October-November Art Update!

Hello! A lot has happened inside and outside of the art room since the last update!

Here are a few highlights...

• Outside of the art room, the 5th grade Art & Music Field trips took place!
• At Westlawn, the beginning of the year Collaborative Puzzle Project got hung up! 
• Westlawn Art Club students are in the midst of learning stained glass! We are so fortunate to have some experts join us to assist in the exciting, yet challenging, art process. Students are creating either a stained glass sun catcher or ornament. We were hoping to have them done by winter break, but they may not be completed until after the New Year. We shall see!

5th Grade Art & Music Field Trip!

A highlight of the end of October was our 5th grade Art and Music Field Trips! The Art and Music teaching teams at each of the elementary schools took their 5th graders on a highly anticipated field trip to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and either the Milwaukee Art Museum (for Thorson and Parkview) or the Lynden Sculpture Garden (for Westlawn). At Westlawn, we alternate between the LSG and the MAM (Milwaukee Art Museum) to mix things up a bit. Each experience is enriching and inspiring since our students get to see professional works by the musicians and artists. We are all in awe when we experience the amazing sounds and sights produced by people that are not only good at their craft, but also exhibit such important characteristics that we hope our students will embody more and more over time. Many of them understand that it takes a lot of hard work, passion, failure, cooperation with others, and continually pursuing joy to make such dreams a reality and accomplish great things!

Enjoy looking through albums from each experience:

Westlawn Photo Album

Parkview

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Thorson Photo Album

Westlawn Collaborative Puzzle Project!

Art Club - Stained Glass Project!

Kindergarten artists just finished their Picasso Inspired Pumpkins! They enjoyed reading the book "When Pigasso Met Mootisse" as an introduction to the project. They learned all about Picasso's cubist art style and attempted to created pumpkin paintings in that fun and unusual art style of looking at an object from many angles. They had so much fun with the roll-a-Picasso game that helped them to draw facial features for their pumpkin. The students also learned how to make many different oranges and greens for painting their pumpkins. To finish our projects, the artists cut two layers of grass and added extra drawing to their backgrounds. They then signed their artwork like a true artist does :)

K-Fry practice Picasso portraits with the Roll-A-Picasso game :)

K-Sheppard practice Picasso portraits with the Roll-A-Picasso game :)

A fund Halloween How to Draw :)

Painting our pumpkins and adding the facial features!

Students had a blast experimenting with arranging the facial features in different places.

First grade artists completed their sketchbooks covers with their Matisse Style Monoprints! The students studied the artwork of Henri Matisse and learned that Matisse's style is considered Fauvism, which means "wild beasts." Due to his use of bold color in his artwork, some critics said his artwork looked like it was painted by a wild beast. We re-read the book from kindergarten, "When Pigasso Met Mootisse" to see the contrast between the two artists, this time looking more closely at Matisse's style of painting.

The students had a blast making the Monoprints by coloring tin foil with marker, spraying it with misty water, and pressing their sharpie drawings into the color. They are all so unique! They then made "cut-outs" like Matisse made later in his life after he was bound to a wheelchair and shifted his art making method to cutting out paper. They added their cut shapes to the corners of their sketchbooks covers.

The first grade artists are now learning about another artist, David Hockney, as they create colorful landscapes in his Pop Art style. The students enjoyed reading the book by Cassie Stephens, Larry the Line, and filled up their landscapes with many different lines and patterns. Later on, we will be adding Scarecrows to their artwork!

Matisse Monoprints!

Sketchbooks on display :)

Free Choice Art creations during a class reward. Once the students fill up their class palette they get to vote on a class reward. Free Choice Art is very popular!

More FCA creations! Some students figured out how to make their own sewing cards :)

David Hockney Inspired Landscapes!

Painting watercolor over oil pastel line designs.

Second grade artists completed their Op Art Hands for their sketchbooks cover designs! The art making process involved measuring with a ruler and drawing parallel lines, identifying pairs of complementary colors, creating a pattern of alternating colors, demonstrating a range of color intensity by using hard, medium, and light pressure with the crayon. The project was a little intimidating, but once the students understood the tricks to creating an optical illusion they got a hang of it and seemed to really enjoy the process. Many of them felt they met their goal of "tricking the viewers eyes" with their 3D hands!

