The Ratner School Art Program

We jumped right back into our projects as we returned from Thanksgiving break. The Kindergarten students were proud to have their decorations for the school wide feast and I trust all the thunder birds and ti-pees arrived home safely. The rest of the students visited MOCA Cleveland on Thursday and were equally impressed with the show. The partnership being formed with MOCA is invaluable and I appreciate the support of the school to continue the collaboration. We have a busy two weeks ahead of us and I can not wait to see the culmination of the projects in progress!

                                     

Early morning frost in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Photo by Nolan Juaire 

Kindergarten Art

The Kindergarten artists are in their second week studying the work of Marc Chagall. We have looked at 20 different works by Chagall and talked about the dream-like quality of his work. We observed the layers of color, the brightness of the colors, the unusual choices in the application of paint and the subject matter found in his paintings. The students learned the famous Chagall quote: "Great art picks up where nature ends" and began the composition of a large scale drawing. They wrote the quote around the border of their art and then drew a house, a tree, themselves and people in their family, pets, stars, the sun and the moon. The second class was focused on the application of oil pastel to their drawings. The final step will be adding a layer of watercolor wash to the piece. 

1st and 2nd Grade Art

We had an exciting week with the field trip. I was very proud of the behavior of the students and enjoyed seeing their reaction to the MOCA building and the work of Do Ho Suh. I loved hearing their comments, watching the new connections being formed and a greater understanding and appreciation being built for a lifetime of art that makes the students view the world in a new way. I hope you heard all about the work your child saw and please try to see the show if you can, it is amazing. 

3rd and 4th Grade Art

The students are using all the aspects of STEAM to build the ti-pee in art. They have measured and figured out the base size of the ti-pee, calculated how long the main poles have to be to fit in the allowed space, learned about symbols with the pictographs, talked about ecology while cutting the trees for the long poles, created a pattern for the burlap "buckskin" for the structure and created patterns to paint on the surface. The structure is complete, the burlap is all sewn together and the next and final step is to paint the designs and pictographs. 

          

We are getting there!

   

5th and 6th Grade Art

We were able to get a solid period of work in on the cut portrait project last week and everyone is seeing great results of their hard work. They are really all coming together nicely and the students are still safe and engaged in their work. 

Thursday was the field trip to MOCA. Everyone showed fine leadership skills and truly enjoyed seeing the work of Do Ho Suh. I have heard from several students how much they loved the work and I am so pleased I could share a new contemporary artist with them. The show is up until January 10th and it is definitely one to see!

7th and 8th Grade Art

The ceiling tiles are now completed for half of the 7th and 8th grade art class. The students have not had a consistent art schedule lately due to field trips, concert rehearsals and holiday celebrations. When the project is finished, there will be 11 ceiling tiles for Mrs. Patel's science classroom. The tiles are varied and well designed. I am not looking forward to the installation, but know they will look fantastic in the science lab. 

I have finished photographing the still life work for the Scholastic Art Competition. After I crop, upload, label and add all the information for each piece, the work will be entered. I have a difficult time choosing work to enter, so I enter everyone unless a student requests to not participate. Usually every artist wants a chance to be recognized and they know they only have a chance if they enter the competition. I will keep you all posted with the information about the Scholastic Art Awards.

The pile of ceiling tiles to be installed

The Ratner School Art Program

We had a week filled with tree cutting, portrait creations, jungle animals and a phenomenal field trip. And this is just the art program at the Ratner School! I was so proud of the students and their behavior both at the field trip and with the substitute teacher. I am looking forward to taking the remainder of the students to MOCA after the Thanksgiving break. I hope you all enjoy the time with your families and know that I am very thankful for the opportunity to guide your children as their art teacher. I do love my job.

This was the general reaction seeing the work of Do Ho Suh at MOCA

Kindergarten Art

This was the final week for our Native American unit in art and humanities. The Kindergarten students painted their designs on the brown paper ti-pees and created the stands for the thunder bird designs. The final pieces will be on display for the school wide Thanksgiving lunch on Tuesday and then they can take them home to be displayed for your enjoyment. Ask them to tell you the story they created using the pictographs, they are very interesting.

The assembly of the thunder birds and ti-pees are a large part of my Thanksgiving tradition!

The growing ti-pee village

1st and 2nd Grade Art

The students finished the final work on the Rousseau jungle piece this week. The animals were inventive and well drawn. I love the dimensional building skills the artists gained while working on the project. I hope you had a chance to see the finished pieces in the hallways when you came in for conferences. They were very excited to see them displayed and I heard many great comments about the work. That was a fun project for them and me!

