3rd year's the charm! Aug. 17th- Sept. 1st

Just now getting back into the swing of things here in the Langston Art Room! Here's what we've been up to...

Kdg: Kinders are learning about the Art room, and the supplies we will use to make art this year. We are diving right in with learning about LINES. The students are painting curly, straight, castle, wavy, zig zag, and other lines in black. Now we will be learning about ROY G BIV, the colorful elf that lives at the end of the rainbow. ROY G BIV helps up remember the sequence of colors in the rainbow.

1st: First grade is reviewing lines, shapes, and patterns through our Pattern Name Projects. We're also reviewing how to treat our brushes like "ballerinas" and paint on our tip toes!

2nd: Second grade has been learning how to write in block and bubble lettering! This was challenging for most, but they rocked it. After writing their names in block or bubble, students added patterns inside the letters.

3rd: Third grade has been busy learning about Henri Matisse and how he "paints" with scissors in his collages. We're making Name Collages using positive space, negative space, organic shapes, and geometric shapes. LOVING these. 

4th: Fourth grade is creating Value Crayon Collaboratives. Students work as groups to organize huge crayons across their group of papers, then using chalk pastels to add value (lightness and darkness of a color). 

Here's what the finished product will look like!

5th: Fifth graders are making Radial Symmetry Paper Sculptures using two types of folds-- triangle and fold. These folded papers are then arranged into a radially symmetrical design. Can't wait to see these hung up in the hall!

Little lilypad.

Color combo is on point. 

Love the high-relief of some of these sculptures!

3/7-3/11

K- Kinders have finished their Overlapping/Contour Line Collages and are now working on their Assemblage Self-Portraits. Hanoch Piven is our artist inspiration for this project. He is an Israeli artist that uses found objects to create portraits. We used various objects around the art room to create self-portraits. It's fascinating how some of these actually look like the student!

1st- First graders are finishing their Poppies in Perspective, in which they learned about Perspective in art. They were also introduced to foreground, middle ground, and background. We also practiced using shades and layering to create more depth. Now we're moving onto Gumball Machine Collages!

2nd- After learning about positive and negative space in Art, 2nd graders created a warm or cool colored tie-dye background using markers and then a design on black paper. The students traced and cut out their hands, then glued the negative space of the design on one side, their hand on the other to create a graphic example of positive and negative space.

3rd- Third graders are finishing their lesson about Aborginal dot painting. The students have each created a Dreamtime story using symbols. Students hid their dreamtime story symbols within their dot paintings like the aboriginals. This project involved hard work from the students, but the work paid off-- these are gorgeous!

4th- Fourth graders are learning about the artist Kimmy Cantrell. Cantrell is an African American sculptor that creates ceramic masks in Cubism style, which students became familiar with in 3rd grade. They have been practicing the 3Ss of ceramics (slip, score, smooth). Next week, we will finish building and hopefully have them fired to add color with oil pastels and tempera paint.

5th- Fifth graders are making fantasy exploration maps. The students learned about the artist, Allison Murray Whittingston, and the maps she creates using pen and ink. These maps show so much of the students' creativity and personality.

Feb. 8th-12th

Check out what all our Langston Artists are creating!

Kdg.- Kinders are painting their Functional Art Clay Magnets. They're using oil pastels and tempera paint to show the great textures their shoes created.

The Kinders are geniuses when it comes to identifying Art for Art's Sake and Functional Art. Please, quiz them.

"It's Art for Art's Sake still because you
haven't glued the magnets on!"- Kinder

1st- Crayon-resist heart paintings

2nd- Using their new understanding of warm and cool colors, 2nd graders are creating abstract paintings inspired by Alma Woodsey Thomas, a female African-American painter. As students finish, they have been creating Collaborative Collages with their classmates. It's funny to see how students handle teamwork on their own. You can definitely tell who the drill sergeants leaders are!

3rd- Aboriginal Dot Art

Third graders are learning about the Aboriginal Australians and their dot art. Dot art is used to disguise secret stories and symbols belonging to the Aboriginals. Students are using symbols to create their own Dreamtime story (the equivalent of a fable) to hide in their dot paintings. Next week, we'll begin painting dots and using our hands to create stencils-- much like the aboriginals do. Pictures to come!

Aboriginal Dot Art

4th- Gee's Bend Paper Quilts

Fourth graders are exploring the quilting traditions of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Gee's Bend is a primarily African American community that has a unique style of quilting. We are designing our own paper quilts using photos from Nat. Geographic as a "patterned fabric". The students are really using their knowledge of color harmonies for this project.

Quilts from Gee's Bend, AL

5th- Finished Personal Pop Art, moving onto Japanese Notans.

Most students have finished their Personal Pop Art and we are moving onto Japanese Notans! Notan is a paper cutting art form using positive and negative space. Some students are using heart shapes for V-day, some wanted to use shapes of their own choosing. This is a challenging process to understand initially, but as they work I hear kids say, "OH NOW I GET IT!"

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.