We Have Finished Artworks...WOW

I can't believe it, but we are almost finished with our first projects!!! Kindergarten and first grade finished this past week, while 2nd-4th grade students' works are starting to really come together and should be done very soon.

As these first few weeks have gone by, students and I have discussed the idea of good craftsmanship thoroughly. Students have been working hard to create artworks that are neat, creative, and clearly show that they have taken their time and put thought into every action. I believe that this concept is really starting to come through in their artworks. Every class, I see students that are carefully working and are really concentrating on their creations! Great job kiddos!!!

Well, enough gushing for today :) Here is this week's update...

Kindergarten: I am so pleased with how the kindergarten artworks look! Students did such a wonderful job creating their artworks based on the book "Mouse Paint"! This week, I will be taking pictures of the finished artworks to share with you. Check back throughout the week if you want to see some very cute and awesome artworks!!! For now, I thought I would share a couple of them with you....I can't resist!

1st: First grade students have also finished their first project. I hope to also take pictures of their self-portraits to share with you this week.

2nd: Students are continuing to paint their cacti still life inspired by the works of Lina Cofan. With most of their pots/vases and cacti painted last week, students started working on their background this week, in addition to blending colors in at least one area of their artwork.

3rd: Similar to the second grade, students are continuing to add color to their artworks. However, instead of painting like the second grade students, third grade is using oil pastels to create their 5 senses based still life. Most students have completely colored their artwork, so we have been working on blending the oil pastels to create a softer, more solid look.

4th: During the last couple of weeks, students have been working on a project where they were asked to express an emotion/feeling though the use of lines and color. For this project, students were not allowed to use a paintbrush. We have used objects such as pompoms, pipe cleaners, plastic lids, sponges, popsicle sticks, and paper towels to create our marks. This week, students added an additional layer by splatter and spray painting. Students, in groups of three, used toothbrushes and plastic spray bottles to add organic, random marks to their artworks. Students had to be extremely careful to censor their actions in order to not cover up the wonderful lines/marks created during our previous class.

Before ending this post today, I did want to remind everyone of Open House on Tuesday evening. Make sure to stop by the Art Room to see more of our awesome finished artworks! Looking forward to seeing everyone!!!

Sorry For Posting Late

Well, I am posting a little later than expected. If you read my post last week, I shared with you that my family would be coming into town for Mr....I mean Dr. Chance's graduation :) My family was initially planning on going home on Sunday, but we ended up hanging out with them until late yesterday after, thus the reason I did not post like I had promised.

I guess though it is better late than never. This update will be a little different than normal. I will include the usual update, but toward the end of the post, I will share a recap of our 3rd Annual Art Show!!! On to the update....

K4: In preparation for our new monster sculptures we will be creating, the K4 students sketched ideas of what they think a monster would look like. There were the usual vampires and werewolves, along with several monsters that students have seen in the movies and on T.V. I can't wait to see how students will react this week when I give them a piece of pool noodle as the base of their monster!

K5: Since I arrived in South Carolina 5 years ago, I have waited for the opportunity to teach about Ernest Lee, or as many around here know him...The Chicken Man!!!! I love his art! It is just so fun and festive. With the end of the year quickly approaching, I thought that now would be the perfect time to discuss this famous local artist. For those of you who do not know the Chicken Man, he paints really cool, brightly colored, funky chickens. Now, he does paint other things as well, in fact, my husband and I own one of his awesome fish paintings, but he is most known for the chickens. He has been painting them for around 30+ years and has reportedly painted around 15,000 chickens for people around the city. He still paints daily and you can go and purchase one of his artworks from Mr. Lee himself downtown.
For our Chicken Man inspired paintings, students worked last week on choosing materials for the 5 different parts of their chicken: the body (fabric scraps), the comb (felt), the beak (felt), the wing and tail (feathers), and lastly the feet (scrapbook paper).

