Feb. 16th- Feb. 20th

It's been a fast and furious week here at Langston. Between the Bookfair, the pancake feed, and a four day week, it has been busy! Here is what the Langston Artists have been up to this week:

Kdg.- Kindergarteners have been reviewing Functional Art (art that a person can use for something) vs. Art for Art's Sake (art we just look at and enjoy). This is a pretty high-level concept, but the students really seem to grasp it well! We will continue reviewing and next week I will assess their understanding. We have finished the candy jars and are moving onto Party Hats! Their party hats will use their knowledge of line, shape, color, and pattern. We just need to add tassels on the top and the strips to fit around their heads!

1st- First graders have been continuing to learn about shelters and how they keep us safe and happy. We have been creating details in our tree houses and adding patterned wallpaper. The students have been practicing following directions in order to draw the branches. Next we'll add actual texture in the form of leaves! When we finish, the students will share with the class what is in their treehouse and the various details.

2nd- Second grade students have been reviewing warm and cool colors this week. We are in the process of making a monster painting using warm colors. Warm colors are generally used for things that are alive and breathing, like a monster! It's great seeing how creative the students get with their monsters. Next, we'll make Cool Color Robots!

3rd- Third graders have finished up their Zentangles and are now learning about different portrait viewpoints: frontal, profile, and 3/4 view. The students also learned about Pablo Picasso and Cubism. Cubism often uses multiple portrait viewpoints, so it's a perfect tie-in. We'll be making Cubist Animals this week and next. I'll have pictures up next week-- expect some colorful and fragmented mammals :)

4th- Fourth graders are finishing up painting their grotesques, wrapping them in newsprint, and taking them home. The black-silver paint really added to their stone quality! Now we are continuing with our Jasper Johns Collagraph. A collagraph is a type of printmaking in which a printing plate it made from cardboard, string, foam, and other found materials. The students have proposed a composition to me and a partner at their table, and then started making their collagraph printing plates. The students have been very excited about this-- one student even made a collagraph outside of class after learning how to make one!

5th- Fifth graders have been slowly but surely finishing glazing their donuts. They should be coming home next week! Now we are beginning a Fantastical Maps lesson. Students have been learning about the history of cartography, types of maps, features of a map, and have looked at the artwork of Allison Murray Whittington, who creates pirate-esque fantasy maps of imagined lands. Students have begun brainstorming what different aspects they would like to include in their fantasy maps. In the mean time, here are some pictures of their finished Lakota Winter Counts.

This Week in Art...

Here are some updates of what the different grade levels have been creating in the art room!

Kdg.- Kindergarteners have been learning about functional art versus art for art's sake, so we have been creating candy jars using found objects. The students have been using the found objects to trace and stamp. They loved thinking about all the candies they like and recreating them.

1st- First graders have been working on creating tree houses. We learned about shelters and how tree houses can be a type of shelter. The tree houses have both visual texture and actual texture. This project is great because the tree houses really give the students an opportunity to use their imaginations. One treehouse I saw had traps and laser beams!

2nd- The second graders have been finishing up their warm and cool color fish for the book fair next week. They learned a new technique called wax resist to create a colorful effect on their fish.

3rd- Third graders just finished their sea turtles for the book fair-- they look GREAT. There are even a few teenage mutant ninja sea turtles on display throughout the school. The students really enjoyed thinking about different ways to design their turtle shells.

4th- Fourth graders are taking a break from their Jasper Johns Pop Art Collagraph lesson to paint their ceramic grotesques (a gargoyle without a spout). We're using black and silver acrylic paint to give them the look of stone.

5th- Fifth graders have been glazing their Wayne Thiebaud inspired ceramic donuts. Some of them look so real! The students have been learning about how the glazing process works and some troubleshooting while using glaze.   Glazing and ceramics involves a LOT of chemistry, which is always fascinating to the students.

Welcome to the Art Room at Langston Hughes!

I will use this blog to keep you updated on what all the Langston artists are creating and exploring. Enjoy!

Kdg.- The kindergarteners are finishing up their Pattern Paintings, which they learned how to create patterns using shapes, lines, letters, numbers, colors, or simple pictures. They used crayons and watercolor to create a wax resist. Their works will be on display in the hallway soon! Now we are learning about functional art and creating "candy jars". The students are using found objects to trace and stamp candies in their jars.

1st- First Graders are finishing their native american teepees and should be bringing them home this week. They learned about how the teepee is a 3D cone and how native americans used the teepees to tell stories with symbols-- which we also created on our teepees! Now we are beginning a new lesson about tree houses. Students will create their own tree houses with rooms, details, visual texture, actual texture, and patterns.

2nd- For the Book Fair coming up on Friday, Feb. 13th, 2nd grade is helping create art for the hallway display outside the library. The theme is "Under the Sea", so we've been busy making tissue paper seahorses that were inspired by Eric Carle's book, Mister Seahorse.

3rd- Third Graders are also helping create art for the Book Fair display. We're making sea turtles using painted paper. Earlier in the year, we had learned about tints and shades, so we used that knowledge when making the painted papers for the turtles. Now we're using oil pastels to create shell detail and texture-- they're really enjoying the process.

4th- Fourth Grade is finishing up their Valentine Zentangles and should be bringing them home soon. They really enjoyed learning how Zentangling is a form of doodling used to relax. We played soft music in the classroom while they worked. The kids loved the low-key feelings the Zentangling brought. Expect to see those coming home soon! Our next project is about the Pop artist, Jasper Johns. The students will create collagraphs with letters and numbers that are meaningful to them.

5th- Fifth grade has just finished their Lakota Winter Counts and are beginning to "glaze" their Wayne Thiebaud-inspired ceramic donuts. Once the donuts are fired, we'll use beads to create sprinkles, write artist statements, and enjoy real donuts in class.