The Ratner School Art Program

What a whirlwind week we all experienced last week. The students finished several projects, enjoyed the school wide Thanksgiving celebration and topped it off with delicious pumpkin pie with fantastic Kindergarten ti-pi's and thunder bird art as our decorations. The blog post this week actually covers the work completed for the two days last week and the previous week. We are beginning a new project in most classes, including a construction project in the 5th and 6th grade class that requires hundreds of cereal boxes. I will set a container outside the art room door or you are welcome to put any donations into my mailbox in the office. Thank you in advance! 

Kindergarten Art

I have not had the Kindergarten students for Art for 2 classes due to the Thanksgiving break. The

 ti-pi's and thunder bird totems added wonderful decoration to the pumpkin pie festival on Tuesday and I hope you all enjoyed having your child's work displayed for your own Thanksgiving celebrations. We are back to our normal schedule this week and I look forward to the next project with them.

1st and 2nd Grade

The students worked on a yarn, glue and watercolor piece to display at this weeks book fair. While this was a messy project that landed a little bit on the crafty side of art, the students loved creating something quickly and really enjoyed dipping yarn into glue. What a mess! It was great! After the glue had dried on the yarn and watercolor paper, the students added oil pastel to the surface and then painted with watercolor paints. A salt technique could be added if chosen. The results were visually interesting and fun was had by all!

3rd and 4th Grade Art

The students had a great time jumping into a painting project last week. We looked at the work of Wassily Kandinsky and talked about concentric patterns in nature and art. The students then divided their paper into 8 sections, created a concentric pattern in each space and began painting with tempera paint. They revisited the concept of complimentary colors, repeated shapes and gained better control of the application of paint on paper. The pieces are all complete and will be displayed at the book fair this week.

5th and 6th Grade Art

The cut paper Op-Art pieces have been completed and they look amazing! I was so impressed with the concentration and level of skill the students showed. As I stated in an earlier blog post, I typically have the 7th and 8th grade students do this project and it is normally a high school level project! I knew the students could handle the x-acto knives safely, but I was pleasantly surprised with the high level of detail they could accomplish. This is a fantastic group of well focused students in art. I will continue to present challenging projects for them this year. One of our next projects will be the construction of the cereal box rhombicosidodecahedron. If you could please save all the cereal boxes and any other thinner brown board boxes for the project, that would be appreciated. I will place a basket outside the art room for collection. Thank you for your help!

7th and 8th Grade Art

I believe 95% of all the bird houses have been constructed. The students amazed me with their willingness to try a completely new set of skills using unknown tools and processes. They were first and foremost safe, careful with the tools and patient when waiting for instruction and guidance. Once the students became more skilled at using the power tools, they were wonderful teachers to their peers. I saw many students collaborating and assisting others and I was very proud of the spirit of helpfulness in the Maker Space.