1st: To wrap up the year, I decided a couple of things. First, I wanted to begin to incorporate the Principles of Design into our last artwork and secondly, I wanted to create something summery. If you haven't found or read the book "I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean", by Kevin Sherry, you need to! It is hilarious! After finding that book again on my shelf, I knew that was what we needed to do. I asked students to think about their favorite ocean animal and then to imagine that animal creating art...aka their "Best Artist in the Ocean". This weekend, I will share our backgrounds and how we incorporated emphasis into our creations. Here are some of the sketches they created to start the project off...

2nd: Going along with the ocean theme or as I am calling it "Summer Celebration", I decided to continue it into the 2nd grade curriculum for the end of the year. After discussing the Principles of Design variety and pattern, students began sketching their ideas for our "Fancy Fish". I was cracking up at some of their ideas! So much fun!!!

3rd: This past week was a finishing day for the third grade. Students completed the final details on their artwork, as well as any critiques and journal entries. They are now ready to start a new project tomorrow!

4th: Fourth graders are still hard at work on their Op Art cubes. Some students began finishing theirs up this past week and assembled them using simple, clear Scotch tape.

 5th: To kick off our new project, students learned about quilts...I even showed students pictures of the National Quilt Museum and the National Quilt Show, both located about 20 minutes from where I grew up. It is really interesting to me to see how far quilts have come along from their traditional beginnings to ultra modern designs that look more like paintings. I was so happy to see students sharing my enthusiasm and interest!
Because we only have 3 real studio classes left this year, we really don't have the time to create a real quilt square using fabric and sewing techniques. Instead, we are drawing our favorite school memories and then will "sew" yarn around the edges of the square when the drawings are completed. 

6th: With the Art Show approaching, students used Wednesday of last week to add their final details to their Palmetto Trees. Now that we are all finished with our paintings, it is time for tie-dye!!!

No Art Club this past week :(

The Art Show was a hit again this year! In a similar style to last year, I chose one artwork to represent each student at our school. We partner again with the SpringHill Suites to put on this year's show. They set up the room and tables for us, in additional to providing some delicious food for all those who came to the event and Dr. Mr. Chance and I set up all of the art. I was really pleased with how things looked this year and very proud of all the accomplishments that students have achieved! I wish so badly that we could leave everything framed for a few more weeks so every family could see what we have created this year. But alas, all good things must come to an end...all the work has returned to the Art room and students will be receiving all of their projects Thursday to take home. Below are a few pictures of this year's show. Hopefully by the end of this week, I will be bringing a photo book to school to share all of the wonderful artworks and pictures I took!

Welcome Back

It has been a full week since I returned to South Carolina from Kentucky. It already seems like Christmas was forever ago! It was odd getting back into the rhythm and swing of school (especially since we were delayed one morning because of the super cold temperatures!),  but I was very happy to see everyone and talk about travels, presents, and fun.

Despite a late start to school on Tuesday, I was able to see all 8 of my classes in addition to both groups of Art Club. Here's what we did this week...

K4: If you look a couple of posts back, we finished our beautiful oil pastel sunflowers. I was so happy how these turned out! Great Job and Good Listening K4!!!

K5: The K5 went back to work creating their oil pastel fruits. K5 students continued to focus on blending the oil pastels creating highlights and shadows.

1st: After finishing our photo booth portraits before Christmas, the 1st grade began studying American Realism this week. I explained to students that the focus of this period was to depict the real events of everyday life without exaggeration or stylizing. After students participated in a PowerPoint, students chose a favorite location for our project. Students spent the remainder of class sketching their ideas.

2nd: I am excited to announce that students have finished their Rococo Still Life Paintings!!! However, I am disappointed to announce that I cannot show them to you until some time next week. When I left school yesterday, it was coming a flood! I DID NOT want to bring those watercolor paintings outside only to get soaked. I have looked at the weather this afternoon and next week is looking much better. Hopefully, I will get those pictures posted Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek...

3rd: Similar to the K4, the 3rd also finished their project this week. If you look back a post or two you will see our horses inspired by the interests of Leonardo da Vinci.

