Happy New Year!!

Justin Bieber came to the art room to welcome everyone inside as we start this new and exciting year!

Today is our first day back from a very nice and long winter break!  For me, it was almost too good which made it hard to wake up on this chilly morning, get ready, and head to the CSES art room!  It only took a moment, however, to get into the hang of things when my first class came in all bright eyed and ready to finish up their artwork from last year! ;)

Most grade levels are bringing in their work from our Culture unit into this new year.  With all of the performances, two-hour delays, field trips, etc. this time of year projects feel like they take forever to complete.  But as long as the students are engaged and happy to complete them, so am I!

Here are some images of what we have been working on in the art room the past month or so!

Kindergarten: Students painted their pinch pots and made wrapping paper using images and patterns to wrap their pinch pots up to give to someone as a special gift.  Hopefully they made their way home to you and you opened up this special gift over break!! :)

First Grade:  Students finshed their American culture inspired artwork right before winter break.  Here, we focused on the artist Peter Max and his paintings of the American flag and Statue of Liberty.  Students learned about other American symbols as well such as the Bald Eagle and the Liberty Bell and they chose which symbol they wanted to incorporate into their paintings.

Now that we are back, we will learn about a Japanese art called Gyotaku (fish prints!).  Come back to see images of this fun artmaking adventure!

Second Grade: Students have been learning about architecture around the world and using some of the specific structures such as columns, domes, castles, etc. as inspiration for their own architectural creations. Students have been busy creating clay collages and also paper collages of their designs to ink and turn into collagraph prints.

Thirs Grade:  Students have been learning about Folk Art and looking at the textile Mola Folk Art of Panama. Students have been working so creatively on their bright patterned drawings/collages in the style of this beautiful textile art. But we still have a couple of classes to go to finish them!  They are looking great!!

Fourth Grade:  Getting MESSY with paper mache!  Students are learning about Folk Art and the cool Oaxacan woodcarvings from Oaxaca, Mexico.  Instead of wood carving sculptures, students are making paper mache sculptures of animals of their choosing.  After we are done with paper mache, students will look to these fantastical woodcarvings for isnpiration when they go to create their surface designs.

Fifth Grade:  Students are learning about a Folk Art from Mexico called Amate Bark Paintings.  Using the visual characteristics of this unique art, students are creating beautiful paintings on brown craft paper of animals in their habitats.  We have everything from desert animals to ocean animals in these paintings!

                                     

"Every Child Is An Artist..."

One of my favorite art quotes is by the artist Pablo Picasso and it says, 

"Every child is an artist. The only problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up".  Every child IS an artist because their imagination is wild and they are not yet (for the most part) afraid to make a mistake.  They go for creating art that their hearts desire and there is nothing that gets in the way of that in this art room.  I love the warm and fuzzy feeling I get while the students are knee deep in their art making.  That feeling is my awareness of how special my job is as their art teacher.  The fact that I actually get to experience their artistic growth and explorations is something I don't ever want to take for grated.  I am truley blessed to teach these little artists!

Right now we are going on week three of our new unit.  This unit's big idea is Identity.  Students are exploring their artistic identities and how we can express our identities through our art making.  Most grade levels are exploring this big idea through self-portraits using various art processes.  Third grade is playing with the big idea of identity through paper mache mask making.  Take a look at the fun we have been having with our Identity unit!

Kindergarten: Self-portraits using black sharpies, oil pastels, and liquid watercolors.  I just love seeing kindergartener's first drawings in the art room.  They are full of imagination and pure artistic talent!

First Grade:  Full figure self-portraits using clay.  We first discussed the order of our body using an adapted "head, shoulders, knees and toes" theme and worked with partners to do some figure drawings.  After that exercise, students worked in teams in a friendly game of "clay olympics" where they could explore how to create a coil, slab, and sphere out of clay.  The next class we used our knowledge of the figure and clay techniques to create our clay self-portraits.  

I adore these!!

Second grade: Superhero self-portraits in the style of the famous Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein (who happens to also be our new artist on the Artist Spotlight this month!

Sorry, no pictures of these projects yet, I will get on it! But below is our Artist Spotlight bulletin!

Third Grade: Paper Mache masks. Here are the students working in partners to cover their balloons.  They are knee deep in paper mache goopy glop!  Some loved the feeling of the goop... others... well... they learned to love it! :)

The next class students created cones, cylinders, and cubes out of scrap posterboard so they could add and paper mache features to their masks next time!

Fourth Grade:  Self-portraits in the style of the Surreal artist Rene Magritt like one of his most famous paintings called Son of Man.  

These are fun!!  Students are learning symbolism and the fact that identity is not only about the way we look but also our character.

The symbols over their self-portraits represent something they love and "identify" with! ;)

YAY! GO GIANTS!! (sorry... had to!!)

Fifth Grade:  Reduction printmaking self-portraits.  Students are learning realism and using correct facial proportions while drawing their self-portraits. Students practiced these proportions on laminated head outlines before starting their real drawings for their styrofoam printing plates. Students are in the first stage of this unit so the next post will show some printmaking action!

Stay tuned for more in the next week!