Winter 2019-20



School-wide and Auction Art Projects: Recycled Rolls

 




General Art News:
We are celebrating the earth this year as our school-wide art theme. One way to celebrate is to honor the earth with our actions: Recycle and Repurpose! We used toilet paper rolls to create a mixed-media art piece. Each child painted and decorated a roll for the CHS Auction and a roll for the school-wide project. Even the teachers contributed their creativity to make some of the rolls! Be sure to go to the Auction to bid on this one of a kind art piece!

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Primary Artists are continuing to learn about colors, mixing colors, and lines. In art class we have mixed colors with tempera paint, watercolor paint, and paint sticks. Recently, we took a line walk around the school and looked for vertical straight lines (standing up lines), horizontal lines (lying down lines), diagonal, curvy, and zigzag lines. The students were VERY observant and found examples of all kinds of lines right here at CHS!


                               

 

 

 

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Kindergarten Artists learned about creatures under the sea in their classroom studies, and enjoyed creating some individual and collaborative paintings together in art. They also engaged in some extended time with clay. The kindergarten students are fascinated with what you can make with clay and how to do it. We have decided to continue with clay learning through the early winter season. They started by learning to make slabs and leaf imprints. Then they moved on to pinch pots. One of their favorite activities is to make their own creations using the methods of attachment they learned-- so that their snowmen, dogs, duck cups, and snakes will survive the kiln! Clay can be finicky and teaches a lot of life lessons: fragility of material objects (thin objects often break in the kiln), non-attachment (clay is delicate while drying), perseverance (many objects need practice to master), shared vision and inspiration (classmates encourage and teach each other based on their own successes and trials), and I could go on and on!

 

 

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First Grade Artists created Mixed-Media Fall Trees. Their trees involved learning about the background and foreground in a piece of artwork, horizon lines, collage, and layering. Their beautiful creations are currently displayed in the main hallway. In addition, these young artists have been enriching their classroom learning about India through a variety of mandala projects. They made tile mandalas, metallic mandalas and played a cooperative game to make oil pastel mandalas. In the game, Pass the Picture, the students each create the center of a mandala. When the chime rings, they pass their picture to the right and the next child adds on to it. By the time each mandala goes around the room it is complete, and everyone has had an opportunity to contribute to it. The person who started the mandala gets to add color to the design and keep it.

 

 

 

 

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Second Grade Artists have been revisiting the concepts of printing, collaging, painting with watercolor and paint sticks, and observational drawing. They created mono prints of fall leaves, explored watercolor through Hidden Name Paintings and the Different Kinds of Lines Challenge. They created colorful paint stick paintings after seeing and discussing their observations of the colorful city paintings of Stuart Davis. Most recently they are working on their self portraits using proportion guidelines, which we call "whisper lines" to help them visualize where their eyes, nose, mouth,  and ears belong in relation to each other. This has been VERY challenging; I am so proud of these young artists and their perseverance!

 

  

 

 

 

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Third Grade Artists began the year creating drawings of figures "dancing like no one is watching", which is a theme Mr. Dennison has been exploring during Morning Meeting. They used wooden figures as models for their poses and created textural backgrounds by using rubbing plates. The next project was a deep dive into Thinking Like An Artist as they used view finders to select compositions from beautiful photos of the earth, in order to make a series of paintings. Their paintings included watercolor, acrylic paint, and acrylic paint with textures. Most recently the students were introduced to the portraits of Amy Sherald (the local artist who painted Michelle Obama's Portrait- which is in the National Portrait Gallery). The students were then challenged to create their own self-portraits using proportion guides. Their self-portraits are still in progress, and are part of a series.

 

 

 

 

 

Registration for afterschool MOREART will be in mid-December or early January. Please keep an eye out for the email about Afterschool Activities. Third graders who did not have an opportunity to take MOREART in the Fall will be given priority in the Winter. The rest of the spaces will be for second graders.

 

Have a wonderful THANKSGIVING!

 

Warmly,

Jan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Fall 2019

 

Welcome, AND Welcome Back, to the Art Room at CHS!

We are off to a great start this year with a focus on Celebrating the Earth! As the year goes along you will hear more about this School-Wide Theme and this year's Collaborative Project. The first few weeks of art are all about getting re-connected with our creative side and the joy we share in art making!

 

As in the past, the focus in art class is on experimenting, observing, wondering, expressing personal and collective "voice", and on developing each student's visual expressive skills. All of the students at CHS in Primary through Third Grade come to the Art Room once a week in half groups. This small group design gives us the opportunity to really engage in art experiences and projects that are designed to introduce young artists to a variety of art materials and techniques, integrate student's learning with their classroom social studies curriculum, as well as give them an opportunity to develop their skills.

 

In addition to having fun, the time students spend engaged in art making provides them with opportunities to practice valuable "Studio Habits of Mind". These particular ways of thinking have been researched by educators through Harvard's Project Zero, and have been identified to include: Engaging & Persisting, Envisioning, Expressing, Observing, Reflecting, Stretching & Exploring, Developing Craft, and Understanding the Art World (Collaborating is part of this).