4th: We are continuing work on our Ming Period inspired vases. Long story...will explain next week.

5th: Students in 5th grade also finished their artworks! You know the drill :)

6th: Students in 6th grade continued work this week on their Colonial weather vanes. Due to limited time last art class, students this week are still cutting out their design and assembling the base of their vane. We will begin to decoupage them next week.

Art Club: First and foremost, we got our tee shirts this week! They look great :) We are continuing to work on our photos and cities. There are 3 students that need to finish their photos and 4 students need to finish their cities...then the grand reveal!!! Here's another sneak peek at our work...

On next week's post, I will also be sharing with you entries from this year's Art Fair. Students were asked to choose one artwork and research it. They will be turning in their displays this coming Thursday...cannot wait!!!

K4 Sunflowers

Cracking Up in the Art Room

My students are so funny, whether they mean to be or not...especially the smaller grades. Students are getting excited about Christmas. There was a lot of excitement and overall happiness in the Art room as we worked this week. As I gave instructions to one of my classes during a make-up class period, I explained to them that they needed to use a pencil to draw...that way if they made a mistake, they could easily erase it and try again. The following conversation then took place...

Student: Mrs. Chance, that's why pencils were made.
Me: Oh, really?
Student: Yeah, people kept messing up on their art. Paint is just too hard to draw with.

Never a dull moment in Art :)

Anyway, we have officially entered, what I call, "roller coaster season". Our schedule is crazy. Some classes came to art twice this week for not only their regular Art class, but also for a make-up period. All classes will miss Art next week (will discuss more later). The last week before break, students will only come to regular Art class...we will not be having Art Club. As I explained last week, I don't want to waste any of the time that we do have. Students will still be working on their projects, instead of doing a short alternative project.

So, here's what we have been up to this week...

K4: I introduced students to the magic of oil pastels. When I first show students the oil pastels, they are always a little disappointed because the oil pastels look so much like crayons...especially those fat kindergarten crayons. Well, I then show students that unlike crayons, oil pastels can really blend. Students were so excited about how the colors blended and mixed together. I allowed students to use the remainder of the class period to explore and experiment with the oil pastels.

K5: Since we finished our Blue Dog inspired drawings last week, students began their new projects this week. I introduced students to still life artworks. Students used the remainder of class to sketch different types of fruit.

1st: Students are continuing to create their 4 different self-portraits displaying a variety of emotions. I can't wait to see all of these displayed together!

2nd: Students continued creating their still life painting. After finishing their vase and table last week, students this week worked on creating flowers and plants for their vase. Traditional Rococo era still life paintings would typically have flowers only, however, I felt that I would let the students "branch" out...haha

3rd: Students are almost finished with their Leonardo da Vinci horses. Here's a sneak peak...

4th: After coloring their vase solidly with oil pastel, students applied an even layer of white tempera paint as the second layer. Students were a little apprehensive to paint over their oil pastel, but I assured students that the results will be awesome!

5th: Fifth graders are finishing up their rose window projects. When I first saw this project online, from several different sources, I knew that I wanted to have my students create it! I am so glad I did! The results have been marvelous and the students have had a great time creating it :)

6th: I introduced students to Colonial era weather vanes this week. After showing students many different examples and explaining the weather vane's history and symbolism, students spent the rest of class sketching ideas for a weather vane that they will begin creating the week before the beginning of Christmas break.

Art Club: We took a small break this week from our regular projects to create the designs for this year's Art Club tee shirt! I am so excited about our shirts this year!!! Normally, I would share with you what we are doing, but that's no fun. I am keeping this one a surprise. Hopefully, I will be ordering our shirts next week, so in a few weeks I should be able to have a grand reveal!

As I stated at the beginning of this post, we will not be having Art for most of the grades next week. On Wednesday, students will be performing in the annual Christmas music program. Students will be practicing all day on Tuesday and Wednesday for their performance. However, Art Club will be held at normal time and we will be back to work on our current projects. I will be sure to update everyone on the happenings next week, even though it might not be a lot.