The Line that Connects Us All

It has been a great start to the year! Our opening project that all of out students collaborated on is "The Line that Connects Us All." We are all unique but when we come together, at school, our lives touch and we are all connected.

Each student was asked to create an artwork that represents themselves. In order to make it collaborative, the students were asked to draw a line between 2 dots on their papers (3 inches up from the bottom). When placed directly side by side each student's art connects with all the other students' art! The line that runs through all of the artworks is "The Line that Connects us All." We are all unique but when we come together at school our lives touch and we are all connected.



Once students bring these home they can connect their artworks at home with their siblings' art and a new collaborative work is born. In this case, the line illustrates their family connection.

The book I used to kick off this project was Andrew Drew and Drew which I give a whole hearted 5 stars for creativity and artistic encouragement!

Emojis

At Bauer all of the teachers were Emojis for Halloween!



Today in art class the kids learned a bit about the history of emojis! The younger kids focused more on emotions and how to draw an emotional face. The older kids pulled together their creative ideas to create their own unique emojis!

Elmer the Elephant

First grade children read a great story about Elmer.  Elmer is an elephant who at first is disappointed about being different from the rest of the elephants. In the end it becomes quite clear that his differences are celebrated by the other elephants!

During this project, we talked about patterns and using a cool color scheme! 

Learning Goals: I can...

- Identify cool colors

- Create patterns using a variety of lines

- Paint carefully

Square 1 Art

It's that time again! Your child has already received their free Square 1 Art stickers and order forms have been sent home!  If you would like to order merchandise with your child's artwork on it please submit your order by the due date!

The grade with the highest percentage of orders will get an additional clay project this year!

Due Dates:

Bauer Elementary: November 10, 2015

Forest Gove Elementary: November 16, 2015

Items will be delivered to school before Christmas break so they could make for great gifts! (A percentage of each order goes to support the art room!)

Art at Home

Here is a 3 minute clip with some suggestions for supporting art at home! Enjoy!

Monet's Waterlilies

First graders created these pretty Model Magic waterlily sculptures after learning about Claude Monet. We read the book The Magical Garden of Claude Monet and learned that Monet was an impressionist artist who was known for his waterlily paintings!

Learning Goals: I can...

- Tell about Monet

- Create a sculpture using Model Magic

- Paint carefully

Raccoons

Our fist graders learned about different kinds of paint when we created raccoons! First we read "The Kissing Hand" to get inspired to create raccoons!  Then we drew the outline of the body using basic shapes.  We talked about techniques and strategies for creating smooth lines with thick tempera paint. These strategies include: lots of paint on the brush, pull the brush towards yourself without picking the brush up until you run out of paint. For good craftsmanship we practiced painting the "sides first and then the middle." We also used "lawnmower lines" to smooth out the lines and cover all the white spaces.

After the grey paint dried, we cut white circles from squares by cutting the corners off.  We also did a double cut (fold the rectangle in half first) to get two eyes that were exactly the same! We outlined with black tempera paint and added stripes.  Finally, we talked about the difference between thick tempera paint and thin transparent watercolor paint for the background.

Learning Goals: I can...
- Create circles from squares
- Paint smooth lines
- Tell the difference between watercolor paint and tempera paint
- Use good craftsmanship when adding color

Tooth Fairy

First graders read "Andrew's Loose Tooth" for this project and talked about how the illustrator decided not to show the tooth fairy the normal way that you would expect.  Next we practiced drawing portraits! Students designed their own tooth fairy clothes and tooth fairies were allowed to be boys too!

Learning Goals: I can...

- Create unique artwork

- Explain what a portrait is

- Draw a portrait

- Color and paint carefully

Square One Art Fundraiser 2014

Square 1 Art order forms are on their way home now through the beginning of next week!  The grade level that has the most students participate will win an extra clay project at Forest Grove and a chance to help paint the teacher's chair at Bauer!

Here are some examples of books that were bought this year for the art room with Square One Art fundraiser money! When you purchase products from Square 1 Art, a portion of the proceeds comes back to the art room! Our current supply budget covers the cost of all the basic consumable supplies (paint and paper, etc) that we need to create thousands of pieces of art each year.  Square 1 Art funds help the art room to add non-consumable teaching tools (like books, paint rollers, storage solutions etc).  

When you order from Square 1 Art please order online if at all possible! (This makes keeping track of the paperwork easier and more accurate!)

Order Deadline at Forest Grove: November 12, 2014 (if you can get it in by Friday 7th that's even better :) )
Order Deadline at Bauer Elementary: November 11, 2014

Here is a sneak peek at what each grade level has done this year!

Kindergarten: Kids learned about the warm color family and watercolor painting techniques!

First Grade: Read the book "Hands: Growing up to Be an Artist" by author and illustrator Lois Ehlert. Each student created their own unique artwork using their hand as inspiration!

Second Grade: Created artwork inspired by Henry Rousseau. A great book about Rousseau was purchased this year with Square One Art funds! 

Third Grade: Kids learned about and created radial symmetry!

Fourth Grade: Learned about Edgar Degas and created action figures! 

Fifth Grade: Was given the opportunity to take this graphic designer job seriously and create artwork of their choice!