Week of August 20th

PTA Reflections Art Contest Reminder:

If students need specific materials for their art project, please notify Mrs. Adamos by this Friday, August 31st!

Kindergarten: This week was the 2nd session for the Hungry Caterpillar art project.  The students made a leaf using oil pastels and cut with “fancy” edged scissors.  They also sponge painted a blue background.

 

Mrs. Gersten’s class:  We read the story White Rabbit’s Color BookWe discussed the process of mixing primary colors together to make secondary colors.  Using transparent math manipulatives, the students layered 2 primary colors and observed the secondary color it made. Then, students sculpted a rabbit out of Model Magic Clay.  For the next art session,  we will paint the rabbit and add a background.

First Grade: This week we turned those color wheels into a fun rainy day scene.  The 1st graders transformed their wheel into an umbrella and added a raincoat and rain boots.  Then using their pinky their added raindrops with blue tempera paint.

Mr. Thomas’ class: The students continued their Jackson Pollack inspired art piece. Using Water Colors, students added paint to their salt and glue lines.  We discussed the Science behind the process.  The Science vocabulary for this STEAM project was “absorption” and “reaction.”  They had a great time seeing their paint spread along their paper.

Second Grade: For our next art lesson, we focused on the Element of Art, Space.  We looked at the art work of Claude Monet and talked about Foreground, Middle ground, and Background.  The students painted a poppy field.  They had to make the flowers in the foreground larger and more detailed. The flowers in the middle ground had to be painted smaller. For the background the students used chalk pastels, and for the middle ground and foreground they used oil pastels to make the grass.

Third Grade: We traveled around to Japan this week.  The students learned about the significance of the Koi Symbol in Japanese culture and it’s influence on art.  In 2nd grade, the students made a Koinobori Wind Sock also inspired by the Koi.  So they were excited to do another Koi inspired art piece.  We focused primarily on movement.  We looked at several art pieces of Koi and observed the lines made by the brushstrokes, and the lines of the koi’s body to demonstrate movement.

 

Fourth Grade: AHHHHHHHH!  These scream portraits just make me scream for excitement!

Fifth Grade and Mrs. Simmons’ class: Here are some completed Tape Resist art pieces.

 

Sixth Grade: Doesn’t this just look amazing!

 

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Week of August 13th

Kindergarten:  The kindergarteners started  a project this week inspired by the text, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  We looked at how Carle, used shapes and put them together to draw.  For example, the Caterpillar is made up of several ovals and circles. The students drew a caterpillar, outlined it with marker and then colored with crayon. We will continue the 2nd step of this project next week.

Mrs. Gerstens’ class: It’s pizza time.  In class we read the text, Shapes in Art.As a group we talked about different toppings on a pizza and what shape they were.  Using construction paper, the students created a pizza collage. Red oil pastel was used to color in the sauce. These look delicious!

Mr. Thomas’ class: We started a new art project inspired by the abstract art of Jackson Pollack. Pollack was best known for his unconventional painting tools and his drip painting method.  This is a fun STEAM project. Using white glue, the students created a drip design on cardstock.  Then they added salt.   next week we will add watercolors to the salt.

1st Grade: This week’s lesson was about primary and secondary colors.  The students were introduced to a color wheel.  We also looked at famous art pieces and discussed how the artists’ used color to express mood. The students painted their own color by mixing tempera paint. We will turn the color wheel into a rainy day scene next week.

2nd Grade: 2nd grade classes continued working on their Hello-Goodbye Window portraits.

3rd Grade: Cubism at it’s best!

4th grade: Check out some Scream portraits.  The students will need one more week to complete this project.

5th Grade and Mrs. Simmon’s class: Check out these completed projects.

6th Grade:  The 6th graders are still working hard on their Kaleidoscope names. (Pictures to come next week).

Week of August 6th

This week in Art, all grade levels continued working on the projects started last week. Check out these picture updates.

Kindergarten:

Mrs. Gertsten’s class:

 

First Grade:

2nd Grade and Mr. Thomas’ class:

3rd grade:

4th Grade:

5th Grade and Mrs, Simmons’ class:

 

6th Grade:

Welcome back to a new school year!

Does your child enjoy art, music and dance or have an interest in writing, producing films and taking photos? Then join us and have fun unleashing your child’s inner artist with PTA Reflections! This art contest is open to ALL grades.  This year’s theme is “Heroes Around Me.”

