Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving to all at ICSJ!

Happy Thanksgiving!  This year I am thankful to work with students in K-8 in creating vibrant art to express thoughts, feelings and ideas. I have never felt so blessed.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students who had class this week continued to work on their primary and secondary colored fish paintings.  Check in soon for photo updates!

First Grade

First graders shared in a readaloud of The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, by a favorite author and illustrator, Tomie de Paola, before delving into the creation of their own painting of a sunset using warm colors (and a touch of cool purple).  This connected wonderfully with our field trip to the Native American pow wow, where we learned of the importance of names in Native American culture.  The protagonist of the Tomie de Paola story goes from being "Little Gopher" to "He Who Brought the Sunset to the People."  Certainly art can accomplish wondrous things!  Next week, students will use cardboard and paint to stamp the Indian Paintbrush, a colorful flower, onto the foreground of their works.

Below, see our recent Mondrian Animal creations that this week went home.






Here are our classroom windows with the same theme!


Second Grade 

Second graders put the finishing touches (hay and glue) onto their Scarecrow Collages.  It is exciting to have completed this long-term project.  We then read a story about a lost and lonely rooster by Eric Carle, noticing the technique that Carle used to create his illustrations.  Then, we began making Eric Carle-inspired turkeys for Thanksgiving, after reading this story, which also integrates math knowledge.  See the collages below, as well as the Line Cities project that went home just in time for Thanksgiving.







Third Grade

Third graders created cornucopia mosaics inspired by the artwork, or "painting with scissors," of Matisse.  Students used bright colors and patterns in making these lively creations, now that we have completed our Chuck Close portraits (see below).




Fourth Grade

Fourth Grade learned about color mixing and the creation of intermediate, as well as secondary, colors, with the example of layered tissue paper.  This set us up nicely for our "stained glass" portrait project, in which we will represent the saint that we are studying in our classrooms.  We will apply construction paper and tissue paper to contact paper to create a stained glass effect as light hits our portraits.

Here are our recently completed Pumpkin Batiks!




Fifth Grade

Fifth grade completed our watercolor portrait project; early finishers worked on the creation of a tissue paper leaf to catch the last rays of the fall sun.  Winter is soon upon us!

Here, you can see recent chalk pastel leaves, and our earlier project, nature contour line drawings with optional bleeding tissue paper painting.







Sixth Grade

Sixth Grade learned about color, reading about the unique artwork of Sandy Skoglund, who used color effectively in her "Radioactive Cats" and other photographs that combined sculpture and photography into stunning images.  We continued to work on our Foreshortened Perspective Portraits.


Seventh Grade

Seventh Grade will be incorporating their experiences of our recent Native American pow wow field trip with art in making an ornament to keep for years to come, while keeping the memories of learning of the "heartbeat of Mother Earth," or the drum beat that we all share and that unites us as people.

Eighth Grade

Eighth graders will be combining their knowledge of color with that of form while creating a very special surprise as a group.

Here is a tessellation created by one of our eighth graders, who ventured away from the PART/TRAP method and spontaneously created this piece of art, inspired by M.C. Escher. 



Gobble gobble!






Saturday, November 16, 2013

A Very Fun Fall at ICSJ

Kindergarten

Kindergarteners continued to explore concepts of line with their oil pastel resist paintings, "Line Owls," after reading Owl Babies and The Little White Owl!  Students used watercolor paints to finish these lovely fall themed projects.  Then, we learned about geometric and organic shapes through the creation of their "Shape Monsters," just in time for Halloween! 





First Grade

After creating Piet Mondrian-inspired animals with marker, students moved on to their portrait project to celebrate Odyssey through the Arts!  This self portrait project involved making life-sized portraits.  First, students traced a partner on large paper; then, students colored their own drawing to represent themselves with markers and crayon.  Next, we will cut out these large-scale drawings! 



Second Grade

Second graders are crafting very colorful and lively pumpkin scarecrow collages on a watercolor background!  Check back soon for photo updates!

Third Grade

Third graders finished their shadow line drawings (see below) before moving on to a Chuck Close-inspired portrait project using Sharpie and watercolor.  Chuck Close used a grid system to create large scale, photorealistic paintings; we used patterns to create interest in these fun and unique portraits!









Fourth Grade

Fourth grade students finished up a unique pumpkin "batik" project using crayon and India Ink.  Check back soon for photo updates!  Next, students will make a portrait of the saint whom they are researching for a Language Arts/Religion project!

Fifth Grade

Fifth grade students finished chalk pastel leaf drawings to explore organic shape, using real leaves and organic materials collected from the school yard! Students outlined these colorful, carefully blended drawings in luminous metallic Sharpie before they were sprayed with workable fixative to keep the pastel on the paper.  Currently, students are creating a portrait of their choice using watercolor paint.

Sixth Grade

Sixth graders finished their Day of the Dead recycled cardboard skulls that they created in conjunction with their fun and informative Spanish field trip to the Mexican Museum of Art.  Students first cut cardboard and glued parts together for the skulls.  Next, they painted the skulls with white acrylic paint, before finally decorating them with cheerful colors in oil pastel to celebrate the lives of loved ones lost, as is the custom.  Then, students had a fun exercise in foreshortening, creating portraits that appear as if a student is looking down at the viewer through a glass floor.








(see more examples under Seventh Grade)

Seventh Grade

Seventh graders also worked on an exercise in perspective, creating 2-point perspective city drawings.  Ask your student about the horizon line, vanishing points, and converging parallel lines in this fun activity that combines math knowledge with creative expression!  Early finishers worked to create "bird's eye view" drawings in 1-point perspective.








Eighth Grade

Eighth grade recently wrapped up their Tessellation project (check back for photos).  Ask your student about the PART/TRAP method of creating a tessellation that fits geometric or organic shapes together perfectly!.  Then, students took turns taking photo portraits they had planned in a previous class while the class as a whole worked on self-portraits that they will "Zentangle," or doodle creatively, upon!


 
Here are some of the finished photo products!




Great job, eighth grade!


Thanks for visiting the ICSJ Art blog!