The Ratner School Art Program

It was great having all the students back for a full and creative week in school. We are finishing up several projects across all the grade levels and will soon begin the ceramic units in the classes. I try to organize the curriculum to have all the students working in clay at the same time as the set up and clean up is extensive. This helps me a bit with the chaos and mess of ceramic work, but poses some challenges getting all the work fired in the kiln! I am glad to have the opportunity to teach the medium of clay and the students look forward to the unit each year.

                                          

Kindergarten Art

The work continued with the quilt theme in the study of  Faith Ringgold and Harriet Tubman in the Humanities program. We looked at several examples of the Gee's Bend quilts and talked not only about the patterns created, but about the materials and found cloth used in the construction of the quilts. The students reinforced the lesson of warm and cool colors in choosing the various material to create their "quilt" art. Each student chose a warm or cool color background paper and then shopped for a corresponding patterned paper to create their quilt design. A central design element using a small box had to be designed using the opposite color temperature. The students enjoyed building a warm sculptural or designed element on a cool background and the once again strengthened their cutting and gluing skills. I hung the work this morning in the Montessori hallway so you can all enjoy the finished pieces.

1st and 2nd Grade Art

The students in this class continue to amaze me with their portrait drawing ability. The 5 pocket Historical Figure project is complete and the figures are identifiable by the superb work the artists did drawing the faces of their chosen figures. The proportions are correct, the details are accurate and the clothing choices were creative and showed a strong understanding of the facts and time era of each character. The students are so excited to share their work with you and plan on having a "Wax Museum" show along with their art work. Look for the figures to be displayed in the gallery pod and outside their classrooms. This really is amazing work by artists this age and I keep complimenting the ability to draw portraits to the students. Hooray for no more stick figures!

3rd and 4th Grade Art

We lost one day of work last week due to the President's Day off, but the students worked diligently on their designs for their cube sculptures. I believe they will finish their pattern work this week, then we will head to the Maker Space to build the sculpture stands for the forms. They are showing better control of their line and are creating some wonderful patterns on their cubes.

5th and 6th Grade Art

The construction continues on the geometric solid project. We lost a class day last week due to Presidents Day, but I believe the students will all finish this week. Some students are beginning to understand the importance of craftsmanship in a very real way as they are trying to assemble the 62 faces into their sculpture. Each piece has to be measured, cut and folded accurately to have an easy fit during assembly. Experience is the best teacher and the students are certainly learning the importance of slowing down and crafting elements of their work. We will hang the finished forms from the balcony in the lobby when they are competed.

7th and 8th Grade Art 

I wanted to have the students take some time to reflect on their experiences in Eleuthera and create a reflection piece in art. I printed out the fantastic shots of them jumping off High Rock and gave them small jewelry boxes to create their scene. This was a quick one week project to ease them back into school and let them express and process their trip in a creative way. I enjoyed hearing of the trip and the wonderful events and experiences.

The Ratner School Art Program

While we missed the energy of the 7th and 8th grade students this week at school, we carried on and continued to create, build, talk and problem solve our way through the week. I look forward to a full week with all my classes! We have new work hanging throughout the school and I hope you all have the opportunity to walk around both floors of the school to view the work. I love hearing the students stop on their way to their classes talking about their work and the work of their friends. Thank you all for the comments and support to all the developing artists at our school.

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1961, Pen and ink on paper

Kindergarten Art

The Kindergarten art class learned about the work of Grandma Moses and studied several of her paintings. They created a painted landscape using tempera paint then drew their homes on a separate sheet of paper.  The house showed basic one-point perspective and was to show several details of their home. The house drawing was cut out and glued onto the background, creating a folk art inspired painting. The final stage of the project was to create a patterned "quilt" border for their painting. Look for the work displayed in the Montessori hallways, they really enjoyed this project.

1st and 2nd Grade Art

We enjoyed the gallery opening on Wednesday and the students showed their developing skills at talking critically about their work and the work of their peers. I heard several helpful comments and suggestions from the artists. While creating art is certainly important, learning how to view and talk about art and the creative process is equally valuable. I am trying to build the skill of communication and critical process through the gallery talks. I hope you will all take the time to view the work on display in the lobby, it is a fantastic display of their creative work. We also began a new project based on figure drawing. The students created a figure drawing book using the posable wooden mannequins. I hope you enjoyed seeing their drawings and will indulge them if they ask you to pose for them!

3rd and 4th Grade Art

The students made steady progress with the layout and cutting of the cube pattern for the current sculpture project. They have the template cut out on white poster board and have begun adding the patterns on the surface. We will continue to explore the patterns from Mesopotamia to contribute to the zentangle patterns on their sculptures.

