Jan 15 and 16

Hard to believe that the month of January is already half over.....whew! School will be out before we know it.

K-2
Drawing straight lines with a ruler takes practice. That’s what students worked on in art today. The skills were: where to put your hand so the ruler does not slip and how to press the pencil against the ruler. Also practiced drawing large circles to create negative shapes in which to fill with color.

3/4
Students worked with some of the classifications in color, specifically warm and cool colors along with dark, middle and light values. This lesson works right in to looking at Lisa Call’s work. http://lisacall.com

5/6
Students are winding up their portrait. They still have an evaluation to complete before moving to a new area of study. I have seen some wonderful examples of student understanding of values and facial feature placement

Jan 8 and 9

Happy New Year! May this year be one where each of us listens and lives the call of compassion. I returned to school today after a cold but delightful trip to Chicago to visit our first grandson, Malone. He is 7.5 months old. Being a grandparent is the best.

I was overwhelmed by the generosity of gifts that families and staff showered me with. I thank you. In all my teaching years, I have never received such demonstrations of care as I have at this school.

K-2

The students looked at the work of artist Lisa Call. She creates quilts and uses a structure for a body of work. The students’ job was to look at the work and try to analyze the structure. When they broke it down into steps then they created a version of the work.

3/4
The students looked at the work of artist Lisa Call. She creates quilts and uses a structure for a body of work. The students’ job was to look at the work and try to analyze the structure. When they broke it down into steps then they created a version of the work.

The big vocabulary word for the day was ADJACENT. Knowing what it meant when designing was helpful.

5/6
Students are still working on their final portrait project.  They have one more class period in which to complete the assignment. After that the assignment becomes homework.

Our next area of study is design and in particular printmaking. The students want to carve a stamp to put onto a sweatshirt. I will be sending home a notice about this project very soon.

12/4 and 12/5

K-1 (2^nd grade did not have art this week, due to an all school Christmas concert practice)

Students took their previously glue created Christmas tree designed paper and applied a contrasting chalk to make the glue lines stand out.

Our second assignment of the day was to practice using scissors and of course gluing. An additional skill that was introduced was expanding a half sheet of paper into a full sheet. This is a sequencing skill.

3/4

Students finished their Bible story drawing/painting project which included a self evaluation to the following rubric.

My project contains evidence of:
1. Emphasis (what’s the story about...who are the main characters)    
2. Foreground, middle ground and background              
3. Proportioned human figure
4. Historical clothing (no jeans and t-shirts)
5. Color usage to show emphasis
6. Color usage with variation (how many browns are there?)               
7. Details and textures                                              

working on sequencing project

Second trimester’s focus is design. The second assignment of the day was to practice using scissors and of course gluing. An additional skill that was introduced was expanding a half sheet of paper into a full sheet. This is a sequencing skill.

5/6

Students are still working on their final portrait project.

Today the emphasis was using watercolor paint as value to create the dark and light highlights in their self-portrait.

12/4 and 12/5

K-2

It’s a review week for using glue. This week they created a design for Christmas and used glue as the drawing medium.

This is what your child reviewed.
1. How to open/ close and wipe the tip of the bottle
2. How much squeeze pressure to use
3. Where to place the tip of the bottle to draw with glue.
4. The speed to use when drawing a line of glue

Students also took their previously glue created patterned paper and applied a contrasting chalk to make the glue lines stand out.

3 (4th was at concert practice-so I did not see them)

Students finished their Bible story drawing/painting project.

They also took time to self evaluate their project to the following rubric.

My project contains evidence of:
1. Emphasis (what’s the story about...who are the main characters)    
2. Foreground, middle ground and background                                     
3. Proportioned human figure                                                                   
4. Historical clothing (no jeans and t-shirts)                                             
5. Color usage to show emphasis                                                             
6. Color usage with variation (how many browns are there?)               
7. Details and textures   

                                                                            

5/6
Students are still working on their final portrait project.

Today the emphasis was using watercolor paint as value to create the dark and light highlights in their self-portrait.

This is the evaluation that they will use to assess their art work.....they also can use this while they are working. It guides them on each criteria of the project. There are no secrets in what I expect them to demonstrate.

These are the skills that I have evidence of in my self-portrait:
1. Correct facial feature placement                                                
2. Negative space                                                                           

3. Dark and light range of 1-5                                                        
4. Use of color to show value                                                        
5. Values in face are in the correct place                                       
6. Draw what I see not what I know                                              
7. Humanoid not cartoon                                                                
8. Eyes are human looking                                                              
9. Nose has contour just at base                                                     
10. Lip contour is mainly line between lips                                   

11/20 and 11/21

K-2

Learning to use glue. Doesn’t sound like it would be a skill to spend time on....especially if you know how but it is one of the skills that students use all the time in school. How many times has your child used glue and it was a gooey mess...all over their hands, all over their paper, the table. You get my drift!

So this is what your student learned.
1. How to open/ close and wipe the tip of the bottle
2. How much squeeze pressure to use
3. Where to put the tip of the bottle for a dot of glue on the paper
4. The speed to use when drawing a line of glue

Students made a patterned paper in glue drawing dots, circles, straight lines, curved and angled lines on colored construction paper.

3/4
Students are finishing a project they started last trimester. They are illustrating specific Bible stories to be used in RE for first communion and confirmation. The skills that they are to demonstrate are:
1. Emphasis (what’s the story about...who are the main characters)
2. Foreground, middle ground and background
3. Proportioned human figure
4. Historical clothing (no jeans and t-shirts)
5. Color usage to show emphasis
5. Color usage with variation (how many browns are there?)
6. Details and textures

5/6
Students are working hard on their final project for a portrait-drawing unit that was started at the beginning of first trimester. Yes, it takes that much time and practice to learn these skills. I am thrilled with the progress that I am seeing. You may hear complaining, I’m used to it. Today from the 6^th graders comments ranged from “frustrating” to “invigorating” with even a “fun” thrown in. Drawing yourself is emotionally difficult. We care about how we look and it’s hard to divorce oneself from what we think we look like to drawing what is there. The mantra is draw what you see not what you know.  These are the skills that your student is striving to demonstrate.
1. Facial feature placement
2. Negative space
3. Dark and light
4. Color as value
5. Draw what is there
My hope is this will be a piece that you will want to keep and possibly frame.

Happy Thanksgiving.......I will not be doing a posting next week because of only half day on Wednesday.  No art instruction just playing with a few classes making turkey puppets.