Welcome to Art — our Winter projects are keeping us busy!  Here are just some of the fun lessons keeping Trinity’s students creative during the month of February!

ECC3, ECC4 and ECC5 Classes ~ our youngest students enjoyed making a collage of Peter’s footprints in the snow. This project was based on the book The Snowy Day by E. J. Keats. The students created Polar Bear Masks out of paper plates and white tissue paper. Finally, after reading Jan Brett’s book The Mitten, the classes crafted matching Suncatcher Mittens using colored tissue squares, construction and contact papers.

Kindergarten also made their own Snowman Collage using torn construction paper.  They had lots of fun using texture and patterns on their snowmen’s scarves and cutting out orange, carrot noses. Buttons were used for the snowmen’s eyes and bodies. “The Kinders,” as I like to call them, also enjoyed a lesson on How Artists See the Weather. This produced wonderful drawings of beach scenes with plenty of sunshine, windy days of flying kites, snow scenes of snow ball fights and of course, rainy days of splashing in puddles while holding floppy umbrellas.  The Kinders learned about the art element FORM when they created their very own playground sculptures using only cut up strips of colored construction paper.

First Graders made wonderfully colored drawings of snowmen playing outside at night.  This long time favorite project was based on the book Snowmen at Night by C. Buchner.  The “Firsties”  drew their snowmen playing baseball, swinging on swing sets and sledding down hills with snowmen friends.  This crafty class learned about the art element VALUE in color when they used it to shade and color during their video lesson on how to draw a penguin on an iceberg.

Our Second Grade Class learned all about the art element SPACE and perspective in drawing when they painted pine trees and snowy hills. Then after lots of cutting, careful placement and pasting, they transformed their artwork into wonderful winter scenes. Our “Sensational Second Graders” watched a slideshare of five famous artists’ paintings, each depicting a different occupation in life. This culminated into drawings of some really cool future occupations for our second graders:   policemen, teachers, lawyers, zookeepers and even a surgeon!  Shortly this group will finish up their Picasso-style, abstract self portraits.

The Third Graders and of course, Mrs. Kerwin were extremely proud of the beautiful Winter Birch Tree Watercolors they finished a few weeks ago.  After receiving a lesson on Shape vs Form and viewing the blown-glass sculptures of artist Dale Chihuly, this jolly group of students enjoyed making their very own Mini-Macchia sculptures out of coffee filters colored with felt tip pens.

Fourth Graders learned about different Pop artists and their styles. Then they viewed the drawings and paintings of American artist Norman Rockwell. But the artwork of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama really dazzled us all with her DOTS, DOTS and more DOTS— EVERYWHERE!!!  This group tried their hand at fashion designing by drawing clothing with matching accessories– all adorned with colorful dots.  Some students created land and seascapes using patterns of dots separated by various lines.

Our Fifth Grade students enjoyed a slideshare of optical illusion artists from all over the world.  A lesson in value and drawing endless tunnels was enjoyed by all.  Native Brazilian artist Romero Britto’s bright and cheery artwork seemed to really catch the students’ attention.  The class was eager to create their own Britto style drawings and I left hearing a few students admiring and complementing each other’s designs.

The Sixth Grade took a virtual field trip to the Palmer Museum of Art to explore the art of Africa.  Each student chose to create a type of drawing, weaving, sculpture and even a game from a different historical time period in African art.  There were mandala games made out of cardboard and egg cartons, mini rugs woven on cardboard looms and one student made a beautiful beaded necklace out of colored paper beads.  Now the students have switched gears to the history of American Graffiti Art and have begun designing their own “tags” out of their first names.

Seventh Grade enjoyed a unit on self portrait drawing.  Their final project was to draw a self portrait which had a realistic side and an abstract side.  The realistic side was accomplished by gazing into a hand held mirror, sketching and shading in with pencil.  The abstract side consisted of colorful symbols replacing the facial features representing the student’s own personality and how they picture themselves “on the inside.”  The class will begin a unit on texture and incorporate their favorite animal into a special drawing.

Eighth Grade ~ After an in-depth review lesson on the Elements of Art and a new lesson on the Principles of Design the class was asked to take their own photos representing a visual drawing prompt of their choosing.  One such prompt was entitled “a tight squeeze.”  The student who chose this visual prompt  had someone take a picture of her hugging her mom. The students were asked to describe how the elements and principles of art and design relate to the photo they have taken. This activity gets my graduating class prepped and ready for their freshman art class in high school — right around the corner!  After a discussion on the history of print making the class enjoyed creating whimsical pictures and cartoons using their own fingerprints.  Yes, those Clorox wipes all the parents donated really came in handy for the black paint on some of those eighth graders’ fingertips!  Seriously, one of my favorite projects.  🙂

Stay tuned for March Adventures in Art and Keep Creating!

Mrs. E. Kerwin