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Friday, May 24, 2019

End of Year Artwork-- Coming Home Next week!

It is the best part of the year!  All of the amazing artwork the students worked on will be carefully bagged up in the next coming week and sent home with students.  Please ask your children about their favorite projects, materials, and artists' learned about this year.  The students all worked so very hard on these pieces and deserve all the recognition for their efforts.  I hope you find a special place to display these pieces as a family.  As always, encourage your child to be creative over the summer.  Let them paint, color, and create with whatever you have around. Also, don't forget to stop and see the beautiful works of art around you as you enjoy the summer.  You never know when inspiration will hit!
Have a great summer!  I look forward to hearing about all the adventures in August!
Fondly, Mrs. Kurzawski

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

New Year with New Projects!

Students are excited to jump right back into the new year with finishing up the old projects and starting on some new and exciting work.  

Kindergarten: Finished up the Snowy Landscapes with 3-D snowmen and started on our final winter focused project with designing a winter hat for a special snowy friend.  

First: Is finishing up the science of snow project with added snowmen faces peeking into the page and will soon be starting to work on our Chinese New Year Dragons to reflect on how others celebrate the New Year. 

Second:  Is learning about the artist Kehinde Wiley and are making self portraits with a fancy background motif.  

Third: Is just finishing up the metal repousse snowflakes and will be starting on a new landscape project based on Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  

Fourth: Has started an app smash project on the ipads using multiple apps to create a green screen animated image. This is a truly engaging lesson that no one wants to stop working on at the end of class!

Fifth: Put the finishing touches on their monster eyes and have jumped into the careers in art project. They are taking on various roles for this project and will be acting as a graphic designer to create a one of a kind keychain for their art company.  

Friday, November 16, 2018

Start of the Second Trimester!!

We are rolling right along with our art projects.  We are quickly transitioning from Fall pumpkins to snowy scenes and winter friends.  Keep and eye on your child's Artsonia portfolio to see what we are making!

We will be participating in HOUR OF CODE during art classes the week of December 3rd.  Be sure to check out CODE.ORG for more activities at home!

Kindergarten: Just completed their clay leaf bowls!  We had so much fun learning about texture around the school and pressing our found leaves into the fresh clay.  I am sure you will all love these special fall leaf bowls! Up Next is a winter project focused on landscapes.

First: Just finished up with their clay owl bowls.  They are quite a Hoot! I just love seeing all the cute characters coming from our artists.  The first graders also made some pretty awesome BIG EYED owl drawings to go along with the clay pieces.  Up Next, Snowmen at Night!

Second: Just completed a great unit on radial symmetry where they made circle mandalas.  Up Next, Portraiture and technology.

Third: Just completed their Medieval architecture unit with their clay castles and Family Crest designs.  Up Next, winter themed metal tooling.

Fourth: Just completed the cupcake drawings with one last fun addition of Gelli Plate printed texture papers.  They are also right in the middle of making their final clay cupcakes! 

Fifth: Is about to complete their macro drawings of creature eyes.  This project focused on layering of colored pencils to build depth with color.  They are pretty amazing to see up close!  Be sure to stop in during conferences to take a peek!

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Moving on to the second project....

Most classes have completed their first art projects of the year and have jumped right in to the second. 
If you are in the building, please take a moment to walk the halls and see the amazing artwork our artists have created. 
Please contact me if you are not connected to Artsonia so that I can assist in setting up your family accounts. This way you will never have to wait to see what the students are making.  😊

Kindergarteners are focusing on controlling a variety of mark making tools and learning 14 different types of lines.  Next, they will be learning about the artist Yayoi Kusama and will be making their own neon pumpkins.  If you are interested in learning more about Kusama be sure to check out WNDR Museum in Chicago.  She has a special exhibit running right now!

First graders have shifted gears and will be spending a little time in our WT Garden to observe and draw the pumpkins that are growing.  They will then be making their very own pumpkin patch at night showing space with overlapping objects.  They will also be learning about Vincent VanGogh's painting Starry Night. 

