We're Back!

Back in the classroom again.  It's a new year and we have many new projects on the horizon.  My current fifth grade is finishing up their time with our Artist in Resident, Caroline Zama.  The entire project will be a mural (hopefully to be placed in the school lobby) made up of clay tiles depicting the students self-portraits.  The center of the mural will be the Byck sun with the Byck cougar.  The symbols will be made up of tiles that depict the students view of Byck Elementary.  The fifth grade will then complete their Graffiti Arts oil pastel art and then they will visit Egypt by creating pop art pharaoh plaster masks.

My third grade gets an Artist in Resident too!  I am happy to announce I received the VSA grant I applied for. http://www.vsarts.org/ 

Louisville artist Michelle Amos will working with my third grade students to create 3-D Native American Kachina dolls.  That residency starts on January 24th.  

My kindergarten is about to create Japanese Carp windsocks.  We will make them out of paper, watercolor, and tissue paper.  They recently completed their Sole People, which was a printmaking project that introduced how primary colors make secondary colors when mixed correctly.  Through that project, they learned about Jan Ernst Mazeliger.  He was an African American inventor that created the sole lasting machine.  (A machine that was created to attach the sole to the body of shoes).

Each of my first grade classes will be working on different projects to go along with a 1st grade musical we will showcase in the spring.  They will be helping to make background scenes, props, and more for the musical.  

My second grade is working on a weaving unit.  We learn about Kente cloths and create patterned paper weavings.  We then move on to creating yarn weavings on a loom.  They will also create a clay cube head during their visit to the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (field trip!)  The trip is scheduled in February.

Fourth grade is involved this year with a large unit on self-portraits.  They are exploring who they are by creating 3 self-portraits that are all created in different media.  The first is an oil pastel portrait, the second is a photo collage portrait, and the third is a 3-D carved cube portrait.  If time permits, they will also create a wire armature of themselves.  

Discover classes start soon.  This rotation, classes will be for K-2nd grade.  My class will be teaching the importance of muraling, prop, and costume design in theater, television, and movies.  In this class, students will be creating a background for the 1st grade show, a prop, and a costume.   

So, as you can see, we have many things going on in the art room.  Students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade are all working on writing about art.  After each project, students are taking an assessment quiz and creating a personal narrative, a letter, or an evaluation of their art.  We are a truly busy art class!