Modern Day Silhouettes

Here are some photos of Modern Day Silhouettes created by the 5th graders. We were inspired by the iTunes Dancers for this project. Students created an abstract background and used an analogous color scheme when using the water colors. The abstract colors made the perfect background for their bold black silhouette. Some of the students even created small iPods for their silhouettes. This lesson is most definitely a keeper!

 

MoMA

At the end of September i was lucky enough to take and impromptu 48 hour trip to New York City. This was the first time that I had been to New York and I was able to visit many of the major attractions, Central Park, Ground Zero, Yankee Stadium, Times Square, and the Museum of Modern Art. At the MoMA I was able to see so many of the works of art in person, that i share with the kids everyday. It was a great experience that I'll never forget. I was lucky enough to see Starry Night by Van Gogh, Waterlilies by Monet, and a large scale mixed media piece by Robert Rauschenberg. These were just a few of the MANY masterpieces on display! 

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast!

In Kindergarten we have been practicing cutting and gluing skills. Today we created a Thanksgiving feast! We focused on cutting with pre-dawn lines and cutting without pre-drawn lines. We also talked about overlapping and stacking. We had fun thinking about all of the things we could add to our feast!

Before:

After:

5th Grade: Silhouettes

5th Graders at Southdale learned about the art of Silhouette cutting. They created a traditional silhouette (profile of the face on black paper, mounted on white) and paired their original artwork with a writing piece they did in their classroom titled "If I Were President". The traditional silhouettes were framed, and put on display in the library. 

For the project we watched the video below for inspiration. And saw how silhouette artists work quickly, and have the person who's silhouette they are cutting sit right in front of them. Before the invention of photography silhouette artists were valued in the community, because they were able to cut the likeness of a person very quickly. Presidential silhouettes were popular, and even appear on all of our United States coins. 

 Currently students are working on a Modern Day Silhouette, and we are taking inspiration from the Itune's Dancers. Pictures to come!

Here's how our traditional silhouettes turned out. The students were very proud of their work.

 

Picasso Museum: Take 2

Some more photos from our Picasso Museum a few weeks ago. 

6th Grade

 

6th Graders painted these ceramic tiles. First we talked about Persian Tile painting and how the trade was passed down from generation to generation. Persians would fill palaces and temples with thousands of hand painted tiles. Most of the tiles had Radial Symmetry. 

Students drew a radial design, and then transferred their drawings to the ceramic tiles and used acrylic paint to add color. We also talk about Color Harmony, and students were asked to choose a color scheme with 4 colors. When colors are repeated in an artwork, especially when dealing with symmetry, the design is more apparent and bold.

Some students chose to order a wood display box for their tile.

Picasso Portrait Museum

The real Picasso Museum is in Barcelona Spain, because that is Picasso’s home country. But this week I set up a Picasso Museum right here at Southdale.  The artwork was from 3^rd grade students, and some real Picasso paintings were also displayed. The 3^rd graders learned about Cubism, a style of art the Picasso helped to come up with. Cubism is a piece of art that includes many viewpoints or angles. Usually the viewpoints are of a face or person.

*Besides Cubism Picasso also had many other art styles, in fact he had more art styles than any other artist. He was always changing his art and coming up with new ideas. That is why I think he is such a famous artist. 

We talked about appropriate art gallery behavior

-No Talking

-No Touching

-Hands behind your back or in pockets.

*hold  comments until the end.

We talked about what to look for?  Look for multiple view points in the faces you see. Look for interesting colors, and look for Picasso’s real work. Think about some words you would use to describe the artwork you see. 

After the Gallery Walk we Reflected on the work:

*What did you learn about Picasso today that you didn’t know?

*What would you tell someone about Picasso?

*What did you see that you liked?

*How is the student artwork similar to Picasso’s real work? How is it different?

*If you had a chance to go back in time and meet Picasso, what would you say to him? What did his artwork teach you?

*What art materials do you think these students used?

*Ask your 3rd grade student about Picasso, they should be able to teach you a lot about him! 

Highly Recommended

Looking for a great kids book about art? Look no further than "The Art Book for Children" Volume 1 and 2. These books are filled with famous paintings and questions that make children think about what they are looking at. Each page also includes information about the artist and their work. These books offer kids a chance to talk about artwork, analyze, discuss and reflect on their opinions. I would highly recommend these books for you and your child.

We currently have a copy of Volume 2 in our Library for students to check out.

-Miss Mayhew

Art Room Update

Come and see what we have done!

5th Grade: Henri Rousseau inspired Jungle Drawings

1st Grade: Popcorn Drawings. For this project we talked about organic shapes and drawing from observation. After we were finished drawing, we ate our models. (:

4th Grade: Mountain Landscapes. For this project students learned about foreground, middleground and background. We colored the drawings with colored pencils and learned how to cross hatch, shade, and layer colors while using the "side hold" technique.

3rd Grade: Pastel Flowers. After looking at famous artworks that included flowers we discussed why artists often choose to draw and paint flowers. We gave it a try, then traced our pencil lines with glue. The next day we added colorful chalk. They turned out awesome! 



Art Show

Here are several pictures from the school wide art show that was held at Southdale last week. Students who were interested created an original piece of art at home, using their own art materials, and their own creative ideas. All of the work was gathered last Monday at school and judged by the Director of the Hearst Center for the Arts, a UNI Art Professor and 2 UNI Art Education students. The judges took this hard task seriously and had some great things to say about ALL of the pieces entered.

Tuesday and Wednesday students had a chance to walk through the art show using their art "museum behaviors" which we sometimes practice in the art room. The art show was also open for viewing during conferences Tuesday and Thursday which gave parents a chance to see the entries.

Thank you to all of the students who entered the art show, and to all parents and teachers who had a chance to visit. I say it time and time again but we have some talented kiddos here at Southdale!

 Best In Show overall went to 4th grader Lexi Bender for her LARGE SCALE mixed media piece titled "Stone Bones and His Parrot, Rocky". Great job Lexi, and great job to everyone!