Spring Show Celebrations and the Festival of the Arts at ICSJ

This is a very special time of the year to celebrate the hard work of students in the Spring Show, as well as students who participate in band, choir and the visual arts.  We had our first "ICSJ Festival of the Arts" kickoff event on Tuesday, celebrating with the band concert, choir concert, and ICSJ Art Show on display in the lower hallway of the Hill Street campus.  This special week-long celebration included the Spring Show at North Park during the week and culminated Thursday with our Spring Show at Hill Street.  Congrats to all students who participated!  See related photographs below. (Note: Visual art display will remain up into the following week.)

*Also, special thank you to Mrs. Marino and Mrs. Moran for volunteering in the art room this week!*

Also, congratulations to all the students who exhibited in the Vicky Tesmer Gallery Show this weekend!  Great work, students!

Kindergarten

Only one kindergarten met this week for the shortened week; these students continued to work on their mural in tempera paint on butcher paper.  We also had a literature-related activity for students waiting their turns to paint: students shared in a readaloud of The Poky Little Puppy (a Golden book that has stood the test of time) before a guided drawing lesson of the Poky Little Puppy.  Students colored their puppy however they liked at their seats. We will continue the mural next week across all three classes.

First Grade

First grade continued the backgrounds of their Rainbow Fish paintings, adding construction paper crabs and other creatures of choice (many students elected to create fish, sea turtles, or more!).  Students also used a thumb stamping technique with tempera paint to create colorful seaweed underwater.

Second Grade

Second grade students in the Tuesday class concluded their totem poles; the Wednesday class began their unit in appreciating art of all sizes.  Students observed large scale sculptures by Claes Oldenburg (the "FREE" stamp in Cleveland and the giant spoon with cherry in Minneapolis, in particular) and Jaume Plensa here in Chicago (the new giant heads in Millennium Park).  Students created their own sculptures in Model Magic or clay and a corresponding context, such a sculpture garden, in crayon and paper.  This activity allowed students a fun and tactile way to exercise their imaginations!

Third Grade

Third grade students concluded their Mola artwork in the style of the Kuna people.  We added a special neon touch with neon cardstock for further design elements and a border.  Great work, 3rd grade!

Fourth Grade

With the arrival of spring comes the arrival of ... bugs! Students used their imaginations and their skills in line drawing to imagine a vast underworld of bugs with all sorts of conveniences of modern living, such as electricity, television, and more underground.  Great work, students!

Fifth Grade

Fifth grade students imagined themselves as superheroes this week and created portraits with unique choices in superhero masks and capes!

Sixth Grade

Sixth grade students began our special Library genre signage project in collaboration with Ms. Lawrence and the library.  Students created collages with prints and words from texts of different genres.  Going forward, we will create stencils in various objects to represent these genres to paint or cut out a bright color that is the same as the book labels.  Some students elected to continue their pop art portraits or create their own superhero portraits, like the 5th grade.  Good work, students!

Seventh Grade

Seventh grade students began their film study with the Disney film, African Cats.  This film used a variety of types of shots that students recognized and recorded, from pan action to birds' eye to close up, and more.  Students may earn the opportunity to watch selections of a choice film with their appropriate behavior for a film and their successful film analysis.

Eighth Grade

Eighth graders continued to make progress on their independent study.  Students who are working in clay either began sculpting or created a base from cardboard, wire, or foam board.  Students creating Chuck Close-style portraits continued to create their grids and began creating designs within.  Students who will make a hand-casting of plaster gauze created "studies" of their hand using cling wrap and packaging tape -- ask your student about this unique technique! Finally, students creating videos wrapped up their footage and began the editing process.  Great job, 8th grade!