The Ratner School Art Program

Well, we did it again. Another successful year completed. Thank you all for trusting me with your children each day and letting me guide them through their creative education. I have thoroughly enjoyed this year and already have plans for our return in late August. Thanks to all for the words of encouragement, the gifts, the "thank you's" and sharing the pictures and stories of their art work hanging in your homes. Cleveland is a wealth of opportunities for creative events throughout the summer and I have included links to some of them on the side bar.  Try to let your kids be bored for at least one day a week and you will be amazed at what they will create.  I will be busy this summer as the artist in residence at Zygote print gallery in Cleveland, showing my jewelry locally at the Cain Park Arts Festival and Lakewood Arts festival and traveling in my 1969 Airstream trailer. I look forward to summer, but am always excited to begin a new school year. I will see you in August!

Kindergarten Art

I enjoyed seeing you all at the Kindergarten celebration and I know you are all proud of your children. They learned and grew so much this year and I have enjoyed every class I had with them. They are a remarkable group of children. I appreciate all the kind words and gifts from you all this year and I am so pleased you enjoy the art education your children have received. I had several parents ask if I have the photos that were in the "I think you're wonderful" necklaces. I have a jpeg file for each Kindergarten child, if you would like the file, just email me at pfields@theratnerschool.org and I will send you the file. 

1st and 2nd Grade Art

We do two traditional end of the projects in art. The first project I always try to do with the 1st and 2nd grade class is solar prints. This, of course, depends on the fact that the sun will be shining on the day I want to do the project. We had a beautiful day this time and the students made some fantastic prints. The paper can be ordered through www.dickblick.com or enasco.com. The Nasco company offers larger sheets. (See the photo below for the kind I like to use.) All the students wanted to try several more prints, so I think if you can get them an entire pack to experiment with, they would love it! Our second year end project is the making and launching of paper airplanes. It is my version of a year in party in art. I am not big on cake, candy or food in the art room, so this allows us to celebrate in a maker way. The students had a great time trying to launch their airplanes from the balcony onto the playground. 

3rd and 4th Grade Art

We finished the year with our annual making of the paper airplane and throwing them off the balcony project! Always a favorite, the project has now grown to every grade level participating! The students get more involved and excited with their designs each year. We had a bit of rain the morning of this project, but we still launched the planes outside and had a great time. I love to make airplanes and see how one slight difference changes  the entire flight plan. 

5th and 6th Grade Art

The end of the year brings the favorite project of building paper airplanes and flying them off the balcony. It is the party I chose to do instead of cake, candy or food. The students get more elaborate with their designs every year and look forward to this year end tradition. I like breaking the rules (once in a while) and throwing airplanes in the art room is as crazy as I go. Abe K. taught the class how to make a new flying device and kept me entertained as well. Thanks Abe! There are hundreds of designs to paper airplanes with different tricks, rubber band propellers and an endless possibilities. Have fun!

7th and 8th Grade Art

The end of the year in 7th and 8th Grade art is always a bit disjointed. Field trips, exams, speech preparations and partnerships make for an interesting schedule in art. All the students finished up their history projects with great success this year. Having classes in art seemed to help propel the final visual piece of the history project to a higher level. Access to materials, feedback and tools helped the students think of more possibilities with their projects. In addition to the completion of the history projects, the classes all made the traditional step up posters for the rising 6th grade students and the 8th grade class made their name posters to be signed by their Ratner friends. It has truly been a fantastic year and I thank you all for your support and encouragement. Summer on!