3rd and 4th Grade Art

We began the prep work for our ti-pee build this week in art. The students worked on the symbols and pictographs used by the Native American people and deciphered the meanings of the symbols while trying to tell a story. The second class of the week involved going into the woods to cut trees for our ti-pee. The students enjoyed picking just the right saplings to cut and showed good team work in using the saws. I think they found a new appreciation for the skills and effort it takes to cut trees! 

5th and 6th Grade Art

The students continued work on the cut portrait assignment this week. I presented the level of detail you can achieve using the x-acto knife, demonstrating the many details in an eye. The students are beginning to see the various value changes and details in their portraits and are gaining greater control of the tools. One class had a substitute teacher on Thursday so I could take a group to MOCA, and they were still well focused on their work and proceeded to work as expected. I was glad (but not surprised) to get a good report from the substitute teacher.

Notice the value details beginning to take shape.

7th and 8th Grade Art

We had a fantastic experience on Thursday on our field trip to MOCA. The 7th and 8th grade students proved themselves capable leaders, setting great examples for the 3rd and 4th grade students. They were engaged, focused and seemed to have a great time at MOCA. I hope they all told you about the art they saw and many commented that they wanted to come back to see the show again to spend more time experiencing the art. 

The Ratner School Art Program

We enjoyed having the education department of MOCA visit our 1-8th grade this past week. I appreciate the students having a different point of view presented to them to have them think of art in a new way. This week on Thursday the 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th grade class will visit MOCA to view the current exhibition from the South Korean artist Do Ho Suh. I am beyond excited to share this work with the students and am so thrilled that they have the opportunity to see his work. I will certainly share pictures from the field trips and look forward to hearing their impressions of his work. I will do a shortened version of the blog next week as we will have our Thanksgiving celebration and break beginning. 

A detail from the work of Do Ho Suh

Kindergarten Art

We continued our study of Native American people in art and humanities this week. The students finished their thunder-bird designs and began learning the pictograph symbols used by the Native Americans. They cut out a ti-pee shape on brown craft paper and created a story using the pictographs on the side of their ti-pees. Paint will be applied and designs will be highlighted with paint and marker. The ti-pees are a tradition for our Thanksgiving celebration at the school and the 8th grade students enjoy remembering the construction of their ti-pees when they were in Kindergarten at Ratner. (I still use my sons ti-pees for display each year and they are in high school!) 

1st and 2nd Grade Art

We began working on the animals for the Rousseau constructions this 

week. The students learned about scale, detail and contrasting colors while creating their work. The jungles grew using various materials for vines and the students showed improvement building with paper. I love seeing their ideas and watching them figure out the methods that work best for implementing their creative designs. I will hang the work in the halls as soon as they are completed and will send home the zentangle names and "take a line for a walk" artwork soon. 

3rd and 4th Grade Art

The students participated in their critique on the Monet project and they all had insightful observations and comments for their peers. It is important that they develop the language and critical thinking to view works of art and discuss what they see intelligently and with thoughtfulness. Self critiques improve the individuals work as well as help them view art work throughout their lives. The students enjoyed working with the education department from MOCA and created their artful elements for the group design. We will begin working on the designs for the ti-pee this week and I hope to make some good progress before the Thanksgiving break.

The collaborative art piece found a new home for the week thanks to the 3rd grade class.

5th and 6th Grade Art

We began a new project in art this week. The students are creating a portrait using precisely cut colored paper. This project is focusing on several elements, including color theory, pop art, self portraits, control of tools and higher craftsmanship skills. Each student had their portrait taken with a camera using high contrast lighting. The students then created the overall shape of their face using either grey tones, realistic tones or creative color use for their skin and hair color. The project focuses more on value differences than color, so the portraits are all very unique. The students use exact-o knives to precisely cut the shapes of all the shadows and details of their portrait and glue them carefully in place. If the tools are not used safely, the students have to use scissors to cut all the paper pieces. This is a wonderful project that I have taught for several years and I am excited to see the results from this group of artists.

7th and 8th Grade Art

We are continuing work on the science room ceiling panels for the next couple of weeks. The students have evolved their original ideas to encompass more of the studies of science in their work. Natural sciences, space, the elements, and human sciences are just a few of the themes they are working on. They seem to be enjoying working larger and at a faster pace. I hope they are as wonderful as they I think they will be!

