Kindergarten students began the year by meeting the art teacher and drawing a picture of themselves. This drawing will be put into a book of self-portrait drawings that the students will do throughout the year. In first, second and third grades, we have begun the year discussing how our B rules look in the art room, drawing self portraits for our sketchbook covers, and beginning a mural project. We have reviewed lines and shapes that the students have learned in the past, and then we used them to create a design for a tongue depressor. The students are currently using Sharpie markers to finish their designs. All of the sticks will be put together to create a mural of all of our students ideas. Keep your eyes open for this mural in the front hallway! Kindergarteners will be creating sticks soon!
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Kindergarten is working on patterns for their “Me” book covers. We laid different colored caps on the rug in patterns and then moved on to drawing patterns and using cut out shapes to make patterns. First graders and Mrs. Henk’s class are finishing up their self-portraits with a spring background and yarn hair. They have been studying themselves carefully in mirrors. Second grade classes are finishing up their layered landscapes using space to fit all the parts together well. They have come up with some creative ways of finishing their landscapes. All third grade classes are at various stages of their self-portrait project. Some are adding color while others are drawing the parts of their faces. Our emphasis is detail and trying to notice all of the different parts that make up our own faces. We are also working on proportion, which involves comparing the sizes of the different parts of the face to make everything fit together correctly.
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.
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! I hope you all have a wonderful summer - please find some time to make some art! Each 1st-3rd grader brought home their sketchbooks. Please encourage your child to use the remaining pages for drawing. Each sketchbook should have a copy of "50 Summer Art Ideas for Kids" inside. I have also included a copy of this list below. I hope you are able to try some of the ideas during summer break!!
50 Summer Art Ideas for Kids
In Kindergarten we are finishing our self-portraits so we can put together our “ME” books. The first self-portrait was a pencil drawing. We really practiced the lines and shapes needed to make the eyes and the lips. The second self-portrait was a collage’. The PM kindergartners are still finishing the second one. We look forward to bringing these self-portraits home! In first grade, we have finished our self-portraits this week. Our last step was to add hair with yarn. We will do various small projects to end the year. We hope to do some sculptures. Second grade and Mrs. Patnaude’s class is finishing a “stuffed” fish project. We learned about the term 3-dimensional, or 3D, and created fish that have symmetry on both sides of their bodies. Mrs. Henk’s class has been working on frog projects. We learned about mixing different shades of green. Third grade is finishing a printmaking project. We learned about tools used for printmaking, including a brayer. After printing several leaves, we drew various insects in the spaces in between. We learned about variety and composition in art. All students will be doing some small projects with the short time we have left until the end of the school year.
In Kindergarten we completed our painting and color unit. We learned what the primary colors are – ask and see if we remember! We used the primary colors to make the secondary colors. Ask us how to make green, orange, and purple. We are moving in a self-portrait project now. In first grade, the students are drawing self-portraits by learning about drawing the different parts of the face. They are going to use colored pencils and colored paper to make a picture of themselves. Second grade is learning about making gesture drawings. Gesture drawing is drawing people showing action. They are quick drawings and do not look like the person that is being drawn – only their action or movement is shown. We are learning about an artist named Keith Haring who is known for the people he created. Mrs. Henk’s class learned about color and painting by making giant insect paintings. Look for these paintings at our Spring Showcase in April. Third grade and Mrs. Patnaude’s class are finishing the self-portraits based on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. We have made great improvements in our drawings of ourselves in comparison to the ones done at the beginning of the school year.
In Kindergarten we have finished our book covers and are moving into our painting/color unit. We worked on patterns and how to use colored pencils with the covers. Some of us even got to practice with colored pencils on a Valentine bear picture! We also glazed our pinch pots and can’t wait to see how they turn out. In first grade, the students are learning about chameleons. We have found out that they have lots of bright colors on their bodies, which is perfect for us to move into secondary colors and learning about the color wheel. We compared and contrasted a color wheel with a spectrum, and now we are coloring our chameleons with a variety of colors after adding a spectrum somewhere on the chameleon. Second grade and Mrs. Henk’s class are learning about landscapes by creating a penguin landscape. We have drawn penguins in different sizes, created icy backgrounds, and learned about space and proportion in the three parts of a landscape. Third grade and Mrs. Patnaude’s class are working on self-portraits based on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. We learned some interesting things about Leonardo; like how he wrote right to left and backwards. We are using his proportions to create our self-portraits with details.