5th and 6th Grade Art

We moved the class to the Maker Space to continue work on the rhombicosidodecahedron project. (That word is so fun to type.)  All the students have completed the cut work and folds for the geometric solid form. Two students have completed their project and are completing a new form with colored designs on the surface. I look forward to seeing the results of their exploration.

Fun times in the art room 

7th and 8th Grade Art

The students were away on the Eleuthera trip, so I do not have an update for them this week. I thought I would just show a few of the in progress paintings. They are close completion and I expect them to finish the project this week. I am looking forward to hearing about their trip this week!

The Ratner School Art Program

We had an unusual week in all the classes due to field trips and the increase in student absences. For the hearty students that have made it through the flu season, we continued to work on all the projects in progress and made significant strides. This week may be a bit disjointed because I always let students finish their work before having them move on to the current project. I love how invested the artists are at our school and would not want them to abandon any project because they had missed classes. I am glad to have a flexible curriculum to accommodate the curving flow of creativity in our school!  I enjoyed going to MOCA this past weekend to view the new exhibitions on display. Once again, all our 1st-8th grade students will be going to visit MOCA as part of our continued partnership. While the dates for the visit have not yet been set, I am looking to a spring visit to avoid any snow delays! I will certainly let you know when the date is set.

                                       


                          Contemporary Iranian artist Mohammad Barrangi , The Eyes, the Eyes and the Eyes

Kindergarten Art 

The study of Eric Carle was a new cycle project for me this year and I enjoyed learning more about the artist and writer along with the students. The project in art covered several areas of exploration and experimentation for the students. They learned about the rule of thirds in laying out a landscape background and reinforced the previous watercolor techniques they have learned. After creating a scene on the watercolor paper, we studied the shapes and textures used to create the characters seen in Carle's books. The students determined what animal or character they wanted to create for their illustration and began "building" their work using textured paper scraps. This required an attention to scale, form and details to successfully create a character. The parts and pieces were glued into position on their background painting to complete the project. Look for the pieces displayed in the Montessori hallways. This week we will begin our study of Grandma Moses.

Detail of the above painting

1st and 2nd Grade

What an amazing project for these students! They worked so intensely on the Van Gogh landscapes and showed great pride in their work. They were inquisitive, attentive and handled the higher level project with ease. Every time I think I may be asking too much from students this age, they rise up to the challenge and constantly impress me. They listened well to the directions on using acrylic paint and were very careful with the application of the details in their paintings. We only had one instance of paint dripped on a shoe, but the student let me know right away and the paint came off with no problem. The final paintings are beautiful and I am excited to get them mounted and on display for everyone to enjoy. I am planning on having an opening event next week for the students so we can have a full class critique to talk about the work and the project. This is a good opportunity for the students to learn how to talk about their work and the work of their peers.

3rd and 4th Grade Art

The Beatles Album Cover project has been completed! Ms. Jarrett is continuing the work in music class recording the songs for the albums. I will scan each album cover and resize the image to fit into a CD jewel case and the students will format their song titles to complete the project. The album covers look great and the students learned several graphic art techniques with this project. We started a new project on Tuesday last week.  The project is a sculptural project that will cover several areas. We talked about geometric solids, completed a short "quiz" looking for geometric solids in the room and naming them. The project will include creating a layout for a 6" cube, designing patterns for each face of the cube and building a stand in the Maker Space to suspend the completed form. The students began by trying to engineer the best pattern for constructing the cube and sketched several ideas. We will begin the layout of their patterns on poster board this week and will continue to explore different patterns and techniques throughout the project.

5th and 6th Grade Art

The students finished cutting the 12 pentagons, 20 triangles and 30 square faces of the rhombicosidodecahedron project. Several students have finished folding their edges and will begin to construct the forms this week. We will probably work downstairs in the Maker Space to begin the assembly, the hot glue guns are much easier to set up in the workshop than in the art room. The students enjoy the change of scenery as well and love working in the Maker Space. I believe it will take at least 2 solid classes to get the 62 pieces all assembled, but it may take a bit longer. This is a great group of students and they often surprise me with the amount of work they accomplish each class.

7th and 8th Grade Art

This was an unusual week in the upper grades as the students only had one art class due to the field trip. The classes were very small on Wednesday because of the absence of several students. However, the students that were present received added attention! They are progressing well on their landscape paintings and I am continuing to encourage independence and added focus as they reach the end of this project.  I emphasized the fact that I want them to see the next step in their work, make informed choices about the direction they want their painting to take and to trust their skills without my input.