Also pictured below you will see some sketchbook entries, including #3 on their checklist, "draw a tree house." 

The 2nd grade artists are now shifting from Op Art Hands to Pop Art Paint Tubes and Palettes! Stay tuned for more pictures of that for the next art update. The project is a favorite of mine as it involves so many art making processes, such as drawing, painting, printmaking, paper Mache sculpture, and air dry clay! PLEASE SEND IN EMPTY T.P. ROLLS FOR THE PROJECT! Thanks so much :)

Incredible tree house drawings in 2nd grade sketchbooks! They are seriously AH-MAZING! Mrs. Abrahamson's class is pictured.

More amazing tree house drawings by Mrs. Huber's class!

2nd grade Op Art sketchbook covers by Ms. Miller's class (the 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Miller ;)

Third grade artists did a fabulous job creating their "Design Your Own Alphabets." The students then took those letter designs and added their name and sketchbook to the front cover. The students also designed their own symmetrical frames with cutting paper (like a paper snowflake) and traced the outline. Inside of their frame, they will be filling it with Zentangle designs (a fun and relaxing form of doodling). 

The third grade artists also learned the drawing method called "contour line drawing." They practiced regular contour (the outer edge of an object), blind Contour (not being able to look at your paper the entire time you draw), and modified contour (looking back and forth between your paper and the subject you're drawing). The biggest challenge was not being able to pick up their drawing utensil the entire time they were drawing. The students soon began to realize how fun and freeing that style of drawing can be knowing that it wouldn't turn out perfect and can also be goofy and abstract. 

We will soon be headed into a color theory unit, with our first project being Holiday Lights Paintings!

Design Your Own Alphabets!

Sketchbook covers with the letter designs and frame borders complete.

Contour Line Drawings!

Some finished contour line portraits, including a portrait a student drew of me! :)

Fourth grade artists were given the theme of "street art" for their sketchbooks cover designs. They studied the artwork of Keith Haring and had their pictures taken doing two actions that represented their personality. The students did such an awesome job with this and it was so fun to see their individual personalities come out through the simple act of taking their picture. The pictures were then printed, blued, and bubble cut on colored construction paper to resemble Haring's figures in his art. For the sketchbook covers the students were instructed to add two figures, along with "lines of action." They also added their name and "sketchbook" in graffiti letters. 

The fourth grade artists are making a second art piece using their other two figures by gluing those down to a larger piece of paper. This time, they are adding a background with colorful construction paper. They are all so creative! I can't wait to see them all finished :)

Some sketchbook entries using our "golden checklist" of sketchbook inspiration.

Street Art Sketchbook Cover Designs

Their second piece of artwork with an added background!

I had to include some of their pictures that were taken to create their figures.
Here is 4-DeGarmo

Some actions in 4-Butzler

Some actions in 4-Ned

Fifth grade artists learned all about the Elements and Principles of Art during the month of October! They played games and learned some memorization tricks so that they would KNOW the 7 elements and 7 principles and be able to not only recognize them in a work of art, but apply them to their own works of art! This knowledge was put to the test when they enjoyed their 5th grade Art & Music field trip! Even at the symphony, the conductor named some of the elements and principles! The neat things about them is they are connected to both art AND music. In art, we can think of the elements like the INGREDIENTS of art. Absolutely no art would exist with out at least one of the elements. The principles are like the RECIPE... how the artists use the ingredients and puts them together. 

Following the field trip, the 5th grade artists took part in a two day art challenge called "Think Outside the Square! We read a book called "Perfect Square" as inspiration. The book showed how an ordinary square could be changed and transformed into something new. The students then selected ONE square (any color they wanted) and were asked to transform it into something new. As you can imagine, the creations were very diverse and the students enjoyed the challenge of having to think "outside the square."

Following the creation of their art, the fifth graders wrote an artist statement about their creation, creatively and thoughtfully mounted their artwork on other paper to serve as a "frame," and participated in a "musical chairs art critique" with their peers!

Elements and Principles Art Games!

The students were taught an acronym and a mnemonic device to help them memorize the vocabulary words. 

Thorson and Parkview students learned about Santiago Calatrava (architect of the Milwaukee Art Museum) and designed their own architecture inspired by him!

Think Outside the Square Art Challenge!

Artwork with their Artist Statements