Thursday, September 29, 2011

Art Club, Fall, and What Are We Doing?

Yes! Art Club is in full swing! Well, almost--sorry fifth graders, for missing today. But we'll have a makeup day next week. I'm emailing all of your parents.

Art Club! Woohoo! Are you excited or what? We are already maxing out our time every meeting, making paper mache' animals. And they are cool as cool can get. I'm looking forward to seeing the final products--they are just one more layer away from paint.

It's fall so we are rocking along with all the stuff that makes Art class fun and informative. Kindergarteners are learning the parts of a fish while they make secret patterns on a special resist painting. Show your parents how to play the fin game--dorsal fin, caudal fin, pelvic fin, pectoral fin. Make your mom and dad do the motions with you and you can be your own school of fish! Tell them you're learning about primary and neutral colors, geometric and organic shapes, and the proper use of art tools.

First graders have designed t-shirts for Mrs. Smith to wear for Movie Night just a couple of weeks away. They're working on line patterns and learning about Art jobs, like clothing design. Maybe we have a few potential Chanels in our midst!

Second graders are exploring their imaginations and talking about habitats and land forms as we make up a Wild Thing, an imaginary creature that lives in our closets and comes out to see what our lives are all about. We are making our creature, then building his world in a watercolor painting that will feature some of the land forms we've brainstormed. We'll be focusing on foreground and background, and our cool critter will be detachable, so we can really look at the habitat it lives in. Thanks to Maurice Sendak and Where the Wild Things Are, we've got all kinds of interesting things to think about.

Third grade is learning all about the world of Andy Warhol and his silk screen prints, and how art reflects the times. We are brainstorming pop culture icons of today and working on color theory as we develop our own Warhol-esque artwork with repeated imagery. Of course this is in honor of the way-cool art show about to open up at the High Museum, "Picasso to Warhol", which opens October 15.

Fourth graders are learning all about proportion and how to use it to create a realistic portrait. This is a lead-up to our tradition of making grandparent portraits for our annual Grandparents' Tea in November. Students are excited to see their drawing skills grow as they learn the proportions of the face, and grandparents are going to be excited to see themselves from the eyes of their special kids. It's always a popular artwork, and it gets its own special show by the cafeteria.

Fifth grade is jumping from the Elements of Art in its most basic form to a wonderful accordion book that they will be making in class that illustrates the 7 Elements in whatever way they choose. They will be allowed to use any and all art supplies in the art room, and will be able to illustrate the Elements in whatever creative way they choose. These are truly beautiful and will be shown in the media center when they are finished. Please be sure to go by and see them in a few weeks when they make their debut.

Excitement abounds in the Art Room. I hope you'll stop in to see us sometime!

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