ART

The fourth-grade artists have been busy wrapping up the school year! They engrossed themselves in an embroidery project, learning how to do a running stitch and a satin stitch to create different decorative designs on fabric. They also dove into a ceramics project, creating clay flower sculptures. Students had to create slabs of clay, shape them into petal forms, and securely attach them with the scratch and attach method. They will finish these sculptures with vibrant acrylic paints after they are fired in the kiln.

The third-grade artists have been busy wrapping up the school year! They spent a few weeks working on a Spring bouquet project, where they drew different flowers with sharpie and colored pencils, cut them out, and glued them back together in a bundle. They learned how to blend their colored pencils to make their flowers look more intricate and realistic. Next, they worked on making clay chameleon sculptures. They focused on creating strong connections with the scratch and attach method and added small details like hats or textures to give their chameleons some personality. They finished these sculptures with acrylic paint.

The first-grade artists have been busy wrapping up the school year! They finished their papier mache animal sculptures by painting them with acrylic paint and paint pens. Next, they learned how to make a simple paper puppet. The first graders were so excited by this project! Using a simple fold to make an opening for the mouth, students then added extra colored paper to turn the fold into an animal or creature of their choice. This week, we are drawing silly surreal sandwiches, which really showcase each student’s personality!

The pre-k artists have been busy wrapping up the school year! In our combined outdoor education/art classes, we’ve been exploring light, shadow, and rainbows. Students have explored different light reflecting objects, like translucent colored blocks, and even created their own suncatchers using paper plates and colored cellophane. We are hoping to spend our last classes together exploring cyanotype, an alternative printing process that uses sunlight to create monochromatic photolike prints. Keep your fingers crossed for sunny days!

Over the last month the pre-k artists have been working on a mixed-media vegetable garden project inspired by all the exciting things happening in the student garden at this time of year. Students incorporated several different skills for this project – drawing, painting, cutting, and gluing, and it was a wonderful way to see how much they have grown as artists this year! In our combined outdoor education/art classes, we’ve been able to get outside more with the nicer weather, which has allowed us to go to Marilyn’s Garden to make sound maps, and the Epiphany Church courtyard to make insect habitats from found materials. I look forward to finishing out the year with the pre-k artists exploring light and shadow!

It’s been wonderful welcoming the first-grade artists back to the art room for their final quarter of the year! We’ve been busy learning all about Surrealism, an art movement that was interested in dreams and imagination. Students created their own surreal animals, finding creative ways to alter or combine real animals to make something new and unique. They created mixed media paintings with oil pastel, sharpie, and watercolor paint, taking time to imagine what kind of environment their animal would live in. And now, they are working on creating sculptures of their animals using papier-mache! Students had to think about what their animal would look like “in the round” or viewed from all sides. We will also work next week on creating backdrop art for the first-grade performance! I’m excited for everyone to see what these creative artists come up with.