Pick up submission guidelines and an entry form from Mrs. Adamos in room 706.

All this week students were introduced to Art rules, classroom procedures, and having a growth mindset in art or “Thinking like an Artist.”  The students watched a video to help inspire them to learn and accept mistakes and to preserve.

Kindergarten: We read a story called It’s Okay to be Different by Todd Parr. We discussed the various shapes in the art work.  We did a shape hunt and the students were given a short introduction about how artists use shapes in art pieces to covey meaning.  The students created a self-portrait inspired by the art work of Parr.  They used a black marker for the outline and colored with Play Color Sticks.

Mrs. Gersten’ class: The art this week was inspired by the artwork of Eric Carle.  We read the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

We discussed how shapes were used to create many of drawings in the story. The students drew circles and ovals for the body of the caterpillar. Students used black marker and crayons for this art piece.

First Grade: The first graders learned about the abstract artwork of Pablo Picasso.  We started the lesson by “reading” the art titled, The Weeping Woman. We discussed the elements that made it abstract and the meaning of the art piece. The students also learned about Picasso’s trademark of breaking up the face and body into different planes.

 The students created an abstract self-portrait using black markers, Play Color sticks, and crayons.

Second grade and Mr. Thomas’ class: Our focus for art this week was one of the “Elements of Art”, space.  We looked at various art pieces demonstrating how artists use the technique of overlapping.  The students created a self-portrait collage  inspired by the story, The Hello Good-bye Window by: Norton Juster.  They had to use the overlapping technique to create their hands and the illusion that they were inside a window. Mirrors were provided to the students to help them with their collage.

Third grade: The 3rd graders began their lesson with an text about Cubism.  We focused on the artwork of Pablo Picasso.  Students created an abstract self-portrait inspired the  Cubist art movement.  The students used construction paper and brand NEW construction paper crayons! Pictures will be posted next week.

Fourth Grade: For this lesson, the students read the art by: Edvard Munch called, The Scream.

 We focused on Munch’s use of lines to express mood and movement. The students incorporated this Element of Art into their art work by making a self-portrait inspired by this art piece.

Fifth Grade and Mrs. Simmons’ class:  For our very first art lesson in 5th grade, the students were introduced to the artwork of Elizabeth Catlett titled, The Sharecropper. This artwork demonstrated value through the use of hatching and cross-hatching.

  For their art project, the students first masked their name on a white construction paper with tape.  We called this the Positive Space.  Then for the background, or Negative Space, the students used watercolor pencils and drew various lines.  They used various techniques to demonstrate value, such as hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, scrumbling, and blending.

Sixth Grade: The first 6th grade lesson of the year was inspired by Islamic art.  The students watched a video explaining the math involved to create symmetrical patterns found in Islamic Artwork. The students will be creating a kaleidoscope view of their name.  The art must demonstrate radial symmetry.  Pictures will be posted next week.

Week of April 30th and May 7th

 

Here are pictures of the projects from the last 2 weeks.

Kindergarten and Mrs. Gersten’s class: The students continued working on their lion piece by painting the lion mane.  The students learned the difference between blending and mixing colors. The students made long, straight strokes with a paintbrush.

On the week of May 7th, we started a new art project inspired by the artist, Claude Monet.  We learned about his career and his water lily paintings.  The students used oil pastels to draw a bridge, water lilies, and plants.  Then they used a technique called “wet on wet” where they painted water over their paper first and then applied the watercolors.  The students used blue and green paint.

First Grade: The first grade classes started a new art project inspired by Jim Dine.  We discussed his Pop Art and his use of texture.  On the first week, the students added heart shapes on a piece of cardboard using white glue and yarn.  On the second day, the students added colored tissue squares on top of the heart with liquid starch.  The art pieces are amazing.

2nd grade: The students worked on a new art project involving recyclable art.  We looked at several professional art pieces made with recyclable materials.  The students had a fun time guessing what the materials were.  The recyclable materials we used for our art projects were cardboard and magazines. The students cut magazine strips and glued them onto cardstock.  Then they designed a “window” with construction paper by cutting out a shape in the middle of the paper. Then they attached with window with cardboard squares.  The cardboard squares made the window paper sit higher and “pop out”.

3rd grade: On the week of April 30th, the students completed their snake projects by completing a background and attaching their snakes it.