 

In the welcoming art activity (pictured above), the students had an opportunity to exercise many of these "Studio Habits of Mind". They made marks with markers on absorbant paper, and then used pipettes to drop water on each dot of color. The students were prompted to ask themselves the question, "What would happen if I...?" each time they tried a new paper. They were engaged! They persisted and they observed what happened each time. They collaborated, and reflected at the end of the activity:

• They discovered the different ways the marker color reacted to the water when it was in dots, as opposed to lines.
• They wondered why the color travelled in one direction instead of another when they dropped the water on it.
• They moved their papers in space to see what effects they could create.

There was a lot of good thinking and experimenting going on. One student said, "This reminds me of science class." Yes, indeed, science and art both share exploration and experimenting, as well as wondering.

 

This summer I was thinking a lot about art at CHS. I attended 2 intensive professional development courses and there was a common thread I found in them. That thread was this: The importance of good questions for deeper thinking and wondering. It is my goal this year to encourage the students to also ask themselves meaningful questions when they are making their art. I would like to create a culture of questioning in the art room. You can help too, by asking them open ended questions and by inviting conversation about their observations and their art work. Here are a few good ways to start:

• What do you think will happen if...
• Tell me more about what you mean by that...(in response to a short answer)
• You worked hard on that, can you tell me about your picture?

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A few photos from the first few days of class:

Primary students looked carefully at their faces.

After a close look, the Primary students created self-portraits.



Kindergarten students drew in sand
to get their creative juices flowing.

Then the kindergarten students
created drawings celebrating our EARTH!

Second graders began their Hidden Name Paintings.

Third graders created figures that are
 "Dancing like Nobody is Watching".

Third graders used their prior knowledge to sort images of art work.
What made the images the same or different?

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The 2019-20 Art Class Schedule is as follows:

Classes come to the art room in half groups:

 

Monday- Planning, Displays, Meetings & Communication, MOREART after school

Tuesday- Kindergarten 12:30-1:15 and 1:30-2:15

Wednesday- First Grade 12:30-1:15 and 1:15-2:00

Thursday- Third Grade 12:30-1:15 and 1:15-2:00

Friday- Primary 10:15-10:45 and 10:45-11:15

            Second Grade 12:30-1:15 and 1:15-2:00

 

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Miscellaneous Information:

Please join us for Back to School Night, September 26th. You can visit the Art Room and other Specialists starting at 6:30.

 

Links to additional information about Art at CHS:

 

A welcome introduction I wrote a few years ago about "What happens in the Art Room?  http://artnotesatchs.blogspot.com/2015/09/ 

 

Information about MOREART:

http://artnotesatchs.blogspot.com/2017/04/

 

If you have any questions about art at CHS, please contact me through email:

jbennett@concordhill.org

 

End of Year 2019

First Grade Spring Tree Collage

Have a Wonderful Summer! 

I hope you can make time and space for creativity, this summer,

for yourself as well as for your children. Here are a few ideas:

• take some chalk outside, wet or dry
• get out the watercolor paints
• keep a drawing journal
• get a white board for drawing
• make a  weaving loom out of a cardboard box
• make a hide-out from a large box
• draw in the sand
• make a sand castle
• make a collaborative drawing on a napkin
• get some air-dry clay and create small sculptures
• dumpster dive and make a cool recycle object of art
• read a book and imagine the pictures...

                      Some magical moments in the art room this year:



A primary student's drawing on a white board. The white board
allows that magical feeling of non-permanence;
the ability to erase and start over, the infinite possibilities.
It also feels so good to glide the marker over the smooth surface.

A kindergarten student mixing paint colors
(primary colors plus white): This is a favorite activity
 for many. The combinations are endless!
 

 

Two kindergarten students enjoy drawing together,
with the forbidden "Sharpies" no less!

 

A first grader decided to make her weaving with a
color pattern. Weaving can be very relaxing
once you get the hang of it!

A first grader "fills in her body" with the people
and things she most cherishes.

A second grader decided to create an "old-timey" airplane.
We found a photo and he created this model completely
 by himself using recycled items in the art room.

 

The second graders were challenged with a Watercolor Line
Challenge: Create as many different kinds of lines
as you can in one art class. "This was really fun!"

 

A third grader creates a shadow box that expresses her identity.
The boxes will be displayed in the library through Graduation.

The third grade "Personal Portrait" project: Create a portrait
that tells something important about you and includes:
1. all, or part of your body
 2. a meaningful object
3. a meaningful setting

 Suggested Summer reading for parents:

This book explains the importance of TIME and SPACE for children to spark their imaginations and explore their creativity. It's a quick read and full of great ideas. In this era of so much "screen time" this book holds the space for true creative expression.

(available on Amazon)