Back in the Art Room with Old Friends!
General Art Room News: It's great to be back at school making art with children! Kids have wonderful imaginations and curiosity, two key ingredients for making art. At CHS we explore and experiment with art materials. We envision and express ourselves. We observe and reflect on our work. We collaborate and celebrate our creativity!
In the beginning of the year the students start off with familiar materials and techniques. We review classroom procedures so they know how to take care of materials, and share the responsibility of working in the studio space together. We reacquaint ourselves with old friends and reach out to include new ones.
The All-School Art Theme for Primary-Third Grade this year will be focusing on Our Best Selves: As Friends and as Learners. The students will be completing Self-Portraits which express themselves at their best. We will be using words in addition to images to capture this idea, and we will be incorporating some of the strategies introduced in our Emotional Intelligence Curriculum (RULER). This project will be happening throughout the year; as each class completes their work it will be displayed.
Primary Artists have been experimenting with collage and with watercolor paint:
Kindergarten & First Grade Artists enjoyed hearing "The Beautiful Oops". This is a fabulous book which discusses "mistakes" and how to turn them into opportunities. In art class we celebrate mistakes because a mistake often means you are reaching a bit outside of your comfort zone. Reaching outside your comfort zone is how you grow as an artist and as a person. The students played a Beautiful Oops art game in which they were given a scrap of collage paper and challenged to turn it into something. They also enjoyed a class of collage experimentation. In addition, First Graders did some observational portraits of friends:
Second & Third Grade Artists enjoyed the start of the year with an age-old art game. In this game 3 artists draw one character. One person draws the head, one person draws the torso and one draws the legs & feet. The artists do not see what the others have drawn until the entire character is revealed! Then the artist who drew the head gets to add color and paint to the entire character. It is great fun and full of surprises. You can see their creations throughout the school.
More Art News coming later in the fall. Enjoy the change of seasons and remind your children to be looking and paying attention to the wondrous world around them!
