of Red' which outlines the life and art of African American artist Horace Pippin. Pippin faced much adversity during his lifetime, but still went on to become a celebrated painter. As fifth graders, your students are about to embark on their middle school journey, so their next masterpiece will convey a personal goal or dream that they want to accomplish. Before we get into those drawings, though, we'll do a little practice with 'gesture drawings' of people in motion. Everyone will have a turn to be the 'model' and strike a pose!