Kindergarteners are learning about patterns. We practiced patterns with various plastic lids and by drawing them on paper with markers. We are now making a cover for our “Me” book with patterns around the edges. Mrs. McKay also took a photo of each of us for our books. Next, we will be glazing our pinch pots and creating a design on the letters of our books. In first, second and third grades, we reviewed color schemes that they have learned. This week we used that information to help us glaze our clay projects. We had to choose a color scheme and then choose colors from that color scheme to use on our projects. The students have done a great job of following the chosen color scheme and applying the glaze neatly. Mrs. Henk’s class worked on some Zentangle designs and glazed their penguin projects. First grade will be continuing with color projects, second grade and Mrs. Henk’s class will move into Zentangle designs and turtles, and third grade and Mrs. Patnaude’s class will be starting some self-portraits.
Now that we are finished making our clay projects, some of us are going back to some other projects we had been working on. Kindergarten has been talking about different celebrations. We talked about the details that help those that see our drawings know what we have drawn. We are coloring these drawings with markers, being careful to color neatly. In first grade and Mrs. Henk’s class we are finishing up some spider webs inspired by artist Piet Mondrian. He mainly worked with straight black lines and the primary colors, so we used the same theme for our spider webs. We did add a spider to our webs. In second grade and Mrs. Patnaude’s class we are finishing up some color scheme snakes. We are reviewing the primary and secondary colors, and we are working on complex pattern. The second graders were also introduced to the neutral color scheme. Third graders are also working on spider webs, however they are working with complementary color schemes and our focus is on shading and value of color.
In art we have been busy with many different projects. We have some in-progress things that we will be going back to in December. Our big news is that we have begun our clay unit. The students absolutely love these projects. Kindergarten has learned where clay comes from and they have made pinch pots. First graders are learning what a slab of clay is, and how to attach two pieces of clay together with the score and slip method. They are making clay owls with incised textures. Second grade is making symmetrical butterflies after reviewing how to make a slab, how to attach two pieces of clay together, and how to make their butterfly wings match with incised designs. Mrs. Henk’s and Mrs. Patnaude’s students are making penguin habitats. They are making slabs for the ice, and then using score and slip methods to attach penguin bodies, wings, beaks and feet together. Third grade clay is a culmination of all of these skills and using more independence. They are creating clay fish using two pinch pots, slab-made fins, incised designs, and details.
In Kindergarten we just finished our first multi-week project. We combined all that we had practiced with lines, shapes, cutting and gluing to create a giraffe. We had to make sure we showed all of the details of the giraffe to make it look like one! First graders are finishing an ocean drawing of fish and their surroundings. We had to color really heavy two different times on a piece of tagboard to create a scratchboard. After practice drawing detailed fish and plants, we scratched our drawings on the crayon. The black layer on top came off to show the colors underneath for the lines. We showed lots of contrast. Mrs. Henks’ class finished coral reef sculptures after looking at and drawing coral. We combined painting, drawing, cut paper and paper sculpture to create some cool reefs. Second graders and Mrs. Patnaude’s class are creating snake color schemes. We are learning about overlap by drawing two snakes overlapping each other. We are also practicing complex patterns for the designs on the back of the snakes. Our third graders just finished their molas and will be beginning a spider web project. You may see them practicing at home as they were having a lot of fun with this in class.
We are going “discover the animal kingdom” with our art projects this year at Hilltop. In Kindergarten we spent our first few art classes doing all sorts of things. We drew a self-portrait to save for a special “Me” book we will be working on throughout the year. We also did a line and shape survey which we will do again at the end of the school year to show you our progress. Currently, we are practicing different lines and shapes with our crayons. First graders began the year with a “mystery” drawing of a koala using simple lines and oval shapes. We learned about texture and created the fur texture and the bark texture for the tree the koala is climbing with a pencil. Mrs. Henks’ class created fish paintings using warm and cool colors. They showed repetition by repeating the same fish shape multiple times. Second graders and Mrs. Patnaude’s class are also working on repetition by creating a whirligig project – ask your 2nd grader what a whirligig is! The whirligigs repeat across the watercolor-painted paper and we then repeated circles around all of the whirligigs. Our third graders are working on a mola project. Molas are art made of many layers of fabric stitched together by the Kuna Indian women of Panama. We are using paper for our molas of birds. We will also be using repetition in our work by repeating a shape throughout the background and by making stitch lines with marker.
Kindergartners have put together their ME books and are excited to bring them home soon to share with you! First graders created bear drawings with pencil with an emphasis on texture. We created fur texture and tree bark texture. Mrs. Henk’s class is creating sculptures with various materials. The second graders and Ms. Swenson’s class finished their farm line repetition drawings. They are fabulous! They will be doing group sculptures, working on listening to each other and working as a group. The third graders are going to create sculptures using various materials. This type of sculpture is called “junk sculpture”.
