Starting up the 2012/2013 School Year!

The start of our new school year here at Cardinal Elementary has been a great one! This year students in grades 1-5 were asked to bring a sketchbook to art class. This sketchbook has already been put to good use! Students have begun drawing from life, and continuing what they've learned in class by drawing at home. 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders practiced drawing their shoe, and 1st and 2nd graders created a "fantasy" drawing of what they would do with 1 million dollars. Example shoe drawings are below.

This past week 5th grade helpers came into the art room while 1st graders had their art class. 1st graders got into small groups and a 5th grade helper was assigned to a group. The 5th grader helper read a book about Vincent van Gogh to their group and discussed the artwork within the book. All the students involved had a great time! The 5th grade helpers did a fantastic job working with the younger students. Here are some photos from a few different classes. 

Students have begun work on their first projects of the school year. I will post images from these projects as soon as possible! 

 

Pictures of Artwork!

I have added pictures of artwork onto the Flikr Stream to the right. You will see tessellations created by 5th graders, jungle inspired collages by 3rd graders, Gyotaku prints by 1st graders, and color wheel clowns created by Kindergartners! Please enjoy their hard work!

Art Room Update

Wow! What a great performance from the 4th and 5th graders on Tuesday unight! 5th grade students spent hours after school creating the backdrops for the 5th grade musical and they turned out wonderful!

Projects are coming along here in the art room! I am so proud of the growth I see in the students! They are learning about how to create collages and prints, mix light and dark values with paint, and how to create sculptures out of clay. Photos of finished artwork will continue to be updated in the Flikr stream to the right. Enjoy!

New Pictures!

Pictures of finished artwork are posted to the right in my Flikr stream. Please enjoy the artwork! Students have been working hard and we're showing it off!

Kindergarten Collage Self-portraits
1st Grade Vincent Van Gogh "Starry Night" Landscapes
2nd Grade Henri Matisse "Wild Beast" self-portraits
3rd Grade Claude Monet Landscapes
4th Grade Robert Indiana Word Designs

Enjoy!

Art Room Update!

Hello All! Students have been hard at work over the past weeks in the art room. Last Friday we were able to review a few elements of art with the upper grades and went outside to use our spacial skills with the younger grades. I have attached the pictures from those projects in my Flikr stream. Grades 3-5 practiced using line, shape, and value by taking off one of their shoes and drawing it. Students have to really focus on the details of their shoes and the results are fantastic! Younger grades had to work as a group (teamwork!) and come up with a large drawing that they could put their actual bodies in for a picture. Students drew monsters, cars, ferris wheels, and huge pizzas! They then incorporated each member of their group into the artwork for a picture. These pictures are attached to the right. What a fun Friday!

Here is an update of what each grade level is working on currently in their regular art classes!

Kindergarten: Students are finishing up their collage self-portraits that they began a few weeks ago this week. Students added the remaining features of their faces, their shoulders and hair. The pictures of the finished artworks will be in the Flikr stream! Kindergartners will learn about the color wheel next and how to mix secondary colors from primary colors.

1st Grade: Students are working on on their "Starry Night" landscapes inspired by Van Gogh. This week students are continuing to add color with water colors and are focusing on the beautiful swirly sky

2nd Grade: Students are finishing up their "wild beast" self-portraits this week. Pictures of the finished artwork to come soon!

3rd Grade: This week, students are finishing up their Monet inspired landscape. Students either drew a scene with garden inspiration or a scene with water/boat inspiration. Both of these scenes are commonly found in Monet's artwork.

4th Grade: Students are finishing up their Robert Indiana inspired word designs. Words, shapes, lines, and color are a common occurrence in Indiana's artwork and the student's too!

5th Grade: Students are hard at work on their Tessellations. This beautiful original pattern fills their papers. After tracing their original polygon, they add designs to make their artwork even more interesting.

I will be posting pictures of finished artwork as it gets finished in the Flikr stream. Have a great week!

Beginning of the Year Projects

We have begun work on our first projects of the school year. Over the past two weeks, students have created a sketchbook to use in the art room all year long. We will practice drawing new techniques, write, and plan in these sketchbooks. I also had the students make a name tag to leave in the art room to help me learn their names faster! This week, students in each grade level will be starting a new project. The projects that are done in the art room usually take 4-6 weeks to complete. The projects we are starting this week are:

Kindergarten: This week Kindergartners are learning/reviewing their shapes and colors. The students practice drawing shapes on different colors of paper and then practice cutting and gluing these shapes onto a background paper. This is practice for their first project which is a self-portrait collage. Next week, students will be starting this project.

1st Grade: This week 1st graders are learning about Vincent Van Gogh. The students view a video about the life and art of Van Gogh. They learn that he created an artwork called, "The Starry Night". After viewing the video, the students practice learning how to draw a "landscape" scene like "The Starry Night" in their sketchbooks. They learn that things that are far away are small and hard to see, and things that are up close are big and bright! Next week we will be finishing our sketch and then starting on a final drawing of a landscape like "Starry Night".

2nd Grade/Mrs. Smith's Class: This week 2nd Graders and Mrs. Smith's class are learning about the artist, Henri Matisse. They view a video about the life and art of Matisse, and then discuss the artwork that he did. Matisse loved to put color everywhere in his artwork so much that people called him a "wild beast"! After learning about Matisse, the students review how to draw a self-portrait and practice in our sketchbooks. We discuss where certain features are found on our faces and how to draw them. Next week students will be finishing their sketch, and then starting on a final drawing of themselves by looking in the mirror.

3rd Grade: This week 3rd graders are learning about the artist, Claude Monet. I have a book about Monet's life and artwork that I read to the students, and then we discuss a few of his artworks. Monet was an impressionist and painted very differently than most other artists. The students then practice either drawing a water/boat scene or a garden scene in their sketchbooks. We discuss what items we might see in scenes like that and students practice. Next week students will be finishing their sketches and then beginning on their final drawing for this project.

4th Grade: This week 4th graders are learning about the artist, Robert Indiana. I show a power point on Indiana and we discuss the characteristics of his artwork. The students then view his artwork, "Love". I then ask the students to think of their own 4 letter word or number that is significant to them and arrange it similar to Indiana's "Love". Students do this in their sketchbooks, and then use elements of design to enhance their words/numbers. Next week students will be finishing their sketch, and then creating their word/number on good drawing paper.

5th Grade/Mrs. McMullen's Class: This week 5th graders and Mrs. McMullen's Class are learning about Tessellations. I show a Power Point on this subject, and the students understand that Math skills can be used to make artwork. I lead the students through creating a unique polygon using "Translation" transformation and the students begin to visualize what their shape looks like. Next week we will be making a "Reflection" and "Rotation" transformation polygon, and the students will get to decide which one they will use to make their final Tessellation.

I am very excited to get started on the first projects of the year! I will be posting pictures of finished artworks throughout the year, so keep your eye out!

-Mrs. Conner =)

New School, New Year!

Welcome back to school! This year, I will be the art teacher at Cardinal Elementary while Mrs. DeStefano is on her maternity leave. I am very excited to be at Cardinal and look forward to a great year!

To begin the school year, all students will be introduced to classroom procedures, learn about projects they'll be creating this year, and make a sketchbook that they will use throughout the year. I am eager to meet all the students of Cardinal Elementary, and to see their creativity!

I will be posting pictures of finished projects throughout the year as well as update what projects each grade level is working on.

Let's get this year started! =)