Jan. 18th-22nd

This week has been very productive in the Art room-- must be the weather. We've been busy meeting standards left and right! Here's a look at what we've been up to.

K- After completing their Pattern Block Snowflakes, Kinders have started their Clay Texture Magnets. This is an introduction to Functional Art, which they will learn about more in detail in 1st grade. I wish you could have seen their faces when they used their shoes to press into the clay, therefore creating a texture.

Pattern Block Snowflakes from last week 

Soon to be Texture Magnets

1st- First graders are in the midst of their Chinese New Year Collages. The details have been spectacular. The students have been working hard to make their dragons symmetrical as well.

Students added the Chinese character for "luck"!

Mittens we did last week!

2nd- After practicing slipping and scoring, 2nd graders are now smoothing their ceramic penguins! Smoothing the clay with your finger helps eliminate bumps, cracks, and clay boogers (clay bits sitting on the surfaces).

Hilarious

3rd- Finishing up our Tie Dye Snowflakes, we're now being introduced to Portrait Views (frontal, profile, and 3/4 view) and Pablo Picasso. Picasso is known for his Cubism portraits that use multiple portrait viewpoints. Next week we'll start incorporating those portrait views into our Cubist Animals!

Tie Dye Snowflakes

Cubist Bull by Ryan Whittlesey

4th- Fourth grade is learning about Jim Dine, who is famous for his textural heart paintings and sculptures. We're reviewing how to create tints and shades with oil pastels. Below are some photos of the Winter Birch Trees we just finished as well.

Jim Dine Tint and Shade Hearts

4th Grade Winter Birch Trees

Our Winter Panorama! Gorgeous.

5th- Fifth graders have been diving into their Personal Pop Art, selecting symbols/objects that are personally meaningful to them. We've been going to the computer lab to do image research. It's amazing how much more realistic drawings can become when you have images to observe.

Jan 11-15th

Hello Langston Families,

Here are updates for this week:

K- Kinders have finished our Observational Drawings with building blocks. This lesson was great because the students built a sculpture (review) and then practiced closely observing each block and how it actually looked. We discussed how artists make art from observation and imagination.

1st- Because the Chinese New Year is coming up on February 8th, its a great time to practice cutting and gluing with these Chinese Dragon Collages. Dot-Dot-Not-A-Lot has been my motto this week!

2nd- Second graders are learning more advanced clay techniques this year with Ceramic Penguins. They are practicing the 3 S's (slip, score, smooth). Some of the penguins' beaks and wings have fallen off-- what a great teachable moment on why scoring is very important when connecting clay. :)

3rd- We are done with our Aerial Snowmen (Now on display) and we are moving onto Tissue Paper Snowflakes. 3rd graders drew snowflakes using radial symmetry with crayons, then using wet tissue paper on top to create a brilliant watercolor resist!

4th- Fourth graders are FINALLY done with their Winter Birch Trees. This was a great opportunity to  show how well the students understand depth of field. Now we are comparing characteristics of artworks with a fun Star Wars parody painting-- they loooove it.

5th- Just finishing up our Space Scenes! They look phenomenal and the students really enjoyed having this art connection to what they are learning in Science right now! Our next project will be Personal Pop Art, in which students choose an everyday object to represent someone who is special to them and draw it with texture and value.