https://sites.google.com/cps.edu/waters-art-lab/home

Our Indigenous weaving and storytelling project is fully funded THANKS TO YOU! We are so excited to begin our weaving of stories and tapestries as we look at numerous forms of storytelling---puppetry, circle-talk, imaginative play and narrative artworks...

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Waters kids are AMAZING! Our Wavemakers and Grrl Scout after school clubs have raised money to support UNICEF in our community by creating DIY trick-or-treat orange boxes to carry during our festivities last week. We've also had a huge turnout for our SOCKTOBER donations for new, warm socks for children in need in the upcoming winter months. I feel truly fortunate to have the energy of these young changemakers in our lives! Thank YOU!

A HUGE thanks to our Middle School AS1 class! Our Middle Schoolers created this year's Día de los Muertos ofrenda! Our amazing crew hung our celebratory K-8 exhibit and created our ofrenda honoring Frida Kahlo, her pride in her Indigenous heritage and her ability to use art as healing! All students in visual art contributed to our celebration and community-created Aztec marigolds graced our beloved tradition of thanksgiving. Thank you Middle School artists!

P.S. Check out our MS AS1 Kitty Calavera Stuffies---they are DELIGHTFUL:)!

Thanks so much to Room 308, Ms. Castro, Ms. Berg, Ms. Garcia, Ms. Julie and Ms. Marth for creating such a powerful art integration collaboration---rooted in honest history and Indigenous experience in the Americas! It was great fun working with you to link our stories to all the stories of thanksgiving in our Día de los Muertos ofrenda! (We also enjoyed learning about the key figures of the Mexican Revolution and our art making fiesta---making our clay calaveras together:)!)

Look for our José Guadalupe Posada prints honoring OUR loved ones and inspirations today at Backlot Coffee soon...:)!

BRAVO TEAM!

Our 2nd & 3rd graders LOVED their live music experience with Apollo's Fire! This interactive, musical storytelling was an incredible way for us to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in October. We experienced the sounds and stories of Egypt, Italy, Greece and Spain. In addition to learning folkloric traditions we learned some new dances of the region too! THANK YOU!

5TH & 6TH grade Critter Club members sponsored our first-ever DIY Costume Festival for Halloween this year! Students created posters promoting the festival and will create fun games and critter club experiences (bunny circles and much more) for raffle experience winners. Every class had a winner and all activities with be during recess and lunch!

It was great to spend Harvest Day with our Preschool Art Buddies! I loved seeing their joy as they experienced their 1st ever Waters' Halloween Parade and face painting for Harvest Day! What fun!

A short history of the roots of Native American Heritage Month and a sharing of the powerful presence of Indigenous experience in US---past and present!

Throughout November, we will be looking at a variety of American Indian creation stories and looking for common and diverse elements in each rendering---building knowledge and understanding for all!

We have been SO BUSY throughout October and will just keep it rolling into November! We have studied Indigenous traditions of thanksgiving and centered our work on Día de los Muertos symbology and its Aztec heritage. We have looked at the Circle of Life as we practiced Circle Talk and circling our practice back to our first weeks of school---"One Tree, Many Leaves..." (Shel Silverstein)

We've been enhancing at a variety of homeroom studies in October, including the 1st grade trip to Sulzer Library and their read-aloud, All the Way to Havana (Margarita Engle), talking about the amazing vintage cars still found in Cuba today. We explored other forms of transportation (using children's books too) of the Caribbean and Latin America, including the party buses of Colombia (La Chivas), Guatemala (Camionetas) and Haiti (Tap-Tap buses). 1st graders are creating their own party buses out of cardboard to promote public transportation to save the environment and build community.

Our second grade study of Frida Kahlo's animals started with Ms. Rafalowitz's visit to her sister! She brought back Frida Kahlo and her Animalitos to read to her classroom. We talked about how we are honoring Frida Kahlo in our Día de los Muertos ofrenda and how she inspires many people to make art around the world. We are busy creating a collage of all of Frida's animals as we learn about her artistry and her sense of community--- built as one in her Casa Azul. Up next, a Casa Azul cardboard puppet theatre and Frida & Diego storytelling puppets!

We are reinforcing 3rd grade's study of The Three Sisters---corn, beans, and squash and building on their homeroom weaving unit by learning basketry! Students are learning how to weave "in-around" as we look at this Indigenous art form found throughout the Americas (and the world:)). We have discussed Mohawk wampum, and the importance of trade and the complex barter system found in the pre-colonial Americas, as we add our wooden and shell beads to our baskets. It's a big challenge for us and a lot of fun!