This summer, spend some time creating art! Gather various materials in a bin—sidewalk chalk, watercolor paints or tempera paints, markers, crayons, paper, etc. If you are worried about the mess, have your child create outside! There are also places to visit that are art-related. How about taking a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago or the Milwaukee Art Museum?!?! You can visit Color Me Mine in Crystal Lake and paint ceramics. The Art Studio on Pearl Street in McHenry has various art classes for kids. Michael’s Arts and Crafts has summer classes for kids. Have a wonderful summer and I’m looking forward to hearing about all of the “artistic adventures” that our students had during summer break! Kindergartners are working on the last part of their ME books. They are creating self-portraits using collagematerials. They are coming up with creative ways of representing the parts of their faces with different materials like paper, buttons, yarn, wallpaper and foam shapes. We will then put our ME books together and bring them home to share with you. First graders are finishing their self-portraits. We mixed different shades of green to make our mountain backgrounds. We are adding hair with yarn after looking in a mirror to decide the best color and style. We will next be creating a desert landscape. Mrs. Henk’s class is working on self-portraits after creating a texture bear. We drew a bear and then added the texture for the bear’s fur. The second graders and Ms. Swenson’s class are finishing their symmetrical lizards with a complex pattern around the edge of the background paper. We will then begin a farm drawing using repeated lines. The third graders are finishing their value desert landscape. They will then create a small self-portrait to review the parts of the face. Their final art project at Hilltop will be a sculpture of some sort. I haven’t decided what yet!
Kindergartners have been working on two different projects. Our AM students have finished a self-portrait done in pencil. We learned how to draw the parts of our faces and look carefully at the details in mirrors. We then finished up our butterflies with our painting unit. Ask your kindergartner what the primary colors are! Our PM students did paintings of fish, and then worked on self-portraits. The toucans that the first graders and Mrs. Henk’s class created turned out fantastic! We are now working on reviewing how to draw the parts of our face in order to make self-portraits. We are learning how to draw more realistic noses and ears after learning last year how to draw more realistic eyes and lips. We will be creating a mountain landscape for the background of our self-portraits. The second graders and Ms. Swenson’s class are learning about symmetry. They are creating symmetrical lizards using a variety of materials. They began by printing stripes that are identical on a piece of construction paper. The students will then add their own designs. The third graders are working on a value project. They are learning about making different values of colors with a desert landscape as the theme. Either cacti or palm trees will be added to a warm or cool background.
Watch for our clay projects on display in our school display cases. The students did a great job with their glazing. Kindergartners created patterns to decorate the cover of our ME books. We are collecting pictures of ourselves throughout the year to put in this book. We were introduced to a new material – colored pencils! We are moving on to our painting and color unit. First graders and Mrs. Henk’s class are learning about the color wheel and the primary colors. Ask your student to tell you what the primary colors are! We are drawing toucans and we will then use what we know about the color wheel to color the beaks. Second graders are learning about space and the ways to show distance in a landscape. They are going to draw different sized penguins to show space. We are going to use some unusual watercolor techniques in order to create the sky and the ice in the picture. The third graders are still finishing their mountain Zentangles®. We are moving into a radial symmetry project next where we are going to create snowflakes.
Kindergartners learned about celebrations around the world. We talked about details in our artwork and then drew pictures of celebrations. We tried to include as many details as were needed to communicate which celebrations were in our pictures. We have also been practicing making patterns with shapes, lines, pictures, letters and numbers. First – Third graders have been working on a Zentangle® unit. Zentangles designs are a form of doodling and we have learned about them to give the students more ideas to use in their work. First graders used the designs they learned to decorate a leaf. The designs were drawn in the sections of the leaf between the veins, creating patterns. Second graders have used their Zentangle designs to decorate the shell of a sea turtle. We learned a lot about sea turtles, including how to draw them! Third graders are currently using Zentangles to create a mountain landscape. The students created very simple mountain drawings and are using the Zentangles to create the textures of the landscape. We looked at some pictures of Mt. Everest and Mt. McKinley and discussed what it would be like to climb these mountains. Next week, all classes will be glazing their clay projects.
