Post #100 HOORAY

Wow! 100 posts already! I can't believe all of the things that we have done over the last couple of years. I really enjoy blogging and am super glad that I started mine. Not only has it been a way for me to remember all of the wonderful artworks that students have created and accomplishments we have achieved, but it has allowed me to share everything that goes on with parents, members of our community and everyone out there in the world. I have appreciated all of the wonderful comments over the years and look forward to hundreds of more posts in the future!

This week was a relatively normal week and students were able to accomplish a lot. With that said, on to this week's update...

K4: With the completion of our glue resist paintings last week (see post below for pictures!), we started a new project this week. I introduced students to the work of artist Wayne Thiebaud. I love his art...how creamy his pastries actually look, the bright colors of the candies, and the overlapping delicious compositions! After showing students a number of his paintings, I shared with students two of his paintings of gumball machines and told students that we would be creating our own gumball machines. To begin this process, students used a cork and tempera paint to stamp neat, round circles to make "gumballs".

K5: Students in K5 have also recently finished a project (look at the posts below for their still life artworks). Since our self-critique session went so well a couple of months ago, I decided for students to work on another one. I am so proud of how honest students are with their critiques! Great job everyone!

1st: We are still working hard on coloring our American Realism drawings. As I have been telling students "slow and steady wins the race!"

2nd: This week was a little crazy for the second grade students. Due to two fire drills, we were only left with about 10 minutes to work...not enough time for painting. So instead of just wasting time or playing a game, I asked students to critique each others work in pairs. Students were very helpful to one another and offered a lot of good suggestions. With their new game plans, students are ready to begin painting again next week.

3rd: Last week, students began their Impressionistic landscapes by laying down their base layer of paint using their fingers. YAY for finger painting! This week, many students were able to finish their base layer and began layering different colors on their landscapes giving it the impression of a certain time of day. I am very excited about these! The colors are so bright and I am proud of how fearless students have been about layering and adding colors to their artworks that they would normally not consider.

4th: Students are almost finished with their Ming Vase artworks. They look so good! I can't wait to share the finished works next week!!!

5th: We finally started our collagraphs!!! We had to do some changes to this project because of the number of days that we missed, so the collagraph portion of this project has now been updated to the background. Students were able to choose any design they liked. We will be using Styrofoam next week, to add the cat design we created earlier before all of the snow and ice.

6th: Students are continuing work on their weather vanes. Beginning next week, most students will be moving on to the next step...painting!

Art Club: Members of Art Club are still working on their Palissy Ware. Not much has changed from last week to this week. Most of the younger students have began painting their sculptures, while many of the older students are still sculpting.

Mosaic News: I cannot believe how much we have gotten done. It amazes me every time I look at it! It seems like we just started it and now we may only need two more days until it is finished!

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 :)

One Project, Two Project, Three Project, Four...

My Art room has become a sea of tri-fold display boards! Many of the projects have been turned in with great information, creative ideas, and great critiques and opinions! I am so proud of these displays!!! I know that I posted last week that I would try to post pictures of all of the Art Fair projects this week. Sadly, it took me about 5 hours yesterday to grade all of them. Needless to say, I ran out of time before Art Club came in. I will be going in on Monday to take pictures and set up, so look for pictures then!

Thankfully, I had extra space in the Art room to store the displays until the Art Fair so we could continue to work on all of our projects. Now, time for the update!

K4: Students learned about resists. For our project, students used blue gel glue to create the resist. After it dries, students will be painting the entire canvas, including over the top of the glue. The glue sort of protects that canvas not allowing any of the paint to reach it. As the paint dries, it helps the glue to release from the canvas easily allowing for the glue to be peeled off revealing a nice clean white line. Students only created the first step of the artwork (the glue), due to the time it takes for the glue to dry.

K5: Students worked on creating the bowls for their fruit still life. To do that, we created brown painted paper. Students began by painting a thick, even layer of brown tempera paint on their paper. Working quickly, they took a comb and dragged it on their paper through the wet paint making very cool patterns and textures. After their paper dries, we will be drawing the shape of a bowl on the back of their painted paper and will cut it out to attach to their final piece.

1st: After working on sketches last week, students began their final realism drawings this week. It seems sometimes that when we use materials that students do not use often (like colored pencils), they rush through the drawing stage in order to start coloring. I wanted for students to focus on their drawings to create one that is detailed and neat, so that is just what we did...a drawing only day! I have to say, I am glad that we did that because their drawings were fantastic! Hooray!

2nd: Students began a project on Edvard Munch. After learning about his most famous work, "The Scream", students were given the prompt to create a clay sculpture of something that would make them scream. I saw everything from spiders to monsters to sharks. I even had a student create a hot dog...he really doesn't like hot dogs. I wanted students to practice before we began our actual sculptures, so out came the Play Doh!

3rd: Many people thought I was crazy. They say it couldn't be done...

FINGER PAINTING!!!

This summer I was inspired by the painting "Impression, Sunrise" to do a Impressionism inspired finger painting with my 3rd graders. At first, students thought it was weird...I mean, some of them haven't finger painted since K4. After I showed them a few tips and tricks, students jumped in with no hesitation! I must say, I'm so excited to see how these will turn out!

4th: We are still working hard on our vases. Soon, we will begin creating the branches and cherry blossoms that the Ming vases will hold.

5th: In preparation for the construction of our collagraphs, students spent this week carefully drawing and planning out their collagraph. Students considered materials, thinking mainly about what texture the material will print, and listed their thoughts on the back of their matrix. I am already gathering supplies and am ready to begin the construction of our collagraphs!

6th: As explained to the 6th grade students when we began our weather vanes, this will be a project that takes time. Most students began the decoupage process last week. The only downside to this project is once they have finish one side of their weather vane, they cannot go on to the other...it has to dry first. Most students finished the first side of their vane this week and are patiently waiting for it to dry so they can move to the other.

Art Club: We have now finished our photographs and mixed media cities!!! Pictures to come this upcoming week!!!

The 1st-3rd grade members of Art Club were able to practice for our upcoming project. I'm not going to explain it here yet, but it involves clay!!! For our practice activity, I asked students to draw a picture of an animal. After drawing whatever animal they wanted, even the fictional varieties, students were asked to sculpt the animal they drew out of Play Doh! Super fun!!!

So next week, due to the Art Fair, classes will not be able to work on their projects. Most students will be participating in a scavenger hunt and will be answering questions for me about their Art Fair project. I will be posting an update on the K4, K5, and Art Club projects because the Art Fair will be taken down by the time their classes come to the Art room. It will be a small post, but with great updates!