Falling into the World of ART!

 We have been so busy and the work the kids are producing is more than exciting! I have made some improvements this year to our classroom, one of the most exciting is that Kindergartners and First graders are bringing home an artwork with them on Friday and on it parents will fins a sticker that will help the students and parents discuss their learning for the week. I am excited to have my students bring that learning home and into the lives of their families and in their conversations. We have also been busy preparing for the Fall season and the Veteran's Day program that is to come in November. I am excited to share with you some of the work we've been working on below.

Students in Fifth grade created some amazing works. They were beautiful and unique and each student took great time to give their best effort and make quality work they would be proud of. We learned how to build block and bubble letters on our papers and we discussed graffiti and the styles of writing we can create on our own.

Students in First grade worked hard on being architects.  This was a wonderful tie in to our Book of the Month that featured an architect! The kids were excited to share there knowledge with their teachers when they worked on the the book in their classrooms. Students discussed what architects do and why it is important. They learned that architects need a plan and they built one of their own.  Many classes built playgrounds and playhouses and others built cities! Whatever they built we had a great time together building them and using our shapes to draw and our scissors to construct the necessary shapes for our final construction plan. 

First graders working from their plans (sketches of shapes) to create their final structures!  These are buildings.  Students needed to know what business would be in their building so they could accurately plan and construct for the purpose. These first graders did a great job of understanding the importance of function and design!  The city is soon to be constructed.  Mrs. Everett has had a recent injury and this keeps her from climbing to build the city in the hallway.

First graders also discussed texture! We worked on creating owls that will be a beautiful connection to weather  and the seasons that they are studying in their classrooms in science. Students were excited to make their own Owls in their own ways with a few tips and techniques on shape, space, texture, and color! We worked on using whispering pencils to draw our owls, screaming oil pastels to trace over their pencil lines, and learned the way we use our watercolors in the art room (swish, swipe, dip the tip!). Students completed these and several are hanging in the hallway on display right now.

Third graders studied foreground, middle ground, and background.  We discussed atmospheric perspective and we created a fall scene with pumpkins. Students were permitted choice of materials. Some chose crayon, some decided on oil pastels ,and others chose chalk pastels. No matter what media they decided they were beautiful and are soon to be put up in the hallways at Harbins. We looked at pumpkins and how they grow and looked at a large pumpkin to see the evolution of it's growth and how we could best recreate the illusion of a real pumpkin on our paper. Things closer to us are near the bottom of the paper and those things farther away from us are smaller and are found farther up the paper. We also talked about details and texture. As a pre-project, to our pumpkins we created the Statue of Liberty. So we discussed using pencils to draw lightly. we looked at a video on drawing the Statute and we worked together to see how we could use minimal information and still would be able to make a recognizable drawing of it. We used chalks to rub across the paper, this was a reintroduction to the chalks so that students would we prepared to use them as a choice in their Pumpkin creation. We then used charcoal to trace over our pencil lines to add contrast and make her stand out.

Third grade pumpkin patches.

Third grade Statute of Liberty.

Fifth graders have been working on contour line and looking at something to draw it. We looked at our shoes and recreated the bottom of our shoes. We drew with pencil lightly and then we traced with sharpie and wrote about where our shoes have taken us and where they will take us. We talked figuratively how this relates to soldiers and how their boots carry them all over the world and in all types of situations in the course of their service. We hope that these will make a beautiful display for our Veteran's day show.

Fifth grade shoes.

Fourth graders looked at Optical Illusions and how they trick our eyes. We discussed how this is the over all goal of many artists because they want to make a 2D drawing appear to have the third dimension and appear to have form and depth. We looked at the American flag and we tried to create the illusion of space and depth. We were also made aware of how important light is to this process. We completed some shading and high lights in hopes to create the flag blowing freely in the wind.

Fourth grade American Flag

I am also extremely excited to add CLUB CREATE to the list of opportunities provided to students at Harbins. Fourth and fifth graders that were interested in this artistic endeavor were given the opportunity to do so by completing an art application and a work of art. We will begin meeting this week and beginning our collaborative works in preparation for art shows that we hope to have take place outside the walls of Harbins. I am excited about this and hope the students gain more than even I expected when planning for it.

We are ready for inspiring AWE!