Second graders will be working a little more with mixing paints as they use tints for their own night sky. After the paint dries they will be adding trees and nocturnal animals to their work. We will also be reading a favorite book Night Animals. 

Third graders are just finishing up their printmaking project and will be starting their Medieval Castle unit. 

Fourth graders are pulling together all of the drawing skills they have practiced and added in some iPad photography for the cupcake project.  Once they have finished putting all the different parts of this unit together we will celebrate with a Clay Cupcake making party!

Fifth graders are at the last stages on their life drawing unit.  This week they worked on observing figures in motion and quickly capturing that movement in a gesture drawing. 

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Beginning of the year projects!

The Artists are diving right in to their work to start the year. 

Kindergarten: has been reading books about color mixing with the Primary Colors to make the Secondary Colors.  They also learned about the artist Alma Woodsey Thomas before using markers and water to create a color mixing science experiment.  The special rainbow paper is being used to create a cut paper scrap monster!

First Grade: has learned about the artist Pablo Picasso and his Cubist style portraits.  Students then played the fun dice game "roll-a-picasso" to create one of a kind cubist portraits of their own.  To finish off the project, they are adding chalk pastels in the tertiary colors. 

Second Grade: has been painting up a storm for their robot designs.  They started out making a background paper, then added metallic paint for their personal design.  Next they will be adding drawn details to complete the work. 

Third Grade: has been exploring Japanese Gyotaku printmaking with rubber fish and real leaves from around the Wayne Thomas school grounds. 

Fourth Grade: has learned about the artist Wayne Thiebaud and has begun the process of learning to draw 3-D forms with value and shading.  Soon they will be working on drawing sweet treats using their newly practiced skills. 

Fifth Grade: has begun their life drawing unit focused on artists Leonardo DaVinci and Nick Veasey.  Students are using ebony pencils and a variety of different erasers to draw bones in realistic ways. This is a more self guided, student interest unit which allows students to have freedom to explore and learn based on their own interests. 

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

FINAL PROJECTS!

We are all starting the final projects of the year.  Soon we will be packing up all of our artwork and bringing it home safely to be shared with our families!

Here is what each grade level is working on to close out the school year...

Kindergarten: They just finished up making clay pinch pots and decorating them with textures.
Next, they will be reading the book Beautiful Oops! and turning watercolor paint Oops! paintings into something amazing!

First Grade: Just finished up their Alexander Calder wire fish mobiles, (I love seeing all the creative fish hanging in the window outside the art room, stop by and check it out!)
Next, they will be learning about 2 artists, Henri Rousseau and Levon Biss to make a inspired jungle insect drawing. Check out the Microsculpture site!

Second Grade: Is just finishing up their clay coil pots and will be starting their Henri Matisse fish bowls soon!

Third Grade: Just finished up their flower paintings and are diving into the fiber arts with WEAVING!

Fourth Grade: Is working hard on their optical Illusion cubes and will be starting a fun clay pencil keeper project to end the year.

Fifth Grade: Has just finished up glazing their Garden Gnomes and Bobble Heads and will be finishing the year with a choice of different one- point perspective projects.  Be sure to check out the 5th grade page to see more tutorials about this lesson.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Spring is here!

In the art room projects have shifted from winter and snow to a more warm and flowery theme! 

Kindergarten is currently working on painted papers for a fun collage project based on the book Mr. Tiger Goes Wild!

First Grade is currently working on brightly colored stamped castle paintings based on the artist Paul Klee and his work Castle and the Sun!

Second Grade is finishing up their portraiture unit after celebrating February's Black History Month with the unveiling of two new Presidential Portraits for the National Portrait Gallery by the artist Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley.

Third Grade is studying the paintings of female artist Georgia O'Keeffe and is making their own abstract watercolor flower paintings. 

Fourth Grade is continuing their exploration of Modern Art by focusing on Optical Illusions in Art. 

Fifth Grade just completed the wrapped woven basket unit and is preparing for the clay figurine lesson in which they can create a bobble head or a garden gnome. 

So many fun projects going on!  Be sure to ask your children about what they are learning!