The Kindergartners are working on their color theory unit.  Ask your Kindergartner what the primary colors are and how to make orange, green, and purple.  The students are making cityscapes based on pictures we looked at of New York (AM) or Chicago (PM).  The 1st graders and Mrs. Henk’s class just finished their desert landscapes with an emphasis on drawing texture.  They are now continuing texture with a polar bear project.  Ms. Sotelo’s class is continuing work on their desert landscapes.  The second graders are recreating Mt. Rushmore.  They learned about the making of the sculpture and where it can be found.  Do you know where it is located?  Ask a second grader! They also sketched each of the four presidents.  Next they will put the four faces together and create the texture of the rocks around the monument.  The third graders are finishing a snowflake project with and emphasis on radial symmetry.  They will next move into a guitar design, emphasizing symmetry and balance.

We have been very busy in the art room despite the crazy weather.  Kindergartners made snowmen!  Theirs were made from paper balls instead of snowballs.  We discussed the term sculpture and details that could be added to make the stack of paper balls look like a snowman.  The kindergartners also started their painting unit.  They are making cityscapes and will be learning about the primary and secondary colors.  First graders and Mrs. Henk’s class learned about American artist Jim Dine and his heart paintings.  They drew hearts in either all warm or all cool colors and then stamped some larger hearts with paint.  The first graders and Mrs. Henk’s class are now creating desert landscapes after looking at the Painted Desert of Arizona.  They are practicing making different textures.  Second grade and Ms. Sotelo’s class is finishing warm or cool colored landscapes after looking at pictures of the Smoky Mountains.  The students learned what a landscape is and what the different parts of the landscape are called.  They will move on to a Mt. Rushmore project next.  The third graders took their mid-year assessment in the art room.  I am looking to see improvement from all students as compared to our pre-test in August.  We will take the second half of the assessment in late April or early May.  The third graders took a long time, but finally finished their USA maps filled with Zentangles® designs.  They look great!  They are now moving on to radial symmetry with a snowflake design.  Maybe these will be the last snowflakes we see for the season!

All students just finished glazing their clay projects.  Kindergarteners learn the basics of applying the glaze while the rest of the students learned about using different color schemes on their projects.  Ask your student which color scheme he or she used on the clay project.  Kindergarteners also practiced making patterns over the past several weeks.

Did your first, second or third grader come home talking about Zentangles®?  The Zentangle method is a type of doodling.  We began by watching some YouTube videos showing someone “tangling”.  We then learned some different designs with names like “rain”, “beelight”, “diagonals”, and “pillows”.  The students learned six different designs for their grade level in December.  Now they are using these designs plus ones that they have created to make a finished project.  The first graders are making a square design, the second graders are making a circle design and the third graders are using the designs to fill in a USA map.  The third graders are illustrating the principle of repetition by repeating their designs in different states across the map.  Watch for these projects to be displayed very soon in the hallways of Hilltop.

The students spent a couple of weeks working on their clay projects in November.  One week was spent seeing a demonstration and practicing some of the steps with Play-Doh.  The second week was spent creating their projects with clay.  The Kindergarteners created pinch pots.  They learned about a potter named Juan Quezada by hearing a book called The Pot That Juan Built.  The students used various caps and lids to press patterns into the sides of their pinch pots.  First Graders, Mrs. Henk’s class, and Ms. Sotelo’s class created clay owls after discussing the characteristics of owls.  They learned how to make a slab with a rolling pin and how to attach two pieces of clay together.  Second Graders learned how to make coil pots with leaf designs using a paper bowl as a mold.  They had to roll the coils evenly and needed to attach handles with the score and slip method.  Third Graders made clay fish using many of the skills they have learned for clay from Kindergarten through Second Grade.  The students had to make pinch pots, add parts to the fish with slabs and the score and slip method, and know how to attach two pieces of clay together.  All of the students will be anxiously waiting to glaze their clay projects.  We discussed how the projects are fired in the kiln after drying for several days.  They can’t wait to add color to their creations!

The Kindergarteners have practiced drawing and cutting out shapes with a “house” project.  We looked at illustrations in the book Ship Shapes by Blackstone.  The students have cut out and made houses with squares, rectangles and triangles.  To finish the projects we will be painting the sky and water with reflections of the houses.  The first graders are creating lighthouse sculptures after learning about lighthouses in a YouTube video.  Ask your first graders what a sculpture is.  The second graders, Mrs. Sotelo’s class and Mrs. Henk’s class are creating Native American weavings.  They should be able to tell you what over and under mean.  The second graders are now beginning Native American kachina doll sculptures.  The third graders are finishing up Winslow Homer-inspired seascapes.  Ask your third grader what foreground, middle ground, background and horizon line mean.  

Clay week is coming up soon!  You will hear all about it in the next newsletter.