Hooray Normal

This week was one of the first normal weeks we have had since we returned to school from Christmas break. Needless to say, we were all relieved! Students were able to come in to the Art room knowing that we were going to be able to work and get a lot accomplished...and we did just that. I am once again happy to share with you this week's full, complete update!

K4: Students have now finished their glue resist paintings. I had three students this week that needed to complete the painting portion of the project. Since all three were able to finish on Wednesday, we are now ready to start a new project this upcoming week. I am excited about this one...printmaking!!!

K5: After carefully creating each component of their still life artworks, K5 students were finally able to assemble their creations. Students began by cutting out a bowl shape from their brown painted paper. This was then glued to their background and the food was arranged last. I love how these have turned out. I am so happy you can see all of the wonderful highlights and shadows that students included while creating their fruits with oil pastels. There is still one student that has not finished, so I will not be posting a full slide show of all the finished works until next week, but here are a few that finished up this week.

1st: Students are continuing to color their Realism drawings. We are inching closer to being done. I am so proud of how students are taking their time with this project. It is really paying off and their artworks look great!

2nd: Most of the 2nd grade students began painting their "What Would Make You Scream" sculptures this week. We created what I call the base layer. Next week, I will be showing students how to paint smaller details and how to add additional layers of color. I also had a few students start to create their sculptures this week, due to being absent when we originally did our sculpting.

3rd: Students began creating their final Impressionist landscapes this week by finger painting. We practiced a few weeks ago, so students were totally ready and excited about creating their final artworks. Many students were able to get quite a bit done. We still have several more days of painting ahead of us and it will be fun to see how these artworks progress.

This does not have much to do with the 3rd grade project, but it did result from the paint that they used. As the 3rd grade students were cleaning up on Wednesday, I asked them to drop their palettes into a large bin I have in my sink that contained warm water. I clean the palettes for students after they leave each day. I know that they can clean and I had rather them have 5 or 10 extra minutes to work than to have to stop super early and clean. Anyway, after they left I began to clean all of the palettes. Once I was finished, I had a bin full of dark, muddy looking water...nothing pretty to look at. I dumped it out and waited for all the liquid to drain so I could rinse out my bin a couple of times before setting it aside to dry. When I returned to the sink, I saw this amazing kaleidoscope of color. The 6th graders, who had just come in for Art, did not want me to clean the paint out of the sink. So, I preserved this moment and awesome sink art through photography.

4th: Last week, the fourth grade had just started creating their cherry blossom branches when school was dismissed early. So, we spent this week finishing what we started. I love how these look. I have seen this process done before on several different blogs and we did something very similar to this when I was in school. The results are fabulous every time!

5th: Sadly again this week, the 5th graders were unable to come to Art. This week they were on a field trip. Hopefully, I will see them next week so we can start working on our collagraphs :)

6th: Students resumed work on their weather vanes this week. Most students are still in the decoupaging stage, but a few are beginning to paint their weather vanes copper. Here's how they are looking...

Art Club: We are continuing work on our Palissy Ware. Students are at different levels with this project currently. Most of the younger students were able to start painting this week, while a majority of the older students are still hard at work sculpting. Our current goal is that by the end of next week, all students will be able to start painting their sculptures.

Mosaic News: We are progressing right along. In fact, it is surprising each week to step back and see how much we have accomplished in such a short time. I am so pleased with how it is looking so far and I love seeing how enthusiastic students are when working on it!

Last but not least, you may be wondering "Mrs. Chance...why didn't you post yesterday?" I try to post every Saturday and have since I started this blog at the beginning of 2012, but not yesterday. In addition to a baby shower that I attended (sooooo cute!), I also attended the school's annual auction. I have to say that this year was wonderful! The night started out with food and the beginning of the silent auction. A live auction was held at 8 PM, followed by the end of the silent auction at 9 PM. For various reasons, I have not been able to attend an auction for the past couple of years, so I was determined that this year I would be taking something home. I am happy to report that not only did I have some delicious shrimp and grits for dinner, but I won a Lowcountry cookbook along with an awesome glass chip and dip set, although it is so pretty it will probably be more of a decorative item in my house. Don't want salsa covering up how cool it is :)