Goodbye, First Marking Period!

I can't believe that it's the end of the first marking period!  The beginning of the 2017-2018 school year flew right by.  I'll be at school for Parent Teacher Conferences this upcoming Thursday.  Please come visit my room to check out more art.  You may ask to see the students' art portfolios too.

As the year progresses, I am collecting art to choose for upcoming art exhibitions.  On Tuesday, I let our eighth grader, Amber, know that I chose her Tonal Landscape for the annual show at Fashion Square Mall.  Here she is, working on finishing touches.

The fourth grade class completed their chalk pastel pumpkin drawings in time for my to put them up for conferences.  They did a fantastic job learning a new medium (material), which is adding to their growing repertoire of art skills.

I couldn't be more proud of our phenomenal Kindergarten class this year!  While we study our color unit, the students take to the lessons admirably.  They have proven to be so good at following directions and participating in the color lessons that I feel they are ready for their first art test!  Yes, Kindergarten has tests in Art, too!  Here they are, beginning their Kandinsky Color Circles.  I'll post a lot of finished work next week.

Hope to see you Thursday night!

OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS

One more week to go before the end of the first marking period!  Our students have created an amazing amount of work in the art room already.  Enjoy the highlights from the past couple of weeks.

Kindergarten completed their Line Unit with a lesson on Modern artist Piet Mondrian.  Ask them if they can tell you how we said "Mr. Mondrian" in art class!  This lesson introduced them to horizontal and vertical lines, as well as the primary colors.

Speaking of primary colors, below is also the start to their Primary Color Birds.

First Grade worked on Lines at a Circus.  The pieces are created from watercolor, marker and colored pencil.

Second and Third Grades closed their unit on Line with their own versions of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night.  For this assignment, they created their own kinds of cities or towns.  They used crayon to complete the town, oil pastels to make their stars, and light blue tempera to make swirls in the sky.

The class was sooo excited to do their Form unit, because it meant time for clay!  Second grade was introduced to portraits by having the third graders review how to create a correctly proportioned face.  Second graders created a correct portrait, while I allowed the third graders to make an abstracted portrait this year.

Fourth Grade wrapped up their Line unit with an assignment I called Line to Create Shape: Still Life.  They began by drawing from observation a simple still life.  They painted it using watercolors and then outlined the shape of the objects with Sharpie marker.

To wrap up the month of October, I introduced the students to working with chalk pastels.  We are creating a harvest pumpkin scene.

Fifth Graders finished their first large assignment, where they studied Value, which is the relative lightness or darkness of objects.  Here is a viewed of our class board, displaying all of the charcoal drawings.

We've now moved into a very exciting unit on African masks!  Students are currently designing their own masks, based on characters they have created.  They will be making the three-dimensional masks over the next couple of weeks.

Sixth Grade has done an impressive job with their Mexican Folk Art unit.  After learning about a few different folk arts throughout Mexico, they took the traditions of fun, joyful skeletons from Dia de Los Muertos and turned them into contemporary scenes.  I tasked them with learning how to draw the human figure in correct proportion - something I have taught my college and adult students!  I am so proud of the hard work they put in.  The pieces are due this week, and I can't wait to post them in next week's blog!

Speaking of "I can't wait" for my post next week, Seventh and Eighth Graders are also finishing their major project of the marking period this week.  They have created Tonal Landscape paintings.  The concept we studied is atmospheric perspective.  They created their own landscape drawings, which they painted in flat value ranges.

What's Been Happening in the Art Room?

 All year, our Chargers are learning the building blocks of art - the Elements of Art and Principles of Design.  Each month in the Art Room, we study a different topic. In the case of the middle school artists, we often study many Elements together.  During the month of September, students had been looking at LINE - its purposes and how it functions in art.  

September and October Highlights

Kindergarten                                                                                                    

Students were introduced to the art room and how to use materials and tools safely with environmental awareness.   Here are their “I CAN” Statements:                                              

•  I can recognize and produce a variety of line types                     

•  I can identify and create patterns                                                                       

•  I can identify spatial relationships                                                       

Next up:  Color         

 

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A DOT?

LINE CHARTS

NAVAJO BLANKETS

PRIMARY COLOR BIRDS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

First Grade                                                                                                        

Students explored lines in four different projects this unit, culminating in Lines at a Circus!  The major “I CAN” Statement for this unit is:                                                                            

•  I can recognize and produce a variety of line types and directions                                                                                                  

Next up:  Shape and Space                                                                         

                                                

 

LINES TO TOUCH

 

LINES AT A CIRCUS

                                                                                 

Second and Third Grades                                                                            

Students learned identify horizontal and vertical lines, how to create a variety of line types, and how                     

these kinds of lines to produce artworks.                                            

The “I CAN” Statements for this unit are:                                             

•  Students can identify and produce a variety of lines, such as thick and thin, horizontal and vertical, diagonal, spiral, zigzag, intersecting and parallel                                                   

Next up:  3D Form         

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL LINES

       

 

STARRY NIGHT

                                                                          

                                                                                                                               

Fourth Grade                                                                                                    

Fourth grade is studying lines to create pattern, movement and shape.  They have done a portrait          and now a still life.                                                                                          

•  I can use lines to create patterns and movement

•  I can use lines to create shapes for a still life

Next up:  Value

 

BAD HAIR DAY

 

LINE TO CREATE SHAPE

Fifth Grade

Fifth Graders are studying basic drawing by completing a realistic charcoal drawing.

•  I can make 3D forms and value in a drawing

•  I can make 3D forms and value in a drawing

Next up:  African Masks

 

Sixth Grade

Throughout the year, the grades will be studying the art of various world and historical cultures.  Sixth Grade is currently studying Mexican folk art.  This means that different forms of art are produced in various parts of the country, and not all people take part in the specific traditions.  Additionally, like with folk tales, parts of the art might not be realistic. Students have learned the cultural and historical context of the Mexican celebration Day of the Dead. By working in the style of the artists, they will create their own unique drawings in contemporary settings, such as at a soccer game, baking cupcakes, going to a movie with friends, or family routines.

 

Seventh and Eighth Grades

The oldest students are learning how to create the illusion of space in a painting by following the rules of Atmospheric Perspective.

Next up:  Portraits and a fun art history-based unit!

 

 

 

CONTOUR SHOE DRAWINGS

TONAL LANDSCAPES