All students completed their clay projects during the five school days before Thanksgiving. During the class period prior to making their projects, the students all viewed a demonstration of what we would be doing and then practiced some part of the project. Most classes practiced with Play-Doh, but some did their practicing with drawings in their sketchbooks. Kindergarten made pinch pots based on Native American pottery (desert). The students learned where clay comes from and what happens after we make our projects. They also created patterns on the outside of their pots. First graders traveled to the temperate forest and created owls with slabs of clay made with rolling pins. They used the score and slip method to attach the owl’s beak. Second graders and Ms. Swenson’s class traveled to the rainforests of South America and made slabs of clay into symmetrical butterflies. They also had to use the score and slip method to attach the butterfly’s three body parts. The third graders went to the ocean and created clay fish using many of the clay building methods learned over their years here at Hilltop. This third grade project always shows that they have learned a lot in art class. Mrs. Henk’s class created pinch pot bells with ocean drawings on them.
The AM Kindergarteners are finishing up a cut shape picture of a giraffe. We looked at the simple shapes and discussed what kind of details we needed to include. The PM Kindergarteners did a pencil drawing of a giraffe using simple lines and shapes. They also discussed what details were needed. First grade made some beautiful seahorse collage pictures based on illustrator Eric Carle’s work. We discussed warm and cool colors and created texture by sponge painting. We also looked for the simple shapes in the seahorse’s body. Second grade and Mrs. Henk’s class have finished a Native American paper weaving to be used as a place mat for the second grade feast later this month. They did a wonderful job showing pattern and showing the weaving technique! Third grade is working on a jungle animal project right now. They had to draw animal pictures to fill the space and are now using a color scheme to color the pictures with markers. They are using a technique to color called “line by line”.
All classes will take a break from the current projects and work on our annual clay projects between now and Thanksgiving break. The Kindergartners are working on their first project. We have spent a lot of time drawing different lines and shapes and cutting out shapes for practice. We are putting many of these lines and shapes together in a mountain landscape. We are going to move onto texture next by making an owl picture. First grade and Mrs. Henk’s class have just finished a still-life of a vase of sunflowers. We looked at Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting of sunflowers and then created our own. We practiced patterns, made a tablecloth weaving and painted sunflowers. We will be creating an ocean collage next using different colors of tissue paper. The second graders have created beautiful mountain landscapes using construction paper crayons. I hope you get a chance to see some of them when you are here for conferences later this month. Second grade and Mrs. Henk’s class are now looking at fall trees and learning how to draw trees with branches. We are also going to explore the primary colors. Ask your child if he or she knows what they are! Third grade is finishing up some beautiful prairie landscapes. You will want to frame this one when it comes home. Look for some of them hanging up for conferences. Third graders are going to be exploring the process of gelatin printing using the prairie plants and tree leaves. We are going to move into a jungle project where we will explore color next.
In Kindergarten we spent our first few art classes doing all sorts of things. We learned the “Bee” rules for art class. We drew a self-portrait to save for a special “Me” book we will be working on throughout the year. We also did a line and shape survey which we will do again at the end of the school year to show you our progress. To help us get better at drawing, we will be practicing those lines and shapes over the coming weeks. In first, second and third grade we began the year reviewing the “Bee” rules and making clay texture discs. Ask your child how he or she made texture using a gym shoe! We will be using these clay discs a couple of different ways in the coming weeks. We are going to travel through different habitats with our art projects this year. First graders and Mrs. Henk’s class are going to be using shapes to create sunflowers. We will be using our observation skills. Second graders and Ms. Swenson’s class have just begun a mountain project after looking a photos of different mountains around the world. We are practicing different types of lines and using a color scheme. We are also practicing our critiquing skills. Our third graders have taken or will be taking a pre-test of first through third grade concepts. We will take it again in two parts later in the year and hopefully everyone shows growth in all of these concepts. The third graders will be beginning a printmaking project using prairie plants.
The Kindergarten students have just finished a self portrait drawing done in pencil. The students worked very hard trying to make their faces look like themselves. We will be making collage self portraits next, and then we will be ready to put our ME books together. We can’t wait for you to see them! First graders have been working on sunflower paintings. The paintings are examples of still-life art. We looked at the shapes and tried to make ours look like the pictures we were looking at. The sunflowers are in a vase sitting on a table. We will be working on self-portraits next. 9Mrs. Henk and Ms. Sotelo’s students have been working on self portraits. We had to carefully look at our faces and draw what we saw. We also created backgrounds for our pictures. We will finish the year with sunflower paintings. The second graders learned about Rock Art—petroglyphs and pictographs found in several states in the Western U.S. They made their own on plaster covered cardboard. They made up their own symbols and gave them meanings. Ask your second grader the difference between a petroglyph and a pictograph! They will be doing a sculptural fish next. The third graders are creating symmetrical guitars after viewing a variety of guitar shapes. They are also incorporating complex pattern in this project. They will finish the year with a sculpture project.
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