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!

Rotational Symmetry Weaving

Third graders love this project! This is one that I will certainly do for a number of years! This idea has been floating around the internet for years and I finally tried it last year! We talk about the difference between bilateral and rotational symmetry.

The first day and we paint our plates... 

Next comes the weaving...

 

Learning Goals: I can...
- Tell the difference between rotational and bilateral symmetry
- Use rotational symmetry
- Weave
- Tie overhand knots

Here is an art teacher tip...

Place yarn in ziplock bags with the tail sticking out and tell kids to treat the bag like a yo-yo... gently tugging at the tail (which is the only thing sticking out of the bag). Let the bag gently bob in the air as the string gradually comes out of the bag. I stapled the ziplock closed on either side of the string to keep it from falling back in the bag. Soon I will try out using the heavy duty ziplocks with a zipper... that might work better than staples which come out over time!

If you want to prep cutting a bunch of colors at once you can do this!

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!

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!

Robots: Da Vinci Meets Pollock

Before third graders learned about Da Vinci, we created backgrounds for our artwork in the style of Jackson Pollock.  We read "Action Jackson," and got a feel for how Pollock lived and worked.  We learned that Pollock dripped and drizzled house paint all over huge canvases in his studio.  Next, we did our own abstract expressionist string paintings on colored paper.  If you want to see how we did that check out this post from last year!

Next, we read "Leonardo and the Flying Boy."  Through this story, we learned that Leonardo was not only famous for painting the Mona Lisa but he was also a great sculptor, musician, scientist and inventor!  We got to peek at a few of his sketches of inventions that were drawn way before their time!  We used his creative inspiration to invent robots of our own!

Learning Goals: I can...

- Tell about Jackson Pollock

- Create a string painting in the style of Pollock

- Tell about Da Vinci

- Create my own unique robot

- Paint smooth edges

- Use chalk to create highlights to make more robot look more 3D (form)

Lego Self-Portraits

Third graders had fun creating lego self-portraits! This was a project I kept seeing all over Pinterest and couldn't help but want to do it with the kids.  Each year I try to come up with a self-portrait project and this one in particular, leaves plenty of room for each student to express his or her personality. It also helps kids show off their creativity!

Here is a window into the job of a lego designer!  Now this is a job where art meets creativity, persistence and engineering! Take a look!

I think it's also important for kids who don't like all the art mess to see that a lot of creative jobs are on the computer these days!

Learning Goals: I can...
- Create my own unique lego self-portrait
- Explain what it's like to be a lego designer (environment, process etc.)
- Explain what a self-portrait is
- Add a background that fits my personality and interests
- 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!

This year will be a BLAST!

Welcome back! It's been a great summer and now it's time to go back to school!
These murals were painted by Mrs. McManus's, Mrs. Laansma's ( Forest Grove Elementary) and Mrs. Rich's (Bauer Elementary) 2013-2014 classes!  We saved them over the summer and they are hanging and ready to welcome everyone back! Each student will add their own star to the mural on the first day of art!

Learning Goals: I can...

- Explain what a mural is

- Use art to create a welcoming environment

- Collaborate with other students on a group project