October & November Art Update!

Hello art students and families!

I hope you all are well! My apologies, it was my intention to send out an art blog update before I went on maternity leave, but understandably I got really busy as it got closer to my due date. So better late than never I guess! We welcomed our daughter, Maia Eden, on November 3rd! Her two older siblings were especially excited to meet her and we've all been adjusting well to life as a family of five. Baby snuggles during the holidays are the best! 

Speaking of holidays, I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and have more to look forward to as we approach more holiday celebrations! I sure miss seeing the students and hope they all are well. 

If you have not met Noora Badeen, she is filling in as your child's art teacher while I am away. I am so grateful to have found a long term sub that is both a skilled artist and gifted teacher. She is a genuinely kind person and is eager to care for the students and support them in their artistic growth. Thank you Noora!

Here is a bit about Noora...

Noora Badeen Assyrian Artist born in Baghdad Iraq moved to Chicago IL in 2012. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020. She has had several exhibitions here in Chicago “Voice of Race” was awarded first place at Oakton Community College 2015. Another show in Iraq called “Women for Women International” received a special recognition from the Women for Women International Organization, Washington, District of Columbia. Several of her paintings are permanently on display at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2018-present. In 2021, she won in a ”Competition & Exhibition" with Contemporary Art Gallery Online for their International Call for Artists in their 7th Annual 2021 “ALL Women Artist". She lives in Saukville Wisconsin with her husband. 

In this art update I am going to primarily describe what the students did during the month of October, but will also touch on their focus from the month of November. Since I have been gone, I don't have pictures from the month of November so will just share an explanation.

Westlawn 5th graders also enjoyed their Art and Music field trip to the Symphony Orchestra and Lynden Sculpture Garden so be sure to check out the photo album at the end of this post under the 5th grade update!

Kindergarten artists finished up their adorable and oh so fun Picasso Style Pumpkins! The students chose a pumpkin template and then gave it more cubist qualities by mixing and painting many tints and shades of green for the stem and tint and shades of orange for the skin. It was so fun to watch the young artists make new discoveries with their color mixing as they learned to make art like Picasso.

The fun continued as the students made facial features for their pumpkin with a "Roll a Picasso" dice game! Afterwards they were able to cut, arrange, and glue the features on to make an expression they liked. To complete the project, the students made fringe cuts in green paper for grass!

In between projects the students had time to create some additional artworks including how to draw folding surprises, and sketchbook entries! With every artwork we create, big or small, the students bring such excitement and enjoyment to what they're making. They are so fun to teach!

Mrs. Badeen is now helping the students to create their current project Shape Robots! The students practiced identifying a variety of shapes using a fun robot coloring sheet. They are now creating the background for the robot project by using wooden gears to create texture rubbings on white paper. They will paint over the crayon rubbings with watercolor to create a colorful resist. The one of a kind robot the students create will go on top. The students will use a variety of shapes and materials to make their robot including cardboard, tin foil, foam, and more! I can't wait to see the students' creative minds in action as they create their robot masterpieces!

Adding oil pastel to our pumpkins..

Mixing up and painting many as many different oranges as one can create!

Coming along nicely kindergarten artists!

Monster drawing folding surprise!

Roll-A-Picasso!

First grade artists completed their Scarecrow With David Hockney Inspired Landscape! I enjoyed teaching the students about artist David Hockney and seeing their landscapes develop before starting my maternity leave. The students had so much fun creating landscapes with a variety of line designs and bold colors inspired by Hockney's Pop Art Style! This is the first year I incorporated that fun twist into the landscape and it appeared that the students enjoyed it too! 

After creating the watercolor resist background using oil pastels and liquid watercolors, the students then started to make their scarecrows with the help of Mrs. Badeen! I would imagine that the students had lots of fun making their one of a kind scarecrow using wallpaper samples for the clothing! The art making process is much like creating a paper doll. The students even added a facial expression that they thought would fit the scarecrows personality.

Following the Scarecrow and landscape project, the first grade artists are now studying artist, Henri Matisse! They read the Book "Painting With Scissors" to learn about Matisse and his unique art making process. They will now be creating Matisse Inspired Mobiles with Mrs. Badeen! I can't wait to see how the students are enjoying the 3D form of art making and what they are learning along the way! 

Making David Hockney inspired landscapes for our Scarecrow backgrounds!

Painting bright bold watercolors over super fun line designs to give the landscapes a Pop Art style.

Second grade artists worked hard on their Kente Cloth Inspired Paper Weavings during the months of October and November! This project is a favorite of mine, especially since it connects to the African culture that the students study in 2nd grade! The students read the book "The Spider Weaver: Legend of Kente Cloth" and learned where Kente Cloth originated (the Ashanti people of Ghana, Africa). 

The complex project teaches the students basic weaving techniques using a color scheme selected by the student. The students then play a dice game in order to practice drawing designs that can be seen in Kente cloth. The students LOVED this art lesson and enjoyed the surprise of what design they would roll. Once the students became familiar with the designs they selected their favorite to add to the Kente Cloth using permanent markers. This part is by far the most time consuming and requires a great deal of patience and focus to create a pattern of designs. Following the drawing step, the students added yarn to add a tactile component to their cloth, so the artwork has both visual and real texture. As your child what they learned during the weaving project. What part did they enjoy most? What part was the most challenging?

The second grade artists are now moving onto a NEW project, Mixed Media Ocean Mosaics inspired by artist Mary Wells! This will be another project that connects to a unit the students study in 2nd grade... oceans! I can't wait to see what ocean animals the students choose and how they grow as artists during the making of their next project! 

