Kindergarten finished up a painting unit this week. The students learned how to use a paintbrush, how to wash brushes between colors properly, and how to mix new colors from the primary colors. The AM students made butterflies and the PM students made fish. We spent a lot of time cutting the animal out, and then made a background to attach the animal to. First graders are working on self-portraits. We have practiced each part of the face and will be putting together what we have learned to make our own faces. Second grade has started a landscape project. We have practiced drawing landscapes from photos. We have also learned that a landscape includes a sky, horizon line, background, middle ground and foreground. Various colors of green papers have been printed with gadgets to show repetition. The papers will be used to create our own landscapes. Some third grade classes are working on a radial symmetry snowflake design. We practiced drawing snowflakes that have designs that repeat six times around the middle, and then printed a stencil snowflake on paper. We are now adding our own designs to them with a variety of materials. Other third grade classes are working on self-portraits. We have practiced the parts of the face and putting them together with the correct proportion. We will begin drawings of our own faces soon.
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Kindergarten classes have glazed their pinch pots and are eagerly waiting to see how they have turned out! We learned about applying the glaze correctly and how the pinch pot is put in the kiln again to melt the glaze, making it shiny and pretty. We also spent time learning how to use colored pencils on our ME book covers. First graders have learned about Mexican sun designs by making their own using only warm colors and by creating patterns as part of the sun face. Mrs. Henk’s class created sculptural trees from brown paper bags. They learned how to make a three-dimensional tree and added leaves and other details to the tree to make it a fall tree. Second graders have been learning about drawing people. They learned how to draw a person’s action or movement using a gesture drawing. These gesture drawings were fun because some of our classmates (and Mrs. McKay!) got to pose for us. We used these drawings to make figures to be part of an organic shape design. A lot of parts went into this art project! Third graders had a lot of fun finishing their symmetrical aliens and then moved into Zentangle® designs. These are designs that people can learn on-line and from books to use in their doodling. We have learned some more of these designs to add to our “idea toolboxes” to use in future projects.
Kindergarten classes have been exploring lines and shapes in art. We used different lines to create either stormy skies or sunsets with mountains. Now we are practicing different shapes and will be using those shapes to create a picture of buildings. First graders and Mrs. Henk’s class used simple lines and shapes to create drawings of koalas. They learned how to make furry textures with their pencils to fill in their drawings. Now we are just finishing dinosaur drawings where we became a little more independent with our drawings and then used a new art material to us – oil pastels. We love them! Second graders reviewed the primary and secondary colors with a fall tree painting. It was cool to see the colors mixing. We also learned how to make trees that look more realistic. Second graders have also created placemats using paper weaving techniques. We used Native American symbols to decorate the mats. Third graders studied the art element of value and the art principle of movement with a project where they drew rocks. Pencil was used to shade different areas of the drawing with different values of color. We are currently working on symmetrical balance with a space alien project.
We have started the year with a school—wide project. Students and staff are creating “dots”! We read the story called The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. It is the story of a girl named Vashti who is frustrated that she can’t draw. Her art teacher encourages her and she takes off, creating all sorts of different creative dots. The story ends with Vashti encouraging a little boy the same way her teacher did. “Make a mark and see where it takes you” is a quote from the story. So we have all made our own marks by creating wood circles with various designs. After Kindergarten finishes next week, I will put the circles together into a large mural. We will finish this school-wide project with a mural unveiling later this month. Watch for more information about that unveiling soon.
Kindergarten has also completed two different pre-assessments. These projects will come home at the end of the year with post-assessments and I hope you see a lot of growth in what your child can do! |
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November 2021
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