EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT: As a fun, and cheerful way to bring everyone together at Memorial School, the students (and some teachers) have been hard at work at creating a massive “DANCING RAINBOW” that travels around the hallways! We have spent time learning how to make all of the secondary colors, as well as predicting how far 618 rainbows will get us, as we try to make them flow along the walls, all the way around the school. It has also been a FUN challenge for the children to work together to BUILD this continuous rainbow and make each individual rainbow fit with another one (These aren’t your typical “arched” rainbows). Do you think we will make it from the art room to the gym? To the lobby? All the way back to the art room? Children from all grades are participating and have been so excited to share their beautiful colorful rainbows with each other. Ask your child if they have noticed how long the rainbow has gotten! We are about 1/4 of the way finished, and can’t wait to share how far we reached- all while trying to spread joy and beauty around our school!
PreK and K- Pinch pots and Rainbows
For the last month, preschool and kindergarten students have explored finishing their clay pinch pots with GLAZE. It was fun to learn about how glaze melts in the kiln and becomes a glass surface on their clay pinch pots. We hope you enjoyed getting to see your child’s amazing ceramic creation (and we also hope they made it home safely)! Please note that all pinch pots are fully functioning and water and food safe. Please- hand-wash only! We loved sculpting with clay, and were so excited to discuss what we planned to use our very own pinch pots for!
1- Printmaking and Rainbows
First grade students have been exploring the process of PRINTMAKING! We have discovered that it is so much easier to make many copies of things, in order to make them for many people to have, rather than only having ONE picture. We made connections with the world around us and discovered that books, magazines, chips, and even cereal boxes are printed. It was so exciting to notice how all cheerios boxes look exactly the same, and how each of us can have the same worksheet, or book! We then selected a real living animal from a massive pile of special animal pamphlets from the Wildlife Federation, and carved a REALISTIC drawing into the Styrofoam! This is known as the “stamp-printing process”, similar to linoleum-carved block printing. Students then created 10 prints and judged their work as they progressed, in order to produce and determine the best three. We can’t wait to bring our best work home for you to see!
2-Texture Ink Drawings and Rainbows
Second grade students explored the world of Texture! Texture is one of the seven elements of art! We began by searching for real physical texture in the art room, and outside. We then worked hard to figure out how to draw that texture, and to somehow make our drawings look soft, fuzzy, spiky, slimy, bumpy, rough, smooth and more! Once we learned how to draw texture, we were able to bring in our very own special object from home to create a Still Life drawing using INK! Thank you to the 2nd grade families for helping to ensure your child brought something for this special project! We also loved connecting the use of ink to the colonial times, and even though we didn’t have quills, we did an amazing job drawing using very fine paint brushes. The textures that we drew into in our “Ink Still-Life” drawings are amazing!
3-Final months of Choice Art, Toad Houses and Rainbows
We are now at the last few weeks for the third grade students in Mrs. Vining’s art classes to reach all 6 stamps in their art passports. If you haven’t checked in with your child to see their progress, please discuss that with them if you have a moment. Most students are reaching, or already have reached their end of year goal and are working on earning extra stamps in their passports! I wanted to take a moment to applaud the 3rd grade students, as we did some very challenging work this year, as independent artists! They have grown so much and are so capable of thinking outside the box to solve artistic problems, and make the most unique creations. Art is so much about finding a personal expression, or personal path, to create something meaningful and intentional. I have seen students explore sewing, glazing, constructing, gluing, cutting, printing, digital puppet making, stop-motion animation, layered paintings, mixed media designs, researching fine art/artist, and so much more. As the year has progressed, we have become the most comfortable and are finally confidently digging into the art room.
In Miss Fausette’s third grade classes, students have been constructing ceramic toad houses! Considering construction, as well as functional design, so a toad would like to live there has been so fun! One day, we even found a REAL tree frog outside the art room! These toad houses are currently being glazed and will be coming home soon! Don’t forget to plan out a special location in your garden for these amazing creations!
From Mrs. Vining: I am going to miss my 3rd graders and I wish them the best of luck in their transition to Center School. May they continue to grow and succeed as creative thinkers! There is so much more artistic fun ahead of you!