5th 6th & grade will begin weaving with colorful raffia to create tapestries and baskets to make textile stories. These textiles will be rooted in Indigenous creation myths and weavers' life stories from across the globe. Our colors and stories will draw on choice-based reading circles. We will teach each other about our reference texts in our artworks. This differentiation strategy should be a great way for all of us to learn more about weaving (stories and textiles) as an art form throughout the world. Ask your child who they are studying:)! We LOVED printmaking and learning how to create multiple renderings of the same artwork as we honored our important figures in our lives---retablo style. Throughout October, we talked about how these traditional Mexican folk objects were a way to keep our loved ones close, even if they are far away. Our 5th & 6th grade retablos are featured in our Día de los Muertos pop-up exhibit. Check them out!

Kindergartners have been practicing cutting with scissors---and using them to create lines---and making circles, ovals, triangles to design our own calavera cats. Scissor practice has been a learning activity for all of us. Our Kitty Calavera collages, also featured in our Día de los Muertos exhibit, are a charming demonstration of the art of drawing with scissors. The puffy paint bones are pretty fun too! We will be moving on to our annual Kindergarten tradition---🎨 our first self-portrait of school 🎨 ---as we enhance their homeroom study of All About Me throughout November.

Middle Schoolers have been busy sewing, writing poetry, making collages, finishing their visual journals and practicing their own choice-based art projects in Genius Hour! I look forward to sharing their hard work and creative spirit with you at our upcoming EcoArts Fest! Get ready to take home some student-created SLIME for SEL supports at our exhibit opening...MS kids LOVE making SLIME:))!

Our 2Q Visual Journals will be starting with a new group of students this week. I'm excited to see a new take on our Art of Happy Accidents. (Really it's mixed media experimentation and poetry as self-portrait:).) Our found poetry, I am.. poems, and Ransom Note acrostic poems were so fun last quarter---I can't wait to see what comes next! All visual journals will be on display at our S1 Visual Art Exhibit, December 13, 2024 (3-4:30PM).

Please take a moment to check out our 2024 Community Ofrenda, dedicated to Frida Kahlo, and our Día de los Muertos Pop-up Exhibit at Report Card Pick-up! Visit me in Room 219 too--- if you have time:))!

Mni Wiconi!

With Kindness,

Mrs. Vecchioni

We are an ensemble of parents, students, teachers and staff that are excited about fine arts programming---exhibits, performances, showcases, arts festivals and literary salon events. We need your ideas and enthusiastic spirit to help us give Waters kids the BEST arts education we can...

We build community together and have a lot of FUN:)!

🎨 ALL ARE WELCOME! 🎨

We will NOT be having a November meeting due to the numerous days off throughout the month. PLEASE SAVE-THE-DATE for volunteering to hang our S1 Visual Art Show. We will have our OPENING DECEMBER 13, 2024. We will need volunteers throughout the week of December 9-13, 2024. Thanks in advance!

🎨 Thank you for your time, support and energy:)! 🎨

ALL STUDENT Wavemaker Art Clubs will begin on THURSDAYS in NOVEMBER:)! Please check out our calendar below---if no school, no meeting. Thanks in advance!

2024-2025 Wavemaker ART-IN-ACTION Clubs include:

Wavemakers Arts Leadership Team & THE GROUP FORMERLY KNOWN AS CRITTER CLUB (5-8)

FIRST THURSDAY & THIRD THURSDAY EACH MONTH (3PM - 5PM)

SEMESTER 1 MEET DATES

• 10/3, 10/17
• 11/7, 11/21
• 12/5, 12/19

Wavemakers Arts Advocacy & Grrl Scout Troupe #27333 (1-4)

SECOND & FOURTH THURSDAY EACH MONTH (3PM - 5PM)

SEMESTER 1 MEET DATES

• 10/10, 10/24
• 11/14
• 12/12
  

*LUNCH CREW LITERARY SALON LIBRARIANS (2 & 3 grades) & CRITTER CLUB (4-6 grades) will be each Wednesday this year! Let Mrs. Vecchioni know if you are interested in joining us:)!*

From CPSArts:

"As a Fine & Performing Arts School with Demonstration Site Status, your school will receive the following:

Badge Certification
Feel free to use this official badge on all school print and virtual documents.

Innovation Grant
Your school will receive a $10,000.00 innovation grant to support the expansion of your arts and arts integration curricula into contemporary and innovative spaces. We encourage you to consider emerging technologies in artistic disciplines and arts integration. We will release further guidance on how to spend these funds as we approach the start of the school year.

Increased Visibility
Your school will become a beacon of inspiration, hosting visits from teachers and administrators at other Fine & Performing Arts Schools who want to learn from your strengths.

Teacher Leadership Opportunities
Your teachers will join a pool of presenters for Fine & Performing Arts Schools professional development, and they will have opportunities to share their successes and experiences with their peers.

Lending Library Early Adopters
Your school will have the opportunity to be an early adopter of the Fine & Performing Arts Schools Lending Library, which will include advanced and specialized art-making equipment. We will issue guidance for how to access this library around the start of the school year."

*This great news and more was cited from The FULL REPORT below. Check it out:)!