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 ;)

 

Making Our Mark!

Today Monday September 15th is International Dot Day! This day was inspired by the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds which is about a girl whose teacher inspires her to make a mark on her page and challenges her to see where it takes her. The girl makes her mark, a dot, and continues to grow artistically and eventually inspires another child to make their mark.

Me and the 3rd grade team here at BES collaborated to celebrate Dot Day with our 3rd graders. In the art room, we read the book and talked about the importance of taking chances and seeing where it takes you. We talked about how everyone's dot would be different and why. We looked at dots created by people all over the world in celebration of marking their mark on International Dot Day. Then, the students were able to create their own dot that will be displayed in the hallway with the rest of the 3rd graders' dots!

Take a look at the creativity we discovered by making our marks on Dot Day!

 

And our hallway display! A tree to show how each of our third graders are making their marks together!

 

 

Our First Week Back... All Hands on Deck!

What a wonderful week back in the BES art room!! It was great to see so many familiar faces and new smiling faces as well.

I always make time for students to create AND learn the art room procedures and expectations on the first art class of the year. This year, the students were able to explore how the art room connects to their leadership goals. Since our theme this year is "All Aboard the Leader Ship", I created my own play on words through "All hands on deck" to help students understand how important it is to all work together and help each other find the leader within themselves each and every day.

Older students traced their hands and wrote their leadership goals and/or leadership skills on their hand drawing. Kinders and first graders just had their name on their hands. To add the artistic touch, we talked about symbols and how we could use them to express our individuality and interests. Afterwards, students cut their hands out and added them to the Leader Ship out in the main hallway in front of the art room. Take a look at the amazing display of All Hands on Deck showing everyone who enters our school that we all have a hand in creating a school full of leaders!

 

 

After our creative activity, we discussed the Art Leadership Roles second through fifth grade students have in the art room. These leadership roles make every student have a hand in helping make every day in the art room a success!

 

I am SO excited for this school year! I can't wait to start our art units this week.

 Stay tuned to see what is in store for our little artists!