Happy Halloween!!

So it isn't Monday... it is Friday! I am a few days late with our blog post this week so I apologize. I hope you enjoy all of the fun stuff I am sharing today because our little artists have been very busy in the art room!

Third graders are done with their beautiful radial color wheel designs and moving on to painting landscapes. This week we looked at landscape examples and identified the line created from where the ground meets the sky. Students learned that this line is called the horizon line! On your next car ride, see if they can find the horizon line by looking out the window! Take a look at the landscapes they have started. Students were blending paint colors using what they learned from their color wheel unit!

 

 

 

Fourth Grade just finished their sugar skull designs! Students learned about the Mexican cultural holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which is a celebration meant for remembering loved ones who have passed. This holiday is celebrated from October 31st to November 2nd which correlates with one of our own holidays, Halloween! Students looked at the sugar skull folk art associated with the Day of the Dead holiday and created their own symmetrical sugar skull designs using shapes and patterns. They then learned about the relief printmaking method and transferred their designs onto their Styrofoam printing plates and made and edition of 3 prints! Look at them in action! Their prints are beautiful!

Inking their plate

 

Burnishing their paper onto their plate

 

Pulling their print!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifth grade finally completed their monochromatic landscapes showing atmospheric perspective! Take a look at these beauties! They are on display in our front office :)

 

 

 

Kindergarteners just finished their color and line study! They learned the rainbow color order pattern and painted their papers. Next they explored lines and drew them on the back of their paintings. Finally, they used their scissor techniques to cut on the lines and glue their "puzzle" pieces to a black background to make their lines POP! They are so beautiful!

 

 



 

First graders finished their memory quilts inspired by the artist Faith Ringgold! Take a look!

 

 

 

Next, students learned about the artist Piet Mondrain (ask them if they can remember how to say his name!) and explored color, line, and shape! We looked at Mondrian's artwork and explored the types of lines, colors and shapes he used in his work. Students created rectangles and squares by gluing down thick and thin black lines either horizontally or vertically. Ask them if they can tell you the difference between the two! Finally, students learned about the three primary colors and applied them to their artwork!

 

 





Second grade artists finished their lovely still life artwork! Look at these beauties! I am pretty in love with them :)

 

 

 



 As you can see, we have such a wonderful time in the BES art room! There is so much to learn and create and I love seeing our artists in action. I hope you do too! So keep checking out our art room blog to see all of the wonderful art education going on in our amazing little school :)

 

Have a WONDERFUL and SAFE Halloween weekend!!

 



 

 

Third Graders Get Colorful With Color Theory!

Third grade has been learning about COLOR THEORY and a very important artist tool... the color wheel! They first began by creating their radial designs and then explored the importance of the order of colors on the color wheel and their relationships.

The first family of colors we explored (and the most important) was the PRIMARY color family. Ask your third grader why primary colors are so important! Next, we focused on SECONDARY colors and experimented with mixing two primary colors together to see what secondary color would be created. As a class, we looked at where the secondary colors were located in relation to the primary colors on the color wheel. Finally, we began talking about those crazy INTERMEDIATE colors and learned how to mix our primary and secondary colors to create these special hues. Ask your third grader if they can name some intermediate colors for you! Take a look at these beautiful radial rainbows being created!

 

I am so excited to see these complete and brightening up our BES Main Hall Art Gallery!

But First... Let Me Make A Selfie!

That's what kindergarteners said when they first came to the art room ;) So we did make a selfie! I LOVE doing this unit with kindergarteners as soon as they come to art because of many reasons. Developmentally, it is all about them at this time of their life and so they are already inspired and take this art making challenge very personally. I also get a better understanding of their skill level and how I can differentiate for future lessons based off of what I see from this first art making experience in the art room. And lastly, I know if I was a parent I would cherish this first artwork especially if it was a self-portrait and save it for years and years to come!!

