A Brand New Beaverific Year!

I hope you all had a great time sharpening your family's saw during summer break! Although the time off is wonderful, it really feels great to be back at BES for another great school year! During the first week of school I always like to do my welcome and get students warmed up for the year in the art room by giving them a one day project that goes into a school wide collaborative display for the front hall. This year, students drew self-portraits using either a cool or a warm color scheme. I did not give any instruction on how to use shapes to draw the human figure in order to assess where each student is at the beginning of this school year.  Take a look at the amazing mural our students synergized to create during week one in the art room! Can you read the secret message within the artwork? Here are two hints... the letters are purple and the message is our school theme for the year!

Be sure to check back soon to see what we are up to for our first art units of the 2015-16 school year!

Bring on the Spring!

I hope you all have a wonderful SNOWCATION! I don't know about you but I am now ready... REALLY READY for SPRING! We have so many things happening here in the art room at BES within the next two weeks!...
Ms. Brown, our VCU art student teacher, has two more weeks with us here in Beaverdam.
The Spring 2015 Art Club is wrapping up next Monday.
The Art Extravaganza will be March 6th (WOOOHOOO!! I HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!)

But for now, here is an update on what we have been doing during these cold winter weeks :)


4th Grade Totems! Ok, so I am a little obsessed over these little treasures! Ms. Brown was absent last Friday so I got a chance to teach and have two of our 4th grade classes paint their totem. The results are MAGNIFICIENT!

 

 

 

Before Ms. Brown took over teaching all of our students, second grade finished a winter landscape collage using various materials like poster board, cardboard, and foam paper. They turned their collages into collographs by inking them up and printing them on color colored paper. These prints sure remind me of our beautiful snow last week!

 

 

 

Art Club has been having a great time each Monday afternoon! During our last meeting, students created ceramic flowers. They each created one for themselves and one to donate to an Art Extravaganza auction art piece!

 

 

Students love working with clay! I can't blame them, who doesn't!? :)

 

 

The Art Extravaganza is going to be AMAZING! We will have an artwork from EVERY student on display here at BES that night. I can't wait to see our student's faces light up when they see their artwork in our school art gallery walk. We will also have a BES recorder performance right before the live art auction! SO EXCITING! There is a class art project from each class here at BES that will be auctioned off to raise money for projects and activities within our school that promote CREATIVE THINKING! Here some images of Mrs. Holloway's class working with their classroom teacher and room parents on their BES inspired CORNHOLE BOARDS!

 

 

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE FOR THE 2015 ART EXTRAVAGANZA

 FRIDAY MARCH 6TH AT 6:30!!!

 

YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS OUT ON THE FUN!!

 

 

 

 

 

First Grade Colors and Fourth Grade Totems!

This week I finished up the rest of my units with our little beavers so that Ms. Brown, our student teacher from VCU School of the Arts, can start her units next week! So exciting! Let's take a look at what first graders have been up to in the art room.

First graders learned about the artist and art educator Alma Thomas and her beautiful paintings inspired by colors and patterns from her garden in nature. Students explored color and the concentric circle pattern in their paintings. After their paintings dried, students learned about how colors can either contrast (be very different) or camouflage (be the same or similar). Adding a collage element to their artwork, students used construction paper colored pieces to create color contrast and camouflage in their beautiful, bright artwork. Take a look!

 

 

Fourth graders just completed the first step of their super awesome CERAMIC TOTEM POLES! We began this unit by learning about the cultural art of a totem pole and its purpose to the natives in the Pacific North West. We discussed symbols and how the animals in the totem poles are symbols that tell a story. Students explored the various animals and their symbolic meanings and chose one that stood for a characteristic that they themselves had. After they chose the animal that could symbolize themselves, the students drew out sketches for their animals. Next, students explored several clay hand building techniques including throwing a slab, rolling a sphere, making a coil and attaching clay pieces together by scoring (scratching) and slipping (adding clay glue). Finally, the students applied their hand building techniques and created their individual totems. After Ms. Brown is done with her units and after their totems are bisque fired, students will add colors with paint! Take a look at them now... they are really neat!

 

 



It May Be Cold Outside but the Art Room is Warm With Creativity!

Last week we started the BES Spring 2015 Art Club! These 24 students come to the art room after school every Monday until the first week of March. The first week students made their own sketchbooks to inspire their creativity and practice drawing more. I also gave them a 52 week drawing challenge to help spark ideas for them to draw. This week, I had so many of our art club students bring in their sketchbooks with the first week's challenge complete. They all seemed so eager to continue drawing so as you can imagine, this art teacher's heart was smiling with joy!

This week, students began prepping the surface for the recycled plastic bottle cap flower sculptures that will eventually go into the ground outside in front of the library window for all to see!
If you haven't started already....

PLEASE SAVE YOUR PLASTIC BOTTLE CAPS AND SEND THEM INTO THE ART ROOM FOR THIS PROJECT!

At the Art Extravaganza on Friday March 6th, families and students will be able to glue down some bottle caps onto these flower pieces for a hands on activity! I look forward to seeing with community collaboration complete because they are already looking great! Take a look at our art club students priming the wooden flower cut outs!

 

We will have 7 flower sculptures total!! :)

 

 

The 2 x 4s are for the flower stems that will go right into the ground!!

 

 

We have been doing some really awesome things in Kindergarten. Last week, students used clay to make pinch pots! We talked about where clay comes from and what it is made of. We talked about all of the things we use that are made out clay like certain cups, plates, and bowls. All of these things hold materials for us that we use! Students learned how to use their fine motor skills to create their awesome little pinch pots.

 

 

This week, kindergarteners are exploring the THREE MAGICAL COLORS (aka Primary Colors) in the art room! After an awesome magic trick revealing these three magical colors and the three colors they create when mixed together (secondary colors), students created some of their own magic by finger painting! Using only the primary colors, students blended them together to create new colors! Take a look at them in action... finger painting is always a fun day in kindergarten!

 

Students carefully used their "two magic fingers"! This helps to keep the mess at a minimum during finger painting ;)

 

 

What fun we have been having! It has also been nice to have another adult in the art room joining us from VCU School of the Arts. Chea Brown is my student teacher for the next two months and is already enjoying getting her hands dirty. I can't wait to see what units and lessons she has in store for our little beavers!