October Art Update

Hello and thank you for stopping by the Westlawn Art Blog!

Since the last art update, I shared some exciting news with Westlawn students! I told them that something exciting is happening this April, and then had them guess which one is true... Construction is starting on the new art room! (false), Mrs. Ramos is going to travel to space! (false) OR... Mrs. Miller is going to have a baby, making her daughter Naomi a big sister (TRUE)! Naomi, my husband, and I are very excited to add to our family. I am grateful to have the majority of the school year with the students and will do my very best to find a long term sub that will do a good job filling my place. I am also very grateful that the timing will allow me to be back at the start of next school year when I have a brand new art room. I am SO excited!!!

Naomi sharing the exciting news! :)

Westlawn artists have enjoyed creating and learning in the art room this past month. All of the students designed sketchbooks and 2nd-5th grade make them from scratch using paper grocery bags generously donated by Piggly Wiggly! Take a look below to see what each grade has been up to!

Kindergarten artists designed their Sketchbooks during the month of October AND created adorable Picasso Inspired Pumpkins! The sketchbook covers required each student to draw a self portrait, write their name, and color in the empty spaces of the letters and picture frame. The students will use the sketchbooks throughout the year for a variety of reasons, but the primary goal is for students to GROW in their drawing abilities and ENJOY sketching! 

Following the sketchbooks, the students read the book, "When Pigasso Met Mootisse" as a fun introduction to their Picasso Pumpkin project. The colorful and comical book was based on famous artists Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. The two artists became rivals and mid way through the book an epic battle took place. Eventually, the artists learned to appreciate each others differences, including their different art styles. The students studied Picasso's style of "cubism" and enjoyed playing a drawing-dice game called "Roll a Picasso!" The game helped the students to better understand Picasso's style, work on their observational drawing, AND work on their direction following and cooperation. The students then made their final artwork by mixing and painting a variety of oranges and greens for their pumpkin. They then drew, cut, colored, arranged, and glued on the facial features to resemble the cubist style. Lastly, the students added oil pastel to the pumpkin to make it look more 3-D. I just LOVE the personalities of each pumpkin!

Picasso Pumpkins featuring Mrs. Sheppard's Kindergarten Class

First grade artists designed sketchbooks like they made last year, and will use them all school year in a variety of ways. The students once again drew a self portrait on the front cover and made it colorful and complete. It is so neat to see how the students grow in their self portrait drawings from year to year!

The first graders then read the same book that kindergarten did ("When Pigasso Met Mootisse") but, instead of focusing on Picasso, the students studied Matisse and his style of painting. The students will take what they learned about Matisse and use it to make Matisse Inspired Mobiles! The students have already worked hard painting painting BOTH sides of a large grid of paper. They enjoyed making many of the colors themselves to create variety in their mobiles. They then practiced drawing shapes like Matisse in their sketchbooks and are now drawing the shapes onto their painted grid. Next, the students will be cutting out their shapes, adding details with oil pastels and colored pencil, and then constructing a mobile!

Second grade artists also have been making sketchbooks, and now that they are in second grade they make them from scratch! The students learn how to transform a Piggly Wiggly paper bag into a sketchbook with handles! The sketchbooks also have a pocket made by the students and a "golden checklist" that provides the students with over 20 drawing prompts! The sketchbook cover design is unique to each grade level and second grade's theme is cursive. The students spent 3 art classes learning how to write their name and the word "sketchbook" in cursive. They began by tracing the letters, then moved on to copying the letters, and ended by drawing the letters on their own. Although the task was challenging and the students only got an introduction to the style of lettering, it taught them patience, perseverance, and grit. Learning to write their names in cursive was essentially observational drawing, which all of the students know how to do. 

The artists also designed and cut a picture frame to go on their cover by folding a paper in half and cutting out a variety of shapes for an interesting border. They were able to paint the frame as they pleased and once the frames dried, they glued them down. Lastly, the students drew and colored self portraits to complete their sketchbook covers. They learned the basics of portrait drawing, but had the freedom to draw themselves how they wanted as long as it had a resemblance to them. 

Third grade artists are in the midst of creating their fantastic sketchbooks, which will come in handy all school year, and beyond! I tell the students that it is important to make a quality sketchbook that will last, because someday they can pull it out and show their kids and grandkids their sketchbook from elementary school. How cool would that be?! I would have loved to see my parents' or grandparents' sketchbook from elementary school!

After creating the outer body of the sketchbook with gluing and folding techniques, the students created their one of a kind picture frames and self portraits. It is so fun to see how the self portraits progress and change from year to year as the students move through the grades. The third graders are now having fun designing their own alphabet using a variety of fonts! The alphabets are made up of both letters that are imagined by the students and letters that are drawn from observation or memory. The creativity is already starting to come out as the students are having fun designing their letters. Once the alphabets are complete, the students will use the letters to add their name and the word "sketchbook" to the front cover.

Fourth grade artists just completed their hand crafted sketchbooks with the theme "doodling!" After creating the outer body of the sketchbooks, the students designed their own picture frames using sketching and cutting techniques to make an interesting symmetrical design. They then used metallic paints to add color and glued on the frames once they were dry. The artists then drew a self portrait and either colored it using colored pencils or painted it using watercolor or tempera paints. Some of the most creative self portraits came from 4th grade this year. The kids are full of creative ideas and artistic talent! The letters on the cover were added with magazines, and last (but NOT least) was doodling with sharpies! I love that the use of sharpies allowed the kids to be free with their drawings and the doodling allowed them to draw whatever they wanted. Now that the sketchbooks are complete, we are moving on to Georgia O'Keefe Inspired Paintings!

Fifth grade artists began creating their Sketchbooks, and are now in the process of making handmade paper which will be used for both their sketchbook covers and their Element and Principle Accordion Book covers! Since the students make paper in groups of eight at a time, when they are not making paper, they have been playing Element and Principle games! The students took a pre-assessment on the Elements and Principles to see how much they knew (which not surprisingly was very little) SO... we are making it a goal to memorize the 14 art words AND be able to use them when we talk about art. In the midst of the paper making and Element and Principle studying, the students enjoyed fall/Halloween drawing videos on "Art for Kids Hub." The students had a chance to choose a video and follow along with their Chromebooks and ear phones. The drawings turned out fantastic and were so much fun for the students!

Well, that's all for now. See you for the next art blog update at the beginning of December!