The Art Studio
The art studio is very busy this year. We began in our newly expanded classroom; we now have 2 classrooms combined into one large room. The art room overlooks the courtyard and the room receives tons of natural light, a perfect environment for young artists.
Kinders are improving their small motor skills and expanding their vocabulary.
They began the year making sunflowers. They were able to see and touch 4-5 sunflower heads I receive each year from a farmer. We talked about what it means to harvest.
We also did a 2 week project of butterflies. Students enjoyed finishing their butterflies and “flying” them around our big room to the tune of “The Butterfly Song”
1st Grade has made beautiful sunflowers and a fall leaf banner these projects are now on display in the hall way.
2nd Grade created beautiful sunflower paintings with tempera paints some are currently displayed in the hallway. We have begun a lesson on butterflies. This lesson incorporates science as the students will learn the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. We began the art portion making caterpillars.
3rd Graders are working on a directed collage. They began by painting a watercolor and are finishing the project by cutting the watercolor into leaf shapes and making a collage with the cuttings. They are really beautiful.
4th Graders are learning to watercolor. First they had to learn about color intensity and how to mix complimentary colors to create shadow and depth in a painting. They currently are finishing a still life painting of an apple incorporating what they learned in the color lesson.
5th Grade-This is a large class and we have not quite got our groove going yet. They are working on a watercolor lesson. This group loved to sew last year and next week we will be dividing up into smaller groups where students can pick a project and work at their pace from start to finish. Sewing will be one of the options.
6th Grade-This group is learning all about Monarch Butterflies and will be completing their lesson by learning about watercolors and using that technique to create a watercolor painting of a Monarch Butterfly.
7th and 8th Grade are doing a directed collage. They learned a new painting technique used to create what looks like Birch tree trunks. They had to do a watercolor painting. Now they are combining all these elements on dark blue paper into a fall collage. The results are quite striking.