On the week of May 7th, third grade got 2 art sessions in week to accommodate their testing schedule.  For this next project, the students learned about Japanese art and focused on the symbol of the Koi.  The students designed a 3 dimensional koi with paper and painted it with watercolors.

4th grade:  The 4th graders did not have art due to standardized testing.

5th grade and Mrs. Simmons’ class:  The students started a new art project as well.  We read about the art of M.C. Escher and his use of mathematics and art.  He was best known for his optical art and tessellations.  The students designed their own tessellation art.  They started with a rectangular card.  They made cuts and taped the pieces together.  This gave them a new shape to work with.  They had to be very creative with designing their shape and turning it into an animal, a monster, etc.

6th grade:  It’s drawing time!  The students worked on an observational drawing of a mannequin.  They used “view finders” to decide on which part of the mannequin they wanted to draw.  They used their knowledge of gesture and contour drawing to complete this project.  Afterwards they used brand NEW Crayola oil pastels (which in my opinion at the BEST) to add color.  They focused on value.  For darker values, they added black to the hue, and for lighter values they added white.

Week of April 23rd

Kindergarten:  We will return to our lion project next week.  This week the students drew an ostrich.  We learned many interesting facts about Ostriches including their diet, their powerful legs, how big they are, how fast they run, etc.  Then the students made a colorful face and neck using crayons.  They had to use a lot of pressure on their crayon to get the brightest colors.  Then they added a neck, eyes, and a beak.

Mrs. Gersten’s class:  Today the 1st graders, painted their lion’s mane using white, brown, and yellow tempera paint.  The students used long, straight, diagonal brush strokes.  We discussed the beauty of the blended colors.

First Grade: This week the students completed their cherry blossom vases.  Using a variety of painting tools (cotton balls, Q tips, pencil erasers, and a flat brush), students painted a brown branch, and white and pink flowers with tempera paint.

Second Grade: The students learned about the work of Romero Britto.  They read a biography about his life and career.  They created a cat drawing inspired by his style of art.  The students used markers for this project.

Mr. Thomas’ class: The clay birds are complete!  The students colored the birds with permanent marker and added feathers and glitter.

Third Grade: It’s decorating time!  The students were very excited to decorate their yarn-coiled snakes.  The students were given a buffet of various decorating materials such as beads, foam shapes, foil, scrapbook paper, pom poms, colored sharpies, just to name a few.  Their objective was to enhance their snake symbols with these items. They had to select colors and shapes that matched their theme.

Fourth Grade and Mrs. Simmons’ class:  The students learned about the life and career of Romero Britto.  They read a biographical text.  They planned out a design with a central image of their choice.  They followed the Britto style using thick black outlines, a background with a broken plane, and various patterns and colors.

Fifth Grade: This week was the final day for the abstract art.  We had a gallery walk at the end of art class.  The students also titled their art pieces and wrote short descriptions of their art.

Sixth Grade:  The students completed their kaleidoscope name art!

Week of April 16th

Kindergarten and Mrs. Gersten’s class: This week we started a new art lesson about symbols in art.  The students looked at several art pieces with lions.  They discussed what they saw in the art and what they thought each lion represented. Then the students drew a “ferocious” lion.  Geometric vocabulary (triangle, semi-circle, rectangle, oval, etc.) and different types of lines (curved, diagonal, straight, jagged, vertical, and horizontal) were used as the students were drawing their lions.  Next week the students will use tempera paint to add the mane.

 

1st Grade: The students were introduced to Japanese art this week.  We also talked about the importance of symbols in Japanese art.  We watched a video about the history of the Cherry Blossoms.  The students designed a Japanese inspired vase.  They selected symbols from a handout and a class chart.  The symbols included the chrysanthemum, crane, mountains, water, clouds, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, spiders, sakura and Japanese characters. Next week the students will paint a cherry blossom branch.

2nd grade: The 2nd grade musical was a success!  Check out some of the art pieces created by our talented art club, 4th-6th grade, and 1st grade classes.

3rd Grade: The students continued the yarn coiling process for their snakes.

Mr. Thomas’ class: We completed sculpting all the parts for the tropical bird. Next week we will color and decorate.

4th Grade: This was the last week to finish coloring the optical art project.  The next step will be to cut, “fan” out, and glue the art.

5th Grade and Mrs. Simmons’ class: Abstract away!  These students are still working on this fun project.

6th Grade: This is the 2nd art session for the kaleidoscope names.  The students will need one more week to complete this artwork.