The Ratner School Art Program

We have had a productive week and look forward to another week creating, exploring and learning new ways of seeing in art. All the projects from last semester are now hanging in the school and we are preparing for field trips, paintings and new projects in each class. This week brought visitors from MOCA to our art class to partner with me in order to give our students a more in depth experience with contemporary art. I look forward to developing this relationship and know that the students will greatly benefit from their expertise. I will be taking the 1st through 8th grade to MOCA for a field trip in the next several weeks, so please keep an eye on the newsletter to know when your child will be going. 

                                                       

Kindergarten Art

We began our study of the Native Americans in Kindergarten art and humanities this week. The students learned traditional patterns and looked at Thunderbird designs. Each student chose the Thunderbird pattern they wanted to work with and transferred the designs and colored the entire surface with markers. Pat Carey-Bell brought in her collection of artwork and Kachina dolls for the students to study. Each week the students gain new skills and broaden their understanding of the world around them. I have already seen such growth in their work.

1st and 2nd Grade Art

We had an unusual week in art this week. One of our classes involved working on building the Rousseu jungles and the students made great progress. They are crafting their work more carefully and showing strong problem solving skills building their biomes with paper. On Thursday, we had two visitors from MOCA come into the classroom to do a pre-experience talk and project with the students in preparation for the upcoming field trip to MOCA. We are forming a partnership between MOCA and the Ratner art program in hopes of enriching the students experiences with contemporary art and the field trips to MOCA. We had a great day in the classroom and look forward to the field trip in December. Look for more information in the Ratner newsletter. 

                                         

3rd and 4th Grade Art

The bridges for our Monet project have been completed and are hanging upstairs outside the students homeroom. I am absolutely amazed at the level of detail, the construction and the beauty of the work this group of artists created. The work is so wonderfully crafted and I am proud to say that (nearly) every student used the hot glue guns with care and attention to the safety rules set at the beginning of the project. We will have a group critique about the work next week and have the students talk about the work they created and critique the work of their peers. I hope you will all take the time to see all the work, it truly is wonderful.

5th and 6th Grade Art

We worked on the DNA strands this week "old school" style using pipe cleaners, wire, found objects and other material besides the 3-D pens. The projects were certainly more successful, so we know we need more practice finding out what the 3-D doodlers pens can create. I will keep you updated on our progress experimenting. MOCA's education team came into one class this week to work with the students on a pre-experience project for our December field trip. The students enjoyed the project and my hope is that the field trip will be a more enriching and deeper learning event because of the partnership. The class will be going to MOCA December 3rd, watch for more information in the school newsletter.

7th and 8th Grade Art

The still life artwork is complete! They are hanging in the gallery and I am so impressed with the level of work the students created. The compositions are strong, the application of material is wonderful and the project has never looked better. I appreciate the level of attention the students gave to their work and they are very proud of their art. Please try to stop in at conferences see your child's amazing work.

The Ratner School Art Program

This week begins the official beginning of our second semester. The art program at Ratner is a fairly seamless transition from one semester to another. I allow the students to work at a natural pace and am fortunate to be able to shift the curriculum as needed. I try to never rush anyone to finish a work of art as it never seems to end well. With that approach, I have found that the students are more comfortable making choices and grow in their confidence with time to work on their projects. I wanted to remind you the Cleveland Museum of Art has a wonder show up of Impressionist painters and I hope you will take the time to see the exhibition. Thank you again for allowing me to teach your children!

A beautiful fall transition photo by Nadia Vinogradov-Carek

Kindergarten Art

We continued our study of Gandhi in art and humanities this week. The students finished the designs on their elephants and began working on their symmetrical designs for a sand mandala. They began by tracing a large circle on black paper, outlining the circle with glue and sprinkling colored sand on top of the glue. The next step was to begin their design work. Drawing with glue requires hand strength, control of the material and planning of the design. The art room was a mess, but the results are always worth it! The art work is hanging up in the MPP hallways if you have a chance to come into school to see them. 

1st and 2nd Grade Art

We began a new project this week based on the jungle paintings of the French artist Henri Rousseau.

We viewed several examples of his work and discussed what we saw in his paintings. When telling the students about Rousseau, they were amazed to hear he had never been to a jungle and that he had never had a lesson in art. They learned how an artist could be "self taught" and we had a wonderful discussion about things they had taught themselves. We began working on the project by creating a background painting utilizing a horizon line, mixed green paint and mixed colors for the sky. The following class the students began building their jungle with colored paper. This project expands their sculptural skills, problem solving and mixed media use. This is a new project for me as well and I am looking forward to seeing the creative outcome.