Sneak Peak!

Here is a sneak peak of two of the wonderful works of art available during the silent art auction at this year's Fine Arts Night.  Third grade used newspaper and acrylic paint to create city skylines.

Art Club Update

Another successful art club meeting yesterday.  Thank you to my wonderfully talented members.  We finished 5 canvases and they are ready for Fine Arts Night on May 30th for the silent art auction.  We also made this amazing giant paper flower.  The flower came out so nice that we are thinking about making more for Fine Arts Night.

Kindergarten: Zippy The Zebra

Meet Zippy the Zebra!

Day 1:  The students and I watched a YouTube video, "Zippy the Zebra."  Poor Zippy had many fleas and was very itchy, he could not get ride of them.  Then, Zippy walked by two birds in a tree that were very hungry.  The birds ate all of the fleas off Zippy.  Zippy felt better and the birds were not hungry anymore.  This is called symbiosis.  The students and I brainstormed other symbiotic relationships.

Symbiosis: Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical associations, typically to the advantage of both.

After, we talked about the black and white stripe pattern on zebras.  We spent the remaining time in class making matters with buttons, pom-poms, colored pasta, buttons, beads, and wood shapes.

Day 2:  Students traced, cut out, and glued together all of the parts to make their zebra.  They assembled the zebra onto the background color of their choice.

Day 3:  Students were given artistic freedom to make whatever colored stripes on Zippy, as long as they made a pattern.  Student glued on a yarn tail and mane.

7th and 8th Grade: CD Weaving

The 7th and 8th grade completed radial weaving on old CDs.  After everyone was done, I tied the CDs together to display outside of the art room.

Fine Arts Night is Coming Up!

Art club worked today after school on artwork for fine arts night.  We are very excited!  I hope you are too!

BPAC: Pop-Up Park Event

Hello Everyone,

I receive monthly emails from the Burchfield Penney Art Center on their upcoming events.  I wanted to share this one with you.  There is a call for children ages 8-18 to participate in their Pop-Up Park event on Saturday, April 13.  The kids will be designing, build, plan on, and tear down their own park.  Sounds fun to me!  More information below on their website:

Burchfield Penney Art Center: Pop-Up Park Information

Art Club: First Meeting

I was very excited to hold our first art club meeting this week.  Art club members in grades 5-8 met and discussed our plans for this year's art club.  We had a lot to talk about.  Grades 5-8 art club will play a huge role in fine arts night this year (Thursday, May 30, 2013).  In the time we had left, students painted owls onto toilet paper tubes.

5th Grade: Flash Yarn

"Flash yarn" (name re-purposed to use at school) is a new wave of graffiti that does not harm public spaces like spray paint does.  I encourage you to click on the link below to see other examples of "flash yarn."

More Examples

First Grade: Making Clay

The first grade worked together to make their own clay (play-doh).  The students measured and mixed ingredients together to make primary-colored clay.  The next class, each student choose what secondary color they would like to make and what two primary colors they needed to mix together.  After mixing the clay, students spent the remaining of class making sculptures.

First Grade: Wayne Thiebaud

The first grade and I had a lot of fun looking at artist Wayne Thiebaud's food paintings and making our own artwork inspired by Thiebaud's gumball machine paintings.  Plus, it was a good opportunity to review our primary/secondary colors and warm/cool colors.

Valentines For Our Veterans

Pre-K, 1st, 7th, and 8th grade put their art projects on pause and took the time to make Valentines for our Veterans last week.

Kindergarten: Hello my name is Roy G. Biv

The kindergarten started this unit by learning the primary colors.  We did a mini science experiment taking turns mixing different colors together to see the result.  During this process we practiced identifying which colors were primary, which colors were secondary, and what that meant.  The following class we started creating our Roy G. Biv projects to help us remember all of the colors.  The students loved the crazy hair and I was impressed with their fine motor skills tucking all of those paper strips behind Roy's face.

4th Grade: Mandalas

So proud of my 4th grade!  Mandalas are a lot harder to create than they look, but the 4th grade rose to the challenge.  There are a lot of steps to the process when you want to make a perfect circle.  In addition, we learned about rotational symmetry and how dividing the circle into eight equal parts allows us to repeat a pattern.  Great job everyone!

Pre-K: Penguins

The Pre-K has done a great job with their penguins.  Each component of the penguin was cut out by the students and I am really impressed with their cutting skills.  The snowflakes were created by dipping pine tree branch clippings into white paint and stamping it across the background.  Students chose their color ear muffs and type of scarf.  It is important to give them creative freedom.  Amazing work everyone!

-Ms. James

5th Grade: Altered Book Sculptures

Last year students completed a unit on altered books and the results were fantastic.  This year, I switched it up a little and the fifth grade and I focused on altered books with sculptural qualities.  Students focused on folding the pages of the books and manipulating what they had in order to create a sculpture.  We also tied in this year's school motto of believe, think, and do.  I am very proud of the results and their hard work.