1st and 2nd Grade Art

The class is 80% finished with their story box project. I believe all the students will finish the construction with one more class. They look great and everyone enjoyed building a scene from the Chinese Cinderella story, Yeh-Shen.  I enjoy watching the students figure out building projects, experimenting with different technique and learning from each other. They are very inventive and, of course, creative with their problem solving. 

7th and 8th Grade

Construction of the bird house projects are moving at a more rapid clip now that the students are gaining control over the power tools. Several students have begun assembly and are learning about gluing, pilot holes and the correct size wood screw to use. If learning by failure is the most valuable lesson, we are learning a lot! The students are fantastic at adapting, improvising and problem solving. I am really proud of the leaps of faith and willingness to try new ways of working in the Maker Space. 

The Ratner School Art Program

Hooray! A solid week of art classes and we are moving quickly towards completing another block of projects. I will be out of class on Thursday for the annual ISACS conference, but have the plans already set for my Thursday classes. I look forward to learning more about STEAM and Maker Space ideas at the conference and know the students will benefit from the information I gather at the conference.

ARTFUL BASEBALL SUPPORT!!!

                                 

Kindergarten Art

We had to jump ahead a week in the humanities schedule to begin work on our Native American People unit. One of our favorite traditional projects in Kindergarten art is the construction of our paper tipi sculptures. The students were presented with several visual aids of traditional tipis and we talked about the culture of the Native Americans. We reviewed symbols, what they meant and how they were used. Each student drew over 20 symbols, carefully controlling the lines made and following the traditional pictographs. They began to think of how to put symbols together to either tell a story or give a direction. The next step will be to transfer the symbols and designs on brown paper and begin to construct their sculpture. (My children both created a tipi during their studies at The Ratner School and we still display them even though they are now in high school and college!)

 

1st and 2nd Grade Art

The scenes for the story box work have been completed and glued into the large boxes. We began creating the main characters for the story boxes and the pieces are beginning to come together. We will continue construction on the boxes this week and may finish the project. The students have learned how to choose a focal point for their creations, how to create a mood with painting a scene and gained better material control with this project. The final steps of the construction will require higher problem solving and I am excited to see how the students engineer their elements to work together to show depth and tell a story. 

The beginning of the pond scene with a magic fish

The setting for the cave in the forest

3rd and 4th Grade Art

We began work on the background collage for the Faith Ringgold project. The students formulated a plan on what pattern they would create and glued fabric and patterned paper to create their work. They could create a border or fill in the entire background. The next phase of the project will be to build a bridge to place on the background. This will continue to strengthen the skills learned in the free form sculpture project and ties in to the boat constructions they are doing in Science. I believe I will open up different materials for the students to construct the bridge form with including string, wire and plastic, along with wood.