Winter 2015

 

 

 

WINTER 2015

 

Now that winter is here we have been inviting the snow to come! So far it is not working, so we keep on making snowflakes... Art students are amazed as they open the folded paper that they have cut, and the snowflake is revealed. This process never ceases to engage students of all ages. I'm sure they would be happy to teach you some of the tricks they learned while experimenting with cutting.

 

PRIMARY students are beginning to explore several different mediums, and in particular they enjoyed the snowflake cutting. After their experience in the art room they went back to their classroom to cut some more, and more, and more! Perhaps you have noticed some small cut paper around. Cutting seems to be a bit of a lost art, so please encourage these young cutters when you can!

 

 

 

KINDERGARTEN art students recently learned about the artist, Henri Matisse, and the "drawing with scissors" that he practiced later in his life. After hearing a book about Matisse (Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter) and seeing images of his work, the students experimented with  his technique of cutting shapes out of paper. Later they will share those shapes and create collages. Kindergarten students will also be making 3-D Snow Creatures soon!

 

 

 

FIRST GRADE art students are busy "travelling" in their classroom which creates many opportunities for interesting art projects in art class. For example, they recently visited India and created a hand-stitched book filled with facts about India. In art class they made Mandala designs to add to the cover of their books. Soon they will begin travels to China and Australia which we will follow-up in art class with a ceramic project and Dream Paintings using Australian Symbols.

 

 

 

SECOND GRADERS recently created Dream Catchers using a variety of materials such as shells, pine cones, charms, beads, and feathers. This project was a perfect opportunity to work on problem solving and presented unique challenges for the students. Sharing ideas about ways to attach the beads and feathers, and creating holes with stitching were new experiences for most of the students and challenged their thinking. They will be working on some ceramic projects next.

 

 

THIRD GRADERS were recently challenged with a new project which involved their focus, patience, and ability to engage and persist! They followed several steps to create wire baskets. These baskets are brain puzzles and amazingly unique:

 

 

 

 

The School-wide IDENTITY PROJECT is now complete! All art students in P-3 have created self-portraits with mixed-media frames and descriptive words. They are on display throughout the school and students have been having fun with scavenger hunts to find similarities and commonalities among their schoolmates. We all learned something new about each other.

 

 

 

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Summer Opportunities for MOREART: If you are interested in signing up for MOREART WORKSHOPS in the summer, please fill out a registration form and send it in with a deposit. Sessions are limited to small groups and are starting to fill up. Sessions run June 20-24 and June 27-July 1 and are offered to students entering 1-4th grade in the fall. Brochures are in the main office. If you have questions, please contact me through email: jbennett@concordhill.org

 

 

 

 

 



Fall 2015

 

Our School-Wide Art Theme in Action:

Exploring Our Identity Through The Visual Arts

All of the art students at CHS are currently working on their Identity Project. They have created self-portraits and explored surface design with foam rollers and scrapers to make patterned paper which they used to create frames for their self-portraits. Every class made a different selection of paper so that all of the students could share a variety of designs and colors. One Kindergarten student said, "Oh I get it Mrs. Bennett, this means that I might be walking down the hall and see the paper I made in a third grader's frame!" YES! Once their frames are created, the students will be brainstorming words that describe their personality, decorating the words, and attaching them to their frames with wire. The last step of this community project will be to have an all-school scavenger hunt to find out more about other CHS students!

 

 

In addition to the big framed portrait project, students also explored their identity while working on Self-Portrait Collages:

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Afterschool Fall MOREART continues to be a safe place for exploration and invention. The students are enjoying some unstructured studio time in which they can initiate and follow through with their own ideas. Here is a glimpse at what they have been creating:

 

 

 

              

Registration forms for Afterschool MOREART for the Winter & Spring Session, and for the Summer Sessions will be available soon.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Welcome Back to the Art Room at CHS 2015-2016

 

This Year's Art Theme:

Exploring our Identity through the Visual Arts

 

General Art Room News:

Welcome back to the CHS Art Room! As we begin the year I wanted to share some thoughts with you about just what we do in art at CHS...

An adult friend recently asked me, “What do you do?” When he found out I taught art to 3-10 year olds, he asked, “Can you teach them anything?” In his question there was a hint of doubt. I said, “Of course!” Still, this did get me thinking about what exactly I do teach my students- the obvious skills as well as the underlying ways of thinking. My guess was that he was imagining me teaching my students how to use crayons and markers and maybe paint. However, teaching art is so much more than it appears on the surface.

Yes, I do indeed teach my students the skills necessary in developing their visual voice in art. Within that context however, I teach them many skills that will serve them in life, in their pursuits for knowledge, as well as in their relationships with each other, with nature, and in the world around them. In art class I teach them that they have a voice that is unique and how to express that voice visually through a variety of mediums. I teach them through reflection, that their voice is valuable both as it relates to their understanding of themselves as well as how they contribute to the world around them. I teach them to observe (look and actually see) what is around them; to pay attention to life.

When students come to the art room they know that it is a safe place to use their imaginations and envision ways to meet art challenges, that there is no right or wrong answer, only their own answer at that moment in time. Through the experience and joy of experimenting, exploring, and working on a project for several weeks, students learn to engage and persist, to stretch their abilities and grow in many directions. They learn to think beyond their first impressions and look deeper inside themselves for answers. They learn to test and trust their decisions. They learn that this creative process pays off with rich rewards.

In the art room students learn to collaborate with one another, the way people do out in the world. They learn to offer ideas, listen to others, assess the choices presented and come to conclusions together. In other words, they learn how to merge their voice with others. They learn that at times the group can be bigger than the sum of its parts, and that creating something together can inspire feelings of ownership and community.

Art lays the human experience at our feet asking for an authentic response to life. Practicing that authenticity is what we do in the art room.

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Our School-Wide Art Theme this year will be exploring our identity through the Visual Arts in conjunction with Lauren Huntley, our new School Counselor, who is working with students on this theme throughout the school. In what ways are we unique? In what ways can visually represent those distinguishing characteristics that make up our Identity?

Stay tuned for updates as we explore this theme together... 
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