2nd grade artists enjoying a dice game to practice drawing Kente cloth designs!

A fun Halloween skeleton folding surprise :)

Paper weaving practice! SO fun! :)

Third grade artists completed their Creative Color Wheels, one of my personal favorite projects! The project is a nice blend between practicing technical art making skills like color mixing, while also allowing for creative freedom to choose a personalized theme for their color wheel! 

The students completed a color theory art sheet which taught them a great deal about color. They then demonstrated quality painting by filling a grid with primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. They learned that the primary colors cannot be made using other colors, but the secondary and tertiary colors can, They were given the challenge of hand mixing all six tertiary colors until they matched the color wheel. Like a chef learns to balance ingredients until their food tastes just right, the 3rd grade artists learned to balance the mixture of the secondary colors until it made just the right tertiary color.

Mrs. Badeen walked the students through how to assemble the color wheel using their hand cut images. The students selected their theme and then I found a silhouette they could work from. Some images were more challenging than others, so to simplify and quicken the cutting process, students could stack 3 squares of their painted paper to cut them out at the same time. I can't wait to see the finished color wheels!

The 3rd grade artists are now beginning a NEW project, Holiday Lights Watercolor Paintings! Be sure to ask your young artist what they are learning and what they are enjoying most. This project will once again allow for opportunities to color mix, but with a new medium, watercolor paint! Compared to acrylic paint, watercolor is more challenging in some ways because a color cannot be fixed by painting over it. We will see how the students adapt to the unique characteristics of the watercolors!

Some awesome sketchbook entries for the sketchbook inspiration checklist! Top left picture is a blind contour line portrait Evonne drew of Owen :)

Learning all about color with our color theory art sheets!

Painting our color grids in preparation for our Creative Color Wheels!

So colorful! Great job 3rd grade artists!

Fourth grade artists recently completed their Georgia O'Keeffe Inspired Landscape Paintings! The students enjoyed learning about O'Keeffe, including where she grew up (Sun Prairie, WI), and her journey to becoming an artist. They learned that she was the called the "Mother of American Modernism" and created art that was a blend between realism and abstract art. She was best known for painting scenes from nature such as landscapes, skulls, and flowers. The landscape the students studied was called, "Lake George." The artists grew in their painting skills by painting soft blended colors using art tools like sponges and brushes. They also learned how to show value in a landscape by adding white to make a tint and black to make a shade. 

The knowledge of landscapes will prepare the 4th grade artists for their next project which is a 3 part landscape project in which they get to choose their OWN image to work from! The students will be creating Low Relief Landscapes using cardboard and a variety of other materials that can be cut and layered. It is a complex process that Mrs. Badeen will walk them through in the coming month. Once the low relief sculpture is created the students will be able to make two additional projects using the first. They will make a texture rubbing using crayon, and also a monoprint using paint. To finish the art unit, the artists will paint the low relief sculpture using a range of values using one hue of their choice. I can't wait to see how they grow as artists during the challenging and fun art unit!

4th graders enjoying some sketchbook entries and adding more handmade
 stickers to their "Suitcase Sketchbooks!"

Sketching out our landscapes!

Adding in the base layer of color for our landscapes.

Mixing and adding tints and shades to the water and soft clouds to the sky.

Thorson 4th grade artists painting their masterpieces :)

Fifth grade artists were introduced to the Elements and Principles of Art during the month of October. They watched videos about the E&P's, completed vocab sheets, and enjoyed playing games with classmates in order to commit the vocab words to memory and understand the characteristics of each. These elements and principles will be tied into a sculpture project that Mrs. Badeen is teaching the students! They are currently working on that sculpture project. Ask them how it is going!

5th grade artists also utilized their sketchbooks during the month of October by enjoying their first sketchbook entries. Thorson 5th grade students completed a special sketchbook activity in which they designed their own motorcycles in preparation for going to the Harley Davidson as part of their 5th grade Art and Music Field Trip. While participating in the design activity they also watched a video about the history of the Harley Davidson Museum. It was fascinating to see how the design and engineering of the motorcycle has changed overtime and how it has had an impact on the motorcycling community as well as our very own city of Milwaukee. 

As the students neared Veteran's Day all of the 5th graders created a small and super fun art project, Patriotic Pinwheels. These were designed by adding stars and stripes on one side with crayon and paint. The opposite side was created with two types of marble art. One is a marbling technique that involves swirling paint in shaving cream and pressing the paper into it to make a print. The other technique was actual marble painting with paint covered marbles that can be swirled around to make designs.

5th grade artists enjoying some sketchbook entries of their choice!

Awesome sketchbooks and sketches from Thorson 5th grade artists!

Motorcycle designs in preparation for the Thorson 5th grade Art and Music Field Trip!

Playing some fun and competitive Elements and Principles art games!

Westlawn 5th graders playing art games to learn the Elements and Principles in preparation for their field trip and sculpture project!

Tie dyeing the back of the Patriotic Pinwheels with shaving cream and paint! Oh so fun and smelly! Many loved the smell ;)

Awesome and functional Patriotic Pinwheels used by Westlawn 5th grade artists :)

Westlawn 5th grade students had a blast on their Art and Music Field Trip at the end of October. Thank you SO much to the Westlawn PTO for graciously paying for some of the field trip cost making it more affordable for all families. They rock! Check out the photo album from the Lynden Sculpture Garden HERE!