Happy Easter and Spring Break

Hope everyone is having a super Happy Easter and a great start to our week and a half long break! As I mentioned in my previous post, due to the start of our break, this past week was a short one. I was only able to have my classes on Tuesday, and two of them on Wednesday. Despite the excitement of the upcoming break, students were able to get a lot accomplished! Here's what we were up to this week...

K4 and K5: Because of the school-wide retreat Wednesday morning, I decided to give students a break from our normal project. Additionally, I didn't think it was fair for students to start a totally new project and try to remember everything that we had discussed over the break. So for a short one day project, I decided to read students the book, Elmer by David McKee. At the end of the book, all of the elephants celebrate "Elmer Day" in which they decorate themselves in bright colors and patterns. After reading the book, I asked students to create their own elephant and decorate them for "Elmer Day"! 

1st: Students are finishing up their Cubism inspired collages. I believe that there are only 4 students that need to finish after we get back from the break. As soon as they finish, I will be posting pics of our finished creations.

2nd: Students in 2nd grade are also finishing up their projects. Similar to the 1st grade, there are a few students that need to finish. I will be posting pictures of all the finished projects when we return from break. For now, here are a few of the completed Hundertwasser houses!

3rd: No class this week :(

4th: I'm sorry for sounding a little like a broken record, but the 4th grade is also finishing up their current project. I will be posting pics of their finished photos after the break as well. Since many of the 4th graders only had a few details to add to their photos on Tuesday, I decided that we were going to start our new, mini project....Op Art Cubes! They will be continuing to work on these for the next couple of weeks.

5th: It is crazy how much I have said the same thing in this post, but the 5th grade is in the same position as most of the other grades...finishing things up. Again, there are a few students that need to sign their prints and add a few last details, so I will be posting their finished prints after the break.

6th: No class this week :(

Art Club: No meeting this week :(

As you can probably guess, I will not be posting this upcoming Saturday. My next post will not be until May 3rd after we return to school. I hope that everyone has a fantastic rest of their break! I cannot wait to hear about everyone's adventures and fun!!!

Art Club Littles Tapestries

Wow! That's A Lot!

Yes...that is a lot of art! I felt extremely pleased with not only how much art was created this week, but also with the quality of the art. Students are so excited about showing their work off in a couple of weeks at our Art Show. I'm going to go ahead and say now, that I am a very happy and proud art teacher!

K4:  In order for a couple of students to catch up from being absent, I skipped to a upcoming step in our project. As you might have read in previous posts, we are working on creating clay Very Hungry Caterpillar sculptures. Last week, students were able to paint their beads to reflect the iconic greens of the caterpillar. I was planning on putting our sculptures together this week, but it really wasn't fair for the three students that did not receive the opportunity to paint their beads last week. So, what ended up happening was those three students painted their beads to prepare for next week, and the other students create "plates" of food for our "very hungry" caterpillars to eat. Several different types of food were drawn, including cookies, suckers and candy, and Swiss cheese.

K5: Many students are finishing up their Rainbow Zebras. This week students added the hair to their zebra's mane. It was so interesting to see how just a little bit of yarn gave these artworks so much personally! 

1st: I have been promising it for a couple of weeks now...the big Cubism transformation! After students finished coloring their background, they began carefully cutting their artwork into geometric sections and arranging them onto a piece of 12 x 18" construction paper. They are looking so cool...almost like a mini mosaic!

2nd: After creating our fabulous Hundertwasser houses last week, we started on creating the background this week. Hundertwasser is known for using bright, bold, fun color in his artworks, so what better background than a piece of painted paper? Students were allowed to choose any three colors and worked on creating areas where these colors blended on their paper. The results are gorgeous! 

3rd: Students continued work on their Kandinsky Circle assemblages this week. I love how these are turning out! By the way, I shared last week that I was debating on hanging these individually at the upcoming Art Show or hanging them as a group....I totally decided to hang them as a group. They look so cool together :)

4th: Students added the fictional elements to their photographs. They had so much fun doing this and were so eager to share their ideas and creations with one another. In fact, I am planning on taking a few minutes of class next week to allow them to share with each other. They are so proud of what they have created! Also, pardon my hand being in all of the pictures. It is difficult to take a picture of glossy 5 x 7" photos without glare.

5th: This week was the final week of printmaking. Students finished up both their collagraphs and relief prints. I will be taking pictures of the three "best" prints that they choose to turn in to share with you next week.

6th: Sadly, I will not get to see the sixth grade students next week  because of their trip to Washington D.C. However, before they left for the weekend to prepare for their awesome trip, they did some great work on their Fauvism inspired Palmetto Trees. Please remember that these artworks will be for sale at the Art Show on May 8th. All proceeds will go to help pay for both the Washington D.C. trip and graduation. I am hoping that once students return from their trip and spring break, that I can post a preview of the finished artworks before our Art Show. For now though, here is how they are coming along...

