Laurel Burch Cats

2nd grade students studied the art of Laurel Burch. They learned that even though she had a hard life, she created fun whimsical cats with lots of patterns, repetition and bright colors. Here are some examples of how they interpreted her art.

Seascapes

First Grade students studied Winslow Homer and his seascapes. Students learned that artists often paint what is around them, and for Winslow Homer, he did just that. He lived near the sea and loved to paint the sea and show the power of the sea in his paintings. Students looked at pictures of sailboats, tall ships, clipper ships and steamships before drawing the ship of their choice and then painting it with watercolor paints.

Reduction Prints

4th grade students created these reduction prints of the animal of their choice. First they carved an animal into a piece of styrofoam and printed the entire printing block. Then they cut out their animal and printed only that part of the printing block (which is how it gets the name reduction print).

Mummy Sarcophagus

5th grade students studied mummies and created their own mummy sarcophagus. They learned that the Ancient Egyptian mummified their dead in preparation for the afterlife. They learned that the Egyptians would put money, food, favorite items and even pets in the coffin (or sarcophagus) to have in the next life. The name of the mummy was written in hieroglyphics on the sarcophagus. This is called the cartouche. Students also created a cartouche on their sarcophagus. Students also learned that the person's face was often painted on to the sarcophagus so the person's spirit would recognize it and could get the items saved in the sarcophagus. Students  learned that many symbols were used to bring protection to the mummy (like the Wedjet eye) and to depict important events in the mummy's life. Students created their own mummy sarcophagus out of clay and painted it with tempera paints.

 

 

Emotional Monsters

First grade students learned how faces can show emotion. They discovered eyebrows play an important part of showing emotion. They chose an emotion for their monster, and created a cut paper collage to show this emotion on their monster’s face.

 

 

Georgia O'Keefe Inspired Butterflies

Third Grade students looked at artwork by Georgia O'Keefe and read various books about her life. In one book, "My Name is Georgia" by Jeanette Winter, students discovered that Georgia O'Keefe created large artworks of small things like flowers, partly because she wanted people to see things the way she saw them. Students then drew and colored another small thing; butterflies. Students looked carefully at a picture of a butterfly and tried to capture as many details as they could. They colored their butterflies with chalk pastel. 

 

 

Dali Inspired Animals

Second Grade students learned about Spanish artist, Salvador Dali. Students watched a brief video about surrealism (Get Surreal! With Salvador Dali).  Students discussed the meaning of surrealism, as well as where the surrealists get their inspiration. Then they looked closely at two of Dali's works that feature elephants with extremely long skinny legs. Students brainstormed animals that could be drawn in this way. Students chose an animal to create in the surrealist style.

 

 

Textured Chameleons

Kindergarten students learned that we use the word texture when we’re describing how something feels. Students created texture rubbings with texture plates. Students saw a video clip of a chameleon changing color, and read A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni. Then they traced chameleons, cut them out and glued them to the habitat they painted for their chameleon.

Urban Landscapes at Night

Second Grade students are studying the characteristics and differences of rural, suburban and urban areas. As their final project in this study, students created a cityscape at night. They created a city skyline with chalk and crayons.

 

 

Shape Robots

First Grade students made robots out of shapes. They made a list of shapes that they knew and identified shapes in everyday objects. They used this knowledge to create a robot completely out of shapes. Then they wrote what their robot does to help them.

 

Kindergarten Kissing Hand

Kindergarten students read the book, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and discussed some feelings we had on the first day of school. They learned that lines and colors can show feelings.

Students drew, and then traced their hands. Then they drew lines to show how they felt on the first day of school. Finally, they painted their hands with colors that showed how they felt, after reading My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss.

 

Diego Rivera Study

4th grade students looked at artwork by Diego Rivera and discussed themes in his artwork. They learned that artists often create art as a way to show connections between people. They concluded that Diego Rivera showed these connections through the themes in his artwork (love, family, oppression, working people and traditions). Students focused on the artwork "Mother's Helper" by Diego Rivera. They discussed that Rivera was showing love between the girl and the mother, without drawing hearts on his artwork. They discussed ways they help someone they love and used the way his composition was set up in "Mother's Helper" in their own artwork.

 

Los estudiantes de cuarto grado miraron obras de arte por Diego Rivera y discutieron los temas en sus obras. Ellos aprendieron que los artistas muchas veces crean arte como una manera de demostrar conexiones entre personas. Ellos concluyeron que Diego Rivera demostraba estas conexiones por medio de temas en sus obras de arte (amor, familia, opresión, trabajadores, y tradiciones). Los estudiantes se enfocaron en la obra de arte “Ayudando a mamá” por Diego Rivera. Ellos comentaron que Rivera estaba demostrando el amor entre la niña y su madre sin dibujar corazones en su pintura. Ellos hablaron sobre las maneras en que ayudan a sus seres queridos y usaron la composición de “Ayudando a mamá” en sus propias obras de arte.

Rural Landscapes

2^nd grade students learned to differentiate between rural, suburban and urban landscapes. They drew and painted rural landscapes with characteristics often found in rural landscapes, such as farms, barns, and crops. They looked at artwork by Grant Wood. They learned that Grant Wood liked to paint scenes of farmland because he was born in a rural area of Iowa.

Birch Trees

Students in 3rd grade created birch trees using a non-traditional technique. They used cardboard dipped in paint to create these birch trees. Then they used either warm or cool colors to paint a background.  When they glued their birch trees on, they showed their knowledge of foreground, middle ground and background by putting the biggest trees in the foreground, and the smallest trees in the background. They added details with oil pastel and marker.

 

The Dot Mural - It's Done!!!:)

Here is our finished mural! Thanks so much to everyone who helped, we couldn't have done it without you!

The Dot Mural

Every student has been hard at work creating their mark on the world! In conjunction with International Dot Day on September 15th (though we continued this theme all week), every student in the school painted their own unique dot on the outside of our school. We read "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds, and then each student had the opportunity to "make their mark" on our school. Many thanks to Sarah Coury for writing the grant that allowed this mural to happen, as well as the beautiful art garden that is now located outside of the school cafeteria!