Messes & Masterpieces

I love NOVEMBER!!!!! Or, well... I love good food and being surrounded by people I love. Thankfully I get to do one of those things everyday at work. I am truly grateful for each moment I get to spend with your students. They bring such joy and excitement to each day, ready to learn and grow. I don't think there is any other job in the world I could do. I would miss the kiddos too much!

We had outdoor Specials one day this month and I grabbed lots of fun pics outside!

There is lots to look forward to this month! We have our amazing Veterans day ceremony and fourth grade concert coming up as well as our annual Fine Arts Night! Please see below for more details!

Orders are due by November 17th for ship to school by 12/10. Any items ordered after November 17th, choose ship to home to ensure holiday delivery!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out for Fine Arts Night! We had so many amazing coyote families come and make artwork together. It was tons of fun!

Ms. Block and I are so thankful to everyone who helped make this event a success. PTA was incredible and donated the amazing raffle prizes. What an amazing night!

RRISD Library Services organizes a Comic Con annually and it has an art contest component! Any and all entries for this event cannot be completed in art class. I am happy to look over and make suggestions on student entry, but cannot give ideas or edit artwork in any way!

Kinder is off on some nature exploration! We learned all about how a flower grows from a seed to a beautiful plant and got some inspiration from Eric Carle! The master of all things nature and animals! We looked at examples of his work and the way he uses cut and torn paper to create beautiful animals, plants, and scenery. We then created some of our own painted paper using all sorts of fun tools. We had paintbrushes, q-tips, fun rollers, daubers, forks, corks, cups, stamps, and so much more to help give our pictures lots of design and texture.

One we created a LARGE batch of different colored painted papers, we used the pieces to create beautiful sunflowers, inspired by the flower from The Tiny Seed. The kids practiced tracing and cutting, but also tearing and gluing paper to create different textures in their artwork. They definitely loved tearing the paper and making a giant mess!

Some classes managed to squeeze in some pumpkin pie projects as well this week!

Firsties are heading straight into the cooler weather with some Hot Cocoa inspired artwork! We learned about artist Heather Galler. We studied Folk Art (art created by an artist with no formal training, but makes art based on their life and their surroundings). We looked at lots of examples of her artwork and used similar bright colors and patterns to create our own paintings.

We painted bright colorful paper then added patterns using different art tools like corks, bowls, forks, and stamps with different colors. Next we turn our painted papers into our mug and saucer, using the extra pieces for our background. We will use oil pastels to add shading and highlight to help our steamy mugs of cocoa pop!

Second grade is having a very messy time right now and loving every second of it! We have started our unit on 3D sculpture, beginning with pumpkins! We learned about armature (the skeleton of a sculpture that provides shape and support) and then created pumpkins out of foil. Once our pumpkin armatures were created, we spent two class periods covering our pumpkins in plaster so that they will dry nice and solid. These guys are going to last forever!

Our last step, once totally dry, will be to add some color, stems, and leaves to our pumpkins. Some students may decide to add a face to their pumpkin, but I leave it up to the artist to decide! This project is their first real experience with 3D art that isn't clay, and it is so fun watching them explore the new materials and make a giant mess!

Third grade is diving into Van Gogh with some beautiful sunflowers. We are studying Van Goghs expressive dashed painting style and using it to create our own sunflowers in a vase. This project always produces such gorgeous work and it is exciting to see it come together. Even the boys wind up enjoying this one and being proud of their creations, despite flowers being "girly"!

This project really stressed the kids out as I force them to "messy sketch". We practice drawing large outlining shapes on our paper to help plan out our project as we work. We work had to sketch lightly and messy so that it is easy to erase. Draw it light until it's right! We use erasers to get rid of what we need and then move forward with the sketch left behind. It is great practice in sketching and using proper proportions in our artwork by utilizing the entire paper with our drawings.

Alright, we survived the Veteran's Day ceremony and concert with a flourish! The students did such a stunning job with their performance but they are definitely anxious to get back into the art room and create! We are continuing on with our Tim Burton lesson, more pics to come. See below for more info if you missed it last month!

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Fourth grade has kicked off their portrait lesson for the year. We are studying the Director and Artist Tim Burton. We learned all about his history as an animator and illustrator, and his love for all things spooky. We studied stop-motion claymation and got to see many examples of his work on Nightmare Before Christmas. It always blows the kids minds to learn about stop-motion animation and how different it is to standard filmmaking. We took a look at many different examples of Tim Burton's styles and how it has changed over the years in different animated films, like Frankenweenie, as well as his regular films, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Alice in Wonderland!

We use his work as inspiration to create our very own stylized portraits. The kids work hard to mimic his bizarre style of drawing, while incorporating their own individual flare. We then dive deep into the world of Value to add shading and highlight to really make our creations pop!

I love teaching the kids about careers in art, especially animation and film making! See below for more information if you are interested! I love Stop Motion Animation! I am hoping to get the kids into group to create their own animations soon!

Fifth grade in continuing forward with our Batik project. Some classes will continue forward with their pumpkin designs, other classes will be creating the same art project but focusing on snowflakes instead! Batik is a very traditional kind of artwork used to create stunning fabrics. In countries like Indonesia, wax is used to create hand drawn patterns on fabric. Then dyes are used to color the fabric. Once heated, the wax melts off the fabric and leaves the beautiful patterns undyed beneath.

We will do an altered version (kid-friendly) of this project together! Rather than wax, we create drawings and designs of pumpkins or fall leaves using glue. After it dries, we will use permanent paints to fill in the gaps and "dye" the fabric. Once everything dries, we will remove the glue and it will leave behind a beautiful altered Batik! These will definitely be worth framing! This photo is an example of a finished piece! Can't wait to share more pics with you as the kids finish!

This art wishlist is full of amazing items that Ms. Block and I would love to add to our classrooms. Any items purchased from the list will be shared with both rooms and all students. Thank you so much for helping support our art program!

I always try my best to have students wear aprons when working with paint, or other messy supplies in the art room, however accidents and messes do occur! Please see below for tips and tricks I use to get art stains out of all of my clothing (because I am the messiest of them all!)

This year, I am trying Artsonia in my art room. While Artsonia can be used as a fundraiser, I am only trying to use it as an online portfolio for student work. I know that student artwork does not always make it home safely, or at all! This way, you can look at your students work and it will stay compiled in their portfolio for their entire elementary art career!

Click the link below to search for your students hard work from this year so far. More pics to come as we complete projects!

Website: https://www.artsonia.com/connect/DH3SJHHH

School Code: DH3SJHHH