Thursday, December 17, 2015

Arcimboldo Portraits


As part of our Renaissance art unit, 4th grade viewed the works of Guiseppi Arcimboldo. We traced a profile of a head and spent the first week drawing fruit from life with colored pencils. 




The next week, we found images of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and plants in magazines to add around the face.




Thursday, November 26, 2015

Medieval Castles


I found this lesson at Deep Space Sparkle and created castles with 1st grade. We started by drawing simple castles all together on black paper. Then we used foam brushes and gray paint to stamp on our bricks. They did a great job arranging their bricks to look realistic. 






Then we cut out the castles and glued them to a drawn background. We used old paint samples to add doors, windows, and flags. They are so bright and beautiful!


Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Medieval Shields


My 2nd graders have been waiting (impatiently) to do this projects since they walked in the first day of art class and saw my massive stack of wooden circles. I was lucky enough to meet a teacher whose husband owns a custom guitar shop and they have leftover circles. So I have a wonderful surplus of free wooden circles! :)


The first week of this project, we drew with markers and planned out our designs because we only get one shot to paint. I love how they stuck to their designs when we started painting the following week.






Once the paint dried, we added details with aluminum foil.




I LOVE how these turned out! Great work!



Tuesday, November 17, 2015

It Took All Week...


But I finally found a way to explain how to draw dragons that kindergarteners understand! Look at this awesome dragon! 

Greek Mosaics


After viewing artworks in buildings in Greece and the mosaic artworks inside, we created our own using paper scraps. Students were encouraged to make the focus an animal as seen in many Greek mosaics. We also added columns and a roof like the Parthenon to make a kind of "animal temple". This was a big test of patience for the kids; there's no shortcuts! ^_^




Greek Theatre Masks


For our Greek art unit, 5th grade created theatre masks using paper mache. We worked on plastic mask forms to create these. I made a paper mache mixture of half water, half regular glue and newspaper. When they were dry, they could paint them however they wanted and added paper for hair, horns, teeth, etc. I am very impressed at how these turned out, they did a great job! 





Friday, October 30, 2015

Faculty Member of the Quarter


Today I was named the Faculty Member of the Quarter as voted by the other teachers in the school! I am so lucky to be in a school with such supportive and wonderful coworkers. I'm glad everything worked the way it did to bring me to this school. ^_^

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Blue "Prints"


Our classroom at VolState had a great view of the construction on campus. We spent one morning watching the workers and sketching what we saw. Then we took those sketches as inspiration for our own artworks.



We discussed blue prints and how we change 2D images into 3D things such as buildings. Then we used white paint, cardboard, and toilet paper rolls to create blue "prints" (the pun is one of the reasons why I love this lesson ^_^).




I got this lesson from School Arts magazine September 2015 issue, STEAM. It has a lot of good STEAM lesson in it, and you can find a link to the digital copy here. 
 Very easy, beautiful results, and open to their imaginations. 




Camp STEM Day


On our first day of Camp STEM in Sumner County at VolState Community College. We had a special visit from the Mayor of Gallatin, Paige Brown, to declare October 12th Camp STEM Day. It was very exciting for the kids and a great way to open camp. We created goo and space models that day and everyone left with a smile. ^_^

Friday, October 9, 2015

Camp STEM Fall Break Camp at VolState


Very exciting news! We are branching out at Camp STEM to students in Sumner County for this year's Fall Break camp. We will have science activities from 8-3 each day. Registration is open on the website that you can find here. It is for students in grades k-6 and the fee is $125 for the whole week. Come see us and explore the world of science and creativity!

This Week in Art 6

Finishing projects! I love this week!




1st grade used a bamboo skewer to scratch designs into their scratch art paper. We cut the paper into the shape of a vase and glued it to a patterned background.



2nd grade cut their marbled paper into simple shapes to create their Parthenon collage on their painted paper. Beautiful contrast!



3rd grade finished their mosaics by creating a building in the style of the Parthenon, kind of like a “temple” to their animal. We added a background, a roof, and two columns.



4th grade added handles and painted their vases.





5th grade added paper hair, horns, etc. and paint to finish their masks.


So proud of what these kids have done! I’ll post soon with project details. ^_^