The Ratner Montessori Art Program

While this was a busy week with the writing of report cards, several projects wrapping up and the excitement with the students about Halloween, we still managed a highly productive and creative week. This is one of my favorite seasons, I love the change in the sky, the plants, the scurry of the animals and birds, everything about autumn in Northeast Ohio thrills me. Even the promise of snow does not lesson the beauty of autumn for me. I hope you enjoy viewing the work happening in the art program and look for more work to come home next week as I change out some of the displayed work.

Plants outside the technology lab at the Ratner Montessori School

Kindergarten Art

We continued the work on the Matisse inspired paper collages this week adding small details using black paper. I often talk to the students about how colors can talk to each other in art and how visually the color black is the strongest voice. It helps the students begin to understand composition and balance in their work and is the beginning stages of purposeful and careful work in art. When the students were pleased with their composition and felt they had completed their work, they began to build a 3-dimensional Matisse inspired collage. This project carries through the visual guidelines of color balance and introduces new art terms including 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, form and scale. Kindergarten students also love to build with paper! I enjoyed seeing both pieces hanging together and hope you will stop by and view the work outside their classrooms. 

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grade Art

We began a cultural awareness unit focused on the visual language and traditions of Dia de los Muertos. We talked briefly about the symbols of the celebration, what the tradition embodied and looked at several example of the colorful masks. The students created a plaster cast using a face mold and plaster gauze strips. Three layers of material had to be carefully applied to create a strong and smooth surface to decorate. The students had 6 paint colors to build their color palette- gold, black, red, orange, green and blue. They had samples of the traditional designs to inspire their own designs. The masks were to be bright, symmetrical and carefully painted using as much detail as possible.

4th, 5th and 6th Grade Art

While it is not very often that I offer a full day of "free" art, the Elementary 2 students had work so diligently on the perspective drawing unit that I thought I would give them a creative break. For most students this is a chance to explore specific areas of interest that they may not always have the time or materials to explore. For some students, the amount of choice for free time art is overwhelming and they do not know what to do. It is a balance to find enough freedom for creative exploration and time to guide them in specific techniques. The 6th grade class was not as productive with "free" art time, so I began them on the next project, a watercolor still life. More on that next week!

7th and 8th Grade Art

The cardboard build is drawing to a close this week, the students have enjoyed having a fun and loose project to blow off some steam from the Scholastic Art pieces. I saw some creative work happening, lots of folds and interesting shapes being built.  I was pleased to see the students observing their pieces from all angles, thinking about the differents textures, scale and visual balance. 

 

The Ratner Montessori School Art Program

I constantly marvel at the amount of creative work we accomplish in a week of school. I love my job and the energy all the students bring into class each day. They keep me active and thinking constantly about new ways to approach all the different processes and methods they want to learn. Thank you for your constant support and all the materials you share with the students and our art program. It is a gift and a curse that we can make art with just about anything! 

Dramatic early morning playground scene 

Kindergarten Art

I introduced the students to the artwork of Henri Matisse last week. We talked a bit about his work and how he changed the way he looked at the world and the way he created art. The students were presented with a lesson on scissors and liquid glue application. They were shown a few techniques to cutting both geometric and organic shapes and how to create positive and negative space with their cut outs. Each student had 3 warm colors and 3 cool color sheets of paper to cut and create the composition. We will continue working this week on the compositions and I will introduce building 3-dimensional work with cut paper using the same techniques. 

1st, 2nd and 3rd Grade Art

We finished the watercolor application on the observational flower drawings this week and the students were so receptive to adding details, value changes and used the materials very carefully. I had purchased very nice quality German made watercolors last year for the older students to use and I felt the younger students could handle the use of the expensive art materials. They had 2 lessons on how to "shop" for the paint pigment and how to control the pressure on their brushes. I realize it sounds like a simple process, but it is difficult for the younger students to curb their enthusiasm with paint! They did not disappoint and were so respectful and careful with the beautiful paints. The final pieces are vivid and the students were excited with the result. Students always amaze me with their capabilities and ability to exceed my high expectations. They are a remarkable group of young artists.

4th, 5th and 6th Grade Art

What a productive, creative and successful week we had in art! The students really focused on their work, made great progress and really enjoyed the final results of their efforts. The 5th and 6th grade students had a lesson on the use and care of utility knives and learned not only the safe way to use the tool, but how to take the knife apart and change the blade. I am not quite ready for the 4th grade students to use the knives, so they were content to cut their pieces with scissors. The 1 point perspective pieces and process were successful in teaching value, color theory, tool use and contrast.

Plus they look really great and the students are so excited to share them. I have hung the work in the large gallery space, try to stop in and see them if you are in the school.

                                   

     

 

7th and 8th Grade Art

We only have 3 students who have not completed their Scholastic Art pieces, so we began a new project this week. The art looks great, I will begin matting, mounting, photographing and entering the data for the entries soon. I will have a form for each student that wants to enter their piece that will need a parent signature. I am going to try to have everything ready for you to sign by conferences, I will keep you updated. 

