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!

1st, 2nd and 3rd Grade Art

We missed both classes of art last week due to the holiday and the field trip. We began a new project this week that the students are really enjoying. I wanted them to have some extended time learning about color theory and how to mix paint. We had a involved discussion about the warm and cool color families and talked about the emotions that different colors can represent in art. We looked at the color wheel, discussed primary, secondary and tertiary colors and what category various colors are placed. The project for color mixing involved a choice of a cool color palette or a warm color palette. The composition of the painting was determined by the columns of newspapers. Each student had a single sheet of newspaper and began to paint each photograph and column with various mixed colors. This requires a strong control of the material, not overworking the surface and choosing the size of the blocks to paint. They all showed improvement in color mixing and while some students are still working on pacing the color mixing excitement with actually applying the paint, a lot of progress was made in a day. 

                                 

 

4th, 5th and 6th Grade Art

We completed the color work on the perspective drawings this week and began a new project based on 1 point perspective. This is the first time I have taught this lesson and I am as excited about the process as the students! The project begins with a dot in middle of a piece of cardboard, several shapes drawn around the perimeter and then lines were drawn to the center dot to create the one point perspective. The students marveled at the illusion created with a few straight lines. The next step in the process was to discuss warm and cool colors and how to create the illusion of volume using value. The students decided on their color palette and began to paint the forms. This process involves several stages and we will be building the pieces for a few more classes.