So please, cherish this first self-portrait of their K-12 school experience. If you can, provide materials for them to create with at home as well. I am so excited to see how our youngest artists grow over the year through their artwork!

Take a look at some of the kindergarten self-portraits that are being hung in our school gallery!

1st, 3rd and 4th Grade Artist Update

This week I wanted to share with you what our 1st, 3rd and 4th grade artists were up to learning in the art room. First graders have been exploring the art of the African American artist Faith Ringgold. You may have heard of Faith Ringgold before because she is not only an artist, she is also an author of children's books which she illustrates through her artwork. She is most famous for her story quilts like the one we are talking about together called Tar Beach.
Students have been exploring their own favorite memories to create memory quilts. The past few weeks students have been illustrating a favorite memory. This week we started exploring paper weaving to make our quilts for our memory illustrations to adhere to. Ask your first grader what they know about weaving and see if they can tell you why weaving is important. Here are some students working on their paper looms today.

 

 

 

Third graders are creating radial pattern designs in preparation for painting and mixing colors to create unique color wheels. Ask your third grader if they can identify something that is radial in your home and tell you why it is radial. Take a look at some of the awesome radial patterns they have designed!

 

 

 

 

Fourth grade is all about the MOVEMENT. We have been learning about the contemporary artist Colleen Wilcox and her paintings using line and pattern to create movement. Students are working with line and pattern also to create movement in either a flower or abstract composition. Today, students learned about analogous color schemes and used water color techniques to apply them to their movement compositions.

 

I know what you may be thinking... contemporary.... composition... abstract... analogous color schemes... these are pretty art smart words for our fourth graders! See if they can teach you what these words mean! I try to get them to impress you all with their art smartness by using these fancy art words to describe things they see in everyday life. If you catch your child using these art smart words, let me know! It always makes me smile :)

 

Take a look at these way cool movement compositions!

Selfies and Still Lifes and Landscapes... OH MY!!

There is a LOT happening in the art room now that school is in full gear! Here is an update on Kindergarten, Second and Fifth grade artists :)

Kindergarteners are making art about very important people... themselves! We are having a blast learning about the differences between portraits and self-portraits so ask your kinder if they can tell you the difference. They have gotten so art smart in the past three weeks, I am SO proud! We are really focusing on what makes us unique and incorporating that into their self-portraits. This is important because these unique qualities are what make our artwork self-portraits rather than just plain portraits. Take a look at some of the artists in action!

 

 

Second graders are learning about the Still Life genre of art and being able to identify the differences between a still life, portrait and landscape. We have been really LOOKING because that is what artists do when they create still life artwork. They have been focusing on the importance of observation and taking the time to look at the shapes they see in front of them. We have also been looking at the difference between a 2D shape and a 3D form so see if your second grader can tell you the difference! The first week, students worked together at their tables to set up the blocks at their tables, observe the shapes they see, and then draw from their observations.

 

 

 

The next day, we discussed the difference between geometric and organic forms and noticing that organic forms come from nature while geometric forms are mostly human made objects. Students took their observation skills from the first class and used them to draw their fall themed still life set ups! They are doing a fabulous job drawing from observation!! Take a look!

 

 



 

 

Fifth graders are learning about landscapes though atmospheric perspective. We have been discussing perspective and how we see things as they get further away. Ask your fifth grader if they can tell you what happens to the way we see things that are further away. We have been really focusing on the fact that objects that are further away loose their color saturation due to what we call atmospheric perspective. In preparation of our atmospheric perspective landscapes, students have been learning about monochromatic color schemes by creating tints and shades of one color. Don't know what tints and shades are, ask your fifth grader! Take a look at their color mixing practice!

 

 

This week we will be applying what we know about tints and shades to create atmospheric perspective in our landscape artwork!

 

What a great few weeks in the BES art room! If you want to get in on the fun, fill out a volunteer form in the front office and come have some fun with us when your child has art! I could always use an extra hand during painting, clay and paper mache days ;)