Art Club: The younger students finished their Paul Wackers inspired tapestries this week. Look for pictures later today! Super cool! The older students are still hard at work on theirs. I am thinking that it may take a couple more weeks for theirs to be complete, but here's how they look so far....

Mosaic News: I am soooo happy to announce that the mosaic is now complete!!! We placed the last piece of glass on it Friday afternoon. After break, Mrs. Allen will be coming in to grout it. I cannot wait for it to be installed!!!!

Next  week, I will only be seeing the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades on Tuesday due to our school retreat on Wednesday and the start of spring break on Thursday. It will be a short post, but definitely one worth checking out. I will be posting my update, hopefully, on Saturday next week, but it is very possible that it could be Sunday. I promise though, there will be an update :)

6th Weather Vanes

A Somewhat Late Update

Typically, as some of you may know, I post my weekly update around noon on Saturdays. Well, Mr. Chance passed his dissertation this week. He is now Dr. Chance!!!! To celebrate, we spent the day at Folly Beach/Charleston. We had a lot of fun and it was such a lovely day to enjoy a good shell hunt. We didn't have a lot of luck in that department, but it was just nice to take the day to not think about anything besides running away from the freezing cold water on the beach.

We got home not too long ago and I decided to go ahead and post this week's update tonight instead of making everyone wait until tomorrow. I was too excited about some of the stuff we have been doing this week :)

K4: Our Very Hungry Caterpillar sculptures are off to a good start. K4 students painted their Model Magic beads light and dark green, plus one red for the head. They turned out beautiful and smooth thanks to a great idea my mom had. I was worried about students getting paint all over their hands. It seems to me that as I try to paint beads, I get more on me than the bead. I paint myself by accident, I wipe or smear sections of the bead that were once smooth...just a mess and very frustrating. Not to mention the fact that I know that they will be dried to the surface of whatever I lay them on. I was chatting with my mom about this predicament and she suggested wooden skewers! It worked beautifully! Luckily the beads fit snugly on the skewers, not sliding around and students were able to easily paint them without smearing. As an added bonus, it allowed me to put them on my drying rack. With our awesome beads now painted and looking great, we are ready to string them together next week.

K5: As promised, this week I have much more colorful zebras to share. Many students still had to finish coloring their paper for the stripes, but their were a few that were able to finish and add that key characteristic to their zebras.

1st: After finishing their musical instruments last week, students added lines and color to their backgrounds. They are starting to look a little more Cubist in style, but the big change will not come until next week.

2nd: Students finished up coloring and "decorating" their Hundertwasser houses. I cannot wait to add these to the backgrounds we will be creating over the next couple of weeks!

 3rd: We officially started our Kandinsky Circle assemblages this week. I am really happy with our results so far. All of the students are too! They love using different materials than your standard marker, crayon, or colored pencil. I originally thought about displaying these artworks individually at our upcoming Art Show, however, after seeing them all drying together the other day I am starting to reconsider.

4th: I am thrilled to report that we had a sunny day on Tuesday so students were able to take pictures outside. All but 5 students wanted to take their picture on the playground. I am so glad it worked out! All of the photographs turned out well. Great lighting, wonderful compositions, and funny/clever ideas! Next week, students will be adding some fictional elements to their photographs through drawing. I will hopefully get to share a few of those with you next week as they finish.

5th: Students are starting to complete their printmaking projects. I am really allowing a lot of time for this project so students can practice and get the hang of this new set of skills. They are doing a great job, so I have decided to let them have one more week of printing. For now, here are a couple of the finished results...

6th: I will be posting pictures of our finished weather vanes, hopefully, tonight. If not, please look for them tomorrow. They are soooo cool! Anyway, after a full day and a half of practice, some students started painting their Fauvism inspired Palmetto Trees on Wednesday. They just scream summer to me.

Art Club: Many of the younger students are almost done with their collection tapestry. I am also happy to share that the older students have now officially started theirs. It is so interesting to see what objects they are placing on these shelves. The thought that students have put in to this project is huge from both groups. I will be asking them to include an explanation of why they have chosen these objects in the letters that we will be writing to Paul Wackers.

Mosaic News: Due to scheduling conflicts, students have not been able to work on the mosaic recently. Because we would ultimately like the piece to be installed during our break, Mrs. Allen and I worked on adding mosaic tiles to the edges of the piece. It is all really coming together. Hopefully, students will be able to join us this upcoming week to finish things up. We only have two small sections left before the grouting can start!