Hello and Happy New Year!
Before we jump into the next month of learning and growing in the art room, let's take a look back at some great moments during November and December!
In Art Club... We continued to work on our stained glass creations! We are getting better at cutting and breaking the glass, but are realizing some of our designs were a bit too ambitious with the shapes and numbers of pieces. Despite some challenges and slower progress than we would like, the students are loving the process and unique art medium. They are realizing that in art making the PROCESS is as important (if not MORE important) than the final product. That couldn't be more true of many of the things we are experiencing in Art Club this year. Since the students are being introduced to many new art forms, they are learning to appreciate it for what it is, even if that means they aren't experts!
Speaking of NEW and EXCITING art forms, the Art Club students got to learn the art of cookie decorating during our last Art Club meeting of 2024! We were SUPER grateful to have Maggie Schiel come and teach us the fun "wet in wet" technique. Students were able to enjoy a presentation and demonstration by Maggie and then eagerly gave the techniques a try! The best part of course is they were able to go home with edible art pieces for loved ones to enjoy.
Maggie runs her own baking business called Blissful Bites. She is a multi talented individual having worked a variety of jobs such as middle school German teacher, Costco cake decorator, and most recently Family and Consumer Ed teacher at CHS. If you wish to check out her incredible and edible works of art, check out her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/desserts.by.mags/
In kindergarten... our youngest artists nearly finished their "Catching Snowflakes" projects! This adorable project involves a great variety of art making techniques and concepts. Most recently, the students learned a little bit of the science behind the six pointed works of art that fall during wintertime. They then had the fun task of making their own snowflakes by printing with found objects, white paint, and shimmery glitter :) Soon we will be completing the wintery self portraits by adding a pom pom onto our hats.
Following our "Catching Snowflakes" projects, the students will be starting to make Clay Cupcakes! We will get familiar with some methods of forming and shaping clay by warming up with some playdough. We can't wait to show you more in the next art blog update!
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| Painting our blustery winter night skies! |
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| Making our matching mittens that show a variety of line designs and symmetry! |
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| Painting our sets of mittens, hats, and sleeves. |
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| Gluing our items onto our backgrounds! |
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| Adding the face and tongue to catch the (future) snowflakes! |
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| Saved the best and messiest part for last... found objects snowflake printing! |
In first grade... we had fun finishing our Scarecrows! The students quickly got a hang of how to make clothing and added features using wallpaper and scrapbooking paper. The variety of patterns and colors allowed the little designers endless options as they gave their scarecrows one of a kind personalities.
Following the Scarecrow projects we enjoyed reading the book "Snowmen at Night" which gave us great inspiration for our next two part project, "Snowmen Drawings" using oil pastels on black paper, and soon... "Clay Snowmen" for our first grade clay project! Just as the kinder students will be doing as a warm up for their clay project, the first graders will also be practicing with playdough to review methods such as forming pinch pots, coils, and more. This year, they will need to make THREE pinch pots for their clay snow people!
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| Stacked turkey folding surprise! Mrs. Carpenter's class. |
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| Stacked turkey folding surprise! Mrs. Speath's class. |
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| Making clothes and accessories for our Scarecrows! |
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| Frame worthy artwork by our talented first graders! |
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| Some Snowmen drawings from our one day drawing lesson. Pictured is Mrs. Staffaroni's first grade class :) |
In second grade... the art room was turned into a printmaking factory! Each artist needed to make four quality prints in different colors for their Pop Art themed paint palettes. This artwork will serve as a background for their final artwork "Pop Art Paints & Palettes." The "paints" will be paper mache sculptures made from empty toilet paper rolls. The students have already made the "armatures" which is the underneath structure that will give their sculpture form and structural support. We achieved this by folding, cutting, shaping, and taping the cardboard tubes.
When we return from winter break we will need to PAUSE our paper mache project so we can shift gears and work on a special project for the students' upcoming musical! The kids are going to LOVE the NEW project that will involve batik, tie dye, and paper sculptures. Can't wait to see our kids transformed into undersea creatures!
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| Turkey stack folding surprise from Ms. Miller's 2nd grade class. Many classes enjoyed a brief Thanksgiving themed how to draw video as we headed into break. |
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| This second grade class (Abrahamson) enjoyed making turkeys in disguise! So fun and creative :) |
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| More turkeys in disguise from Mrs. Huber's class! |
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| Printmaking! |
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| Fun and addicting! Print, wash, dry, repeat! |
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| 4 prints X three 2nd grade classes = lots of prints! Did our best to keep it all organized! |
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| We arranged and carefully glued our prints into the background paper. We then signed, titled, and dated the artwork. |
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| The beginning of our paint tubes! |
In third grade... students reached the half way point of their "Holiday Lights Watercolor Paintings!" They created multiple areas of overlapping that they will later use as areas of color mixing. The primary goal of the project is for the students to hand mix the secondary and tertiary colors on the color wheel to better understand color theory. The added challenge will be controlling the watercolor paints that often like to "explode" when two wet areas run into each other. The students have done a fabulous job on the artworks thus far, especially making the bases look shiny with their use of colored pencil and value!
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| The 3rd grade artists LOVE Free Choice Art and were especially excited for the chance to create some festive themed art before break as a class reward :) |
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| Such a unique variety of creations! |
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| A preview of the "Holiday Lights Watercolor Painting." Our sweet friend and classmate worked ahead to complete the project in anticipation of her moving to another school. She did a beautiful job! |
In fourth Grade... the artists are PUMPED UP to be making "Sewn Stuffie Keychains!" It warmed my heart and got me even more excited to teach the project after it being so well received. It has been so fun to see the kids come up with some creative ideas for their stuffie theme and then turn that into a paper template. We are now in the process of dry felting on details to the base layer of felt. Once all of the details are added they will sew, stuff, and finish sewing their artwork that will be ready to hang onto the item of their choosing :)
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| Thanksgiving themed How to Draws followed by musical chairs art critique :) |
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| Thanksgiving themed Free Choice Art. These students had fun with some random materials like felt and tins. They had a vision and made it come to life :) |
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| Sewn Stuffie sketches! |
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| The students turned their sketches into patterns. They then traced their patterns onto their fabric to make two matching sides. |
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| Festive themed art creations for a one day lesson as we headed into winter break! |
In fifth grade... we are diving even deeper into our fibers unit by starting to design WEAVINGS! The students will be continuing to make handmade paper with 3-D letter impressions for their sketchbook covers while they are not working on their weavings. For the first time, the students will have a choice of what type of weaving they want to make, two woven coasters OR a woven wall hanging tapestry. When we return from winter break, the students will design their weavings by giving thought to the color scheme, shapes, textures, etc. Wish us luck (or better yet come in to volunteer if you can :) as we tackle this fun and challenging art unit!
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| 3D foam letters that will be pressed into our paper pulp. The designs needed to be made backwards so they would appear forwards when being pressed into the pulp (much like a print). |
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| Will it blend? A HUGE THANK YOU to some generous parents that donated Ninjas for our paper making unit. You are AMAZING and oh so appreciated :) |
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| Using our paper making kits to drain out the water of our pulp. |
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| Some Free Choice Art Time earned as a class reward :) |
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| More paper shredding and letter making |
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| Feeling the paper pulp is an experience for our senses and always entertaining! |
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| Check out the textures, shapes, and designs impressed into the handmade paper. SO COOL! |
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| Some fantastic festive creations were made in our last art classes before break :) |