We started a 3-dimensional cardboard sculpture project this week. I showed the students several examples of possibilities, and gave them a few guidelines to work with. I wanted to balance the intensity of the long term Scholastic project with a process that is more open ended and allows them extra creative freedom. It is great to see them experiment, mess up, start over and discover new ways of working. There is not much to show you yet, stay tuned!

The Ratner Montessori School Art Program

We had another productive and full week at school with several new projects beginning and focused work continuing in the longer term projects. I enjoy hearing the stories about all the art being created in the students homes and about all the parents and grandparents that are great artists! The younger students are so excited to tell me about the Dad that painting with them at home or the grandmother that has her own art studio. It makes my day rich when I hear that the students have art filled lives. Thank you all for the museum trips, art supplies, endless paper and art appreciation you give to your children at home.

A beautiful fall storm photograph by Janice Pohl

Kindergarten Art

We continued our study of watercolor paint this week. I introduced the students to the work of Georgia O'Keefe and presented several of her flower paintings. We discussed how she made a small flower feel monumental and how she used detail, value and color in her work. The students made a choice of which flower from the learning garden they wanted to observe and draw and set out to create their drawing. It is often difficult to get the students this age to draw larger than life, as they are use to scaling down the world in their artwork!  I encouraged them to slow down their drawings and add every single detail they observed. They mixed the colors for their painting using the three primary liquid watercolors. If they completed their first flower painting, they could get an apple or pear to draw and paint. Marked improvement was shown with the color mixing this past week.

1st, 2nd, 3rd Grade Art

We began our class this week with an in-school field trip to the front lobby to view the newspaper painting display. One of the core principles of our art curriculum is how to view and talk about art in an intelligent way. We began the discussion with the thought that we may not like or understand the art that we view. With this age group, much of the intent is to add the vocabulary of art and the skill to critique without hurting feelings. We practiced some of the language and talked about expectations for behavior in a gallery or museum setting. Each class went to the "gallery", which in this case was the school's front lobby, and had a short discussion with their partner about the work. This is a slow process to hopefully get the group ready for the yearly partnership with MOCA and subsequent field trips to the museum. 

We began our next project, a realistic drawing of flowers from the learning garden. Each student had an arrangement in a vase with fresh flowers to draw. We talked about scale, line and detail. I showed the class how to draw a table for the flower vase to sit on and how to take their time to draw what they observed. We will begin the watercolor work today.

I love having fresh flowers for the students to draw! The art room looks beautiful.

4th, 5th 6th Grade Art

Students began work on their complementary color collage backgrounds for the 1 point perspective construction piece. The students are "shopping" for colors through magazines, searching for the correct colors to build their textured background. Some students are adding a layer of interest to their collage by creating a value change in the background as well. I enjoy seeing students take their work to higher levels through process and discovery and appreciate their creativity with this project. Next week we will cut out the cardboard perspective paintings, build the floating elements for the pieces and construct the final layout.

7th and 8th Grade Art

We really are so close to finishing the Scholastic Art submissions. One of the difficult things of being an art teacher is pacing the projects to fit the needs and skill levels of a large and diverse group of artists. It is so important that the students do not feel rushed to complete their work and it is equally important to know when to stop working on a piece. It is a tricky balance with all the grade levels, but the older the artist, the harder it is to find the right balance. As several students have finished their pieces, they are working on an independant project this week. We will begin a new work cycle next week and for the students that are still working on their Scholastic piece, they will continue working until they are satisfied with the result.

In progress mixed media still life

In progress acrylic painting from a photograph the student shot

In progress colored pencil still life

The Ratner Montessori School Art Program

I am so excited to have a full week of classes. The students are looking forward to having all their art classes and to have time to work on all their techniques. We have finished up several projects in Elementary 1 and Elementary 2 and have started with new processes this week. I only had 2 days of classes last week due to the holiday and field trips, so I did not send out a blog for the week. I will be posting every Wednesday as my schedule allows for time to write the blog in the morning. Thank you all for your support and encouragement, we have a creative filled student body at our school and I am fortunate to be able to guide them all in their art education.

An beautiful type font from a fence in Southern California

Kindergarten Art

We had a fantastic class last week exploring the material of liquid watercolor. The students were inquisitive, engaged and showed fine control of the materials throughout the lesson. We had a short discussion about the primary colors and how they thought they could make all the other colors only using the 3 primary colors. Each student had 3 small cups each containing red, yellow and blue liquid watercolor with 3 pipettes. The students had a palette to mix their colors in and had to try and keep the primary cups clear and clean. This is very difficult at this age and every student ended with pure primary cups. I do not think that has ever happened in my 15 years of teaching! The room was focused and the students were so excited to share the colors they had mixed. The paintings were a simple grid design where they could showcase their colors and the few watercolor techniques in their work.  I really love when students get excited about mixing colors!