New Year, New Things Happening in the Art Room

Welcome to the 2014-2015 school year! I am so excited to be back for another great year at St. Roberts! There are a few changes in the art room this year so I just wanted to briefly touch on them.

GRADING! Grades 4-8 will have a slightly different grading process this year. Instead of ONLY being graded on behavior, students will also be graded on each art project. BE NOT AFRAID. Grades will be based on a list of requirements, not based on talent. As long as students follow directions and complete their project on time, they will do fine.

FIRST FIVE. Students in grades 2-4 will be participating in an opening activity each day called First Five. When they come into the art room, there will be an activity on the smart board for students to quietly complete. It could be anything from writing down thoughts on a piece of artwork to a quick drawing of something. Before moving on to our lesson or project work time, we will discuss the first five as a class.

ARTSONIA. Artsonia.com is a website where students from all over the world create online art galleries. Last year, my third grade students (now fourth grade), used artsonia to upload four or five pieces of artwork.Their families could go online and see their artwork and even had the chance to purchase merchandise that featured their student's artwork. This year, ALL students K-8 have been designated an artsonia account. Every project completed in class will be uploaded to artsonia. Keep an eye out!

BLOG. I will still update the blog as regularly as possible, but I will not be uploading images of student artwork. Because we have artsonia, I will direct your attention to student artwork often via that site.

And last but DEFINITELY not least,

IPADS!! The art room has been given 8 iPads from Home and School. We will be using the iPads for art history and artist research, group projects, art app exploration, and artsonia uploads. I am so excited to be able to use these with all grade levels!

What Everyone Has Been Up To

I will post some pictures of some K-2 projects in just a little bit, but here is what EVERYONE has been up to the last couple of weeks here in the art room.

Kindergarten has been working on drawing faces and bodies. We drew a face only self-portrait then drew one that included our whole body. Last week, we took a little break from the "hard stuff" to read the book "One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish" by Dr. Seuss and the students had fun drawing fish. This week, we dove right back in and worked on a drawing that included our whole family.

First grade worked on face and full body portraits as well. Then they did some projects inspired by story. We watched a video reading of "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andrae and Guy Parker-Rees and drew some dancing giraffes. Then we listened to the story "The Princess and the Pea" and drew princes or princesses on some mattresses decorated with pattern and color. We also took a little "Halloween" break to make some spiders by painting our hands. Those should have come home with your student last week. This week we learned a song to help us remember the order of the colors in the rainbow, and made baby chicks in rainbow order.

Second Grade has been learning about the four parts of a landscape: background, middle ground, foreground, and horizon line. They saw what things should look like and began working on their own landscape of any kind. When they finished that, we started working on a drawing of what we think heaven looks like.

Third grade finished up their self-portraits and began working on a "stained glass" dove picture. We talked about where we see pieces of stained glass artwork (usually in churches) and why the dove is important in The Bible. Students attempted to replicate the stained glass look on thin printer paper using markers.

Fourth grade has been finishing up quite a few projects. This week we made paper masks that turned out quite nicely.

Fifth grade turned in A LOT of work this week, and we began a printmaking project that will take a few weeks to complete. I am very excited to do this project and I CAN'T WAIT for you to see the results.

Sixth grade has been working on a collage "profile". Students used the projector to trace the shadow of their profile on their paper and is now picking out magazine clippings they believe represents themselves. They will add other elements to this project that will make it a mixed media piece of artwork.

Seventh grade did a few small exercises the past couple weeks to practice their perspective skills.

Eighth grade learned about Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead and looked at some example artwork that represents this holiday. We used implied line to decorate a skull using oil pastels on black paper. They are turning out quite nicely. I am excited to see them finished.

Not much to post this week!

Because I posted so many pictures last week, there isn't much to post from this weeks classes. I will try to get some pictures up Monday-today was a busy day.

Third grade did upload some artwork to artsonia and that went great! Check it out! It should be approved and uploaded by tomorrow or Sunday. Artsonia goes through the pictures and makes sure your students' names don't show.

http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=145635

Art contest opportunities

Here are a few art contest opportunities that have come to my attention. While we won't take time in art class to enter most of these, I am always willing to help students with any projects they may submit or send them in for students. 

These flyers are posted in my classroom. If your student would like to enter but you are having troubles reading the flyers in these pictures please contact me and I will send more information, 

Art Room Update 10/10

There won't be many pictures this week because almost every class is in the middle of a project. Here is what students have been working on this week:

Kindergarten just started doing self portraits. They will finish these next week and also do a drawing of their whole body.

First Grade finished their scarecrows and are starting their self-portraits today.

Second Grade started self-portraits. They should be able to finish them next week.

Third Grade started a collage project. I am really excited to see these when they are finished. They will be our next artsonia upload.

Fourth Grade is finishing up their contour resist projects and will finish a silhouette project this week or next.

Fifth grade didn't have art this week, so they will be finishing up their Jim Dine heart project next week. These should turn out to look  very good.

Sixth grade has one more class period to work on their cityscape, then we are starting a new project.

Seventh is finishing up their "yellow line" project.

Eighth grade is finishing up their typography letter contrast assignment. I think these are going to end up looking really cool as well.

Want to find only your student's projects?

Each post that I write has a "label" on the bottom that basically tags each grade. If you have a student in second grade, you can find a post with that label and click on it. That will bring up all of the posts that are labeled "second grade". This makes it a little easier to find your student's class fast. 

            ^ these are at the bottom of each post. You can see I have clicked on "second grade" already to view those projects. 

You should also be able to comment on the posts. Let me know what you think!! 

Updates for the week 9/16-9/20

Unfortunately, I will be out of the building tomorrow so I will not get a chance to update the blog as usual with pictures. I will, however, let you all know what each class worked on this week and will post pictures on Monday!

Kindergarten-KA did the pattern strips project that KB did last week, then made their cows.
KB started learning about shapes and did some coloring pages to help them identify different shapes.

First grade-Both classes started a project decorating an owl with patterns. We read the books "Good-night, Owl!" by Pat Hutchins and "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen.

Second Grade-We finished our foil shape projects, then began a drawing of a robot using the shapes we learned about.

Third Grade-We learn about the planets in our solar system and practice using oil pastels to make a circle appear 3D with value. We also started working on an "outer space landscape" which includes the sun, all 8 planets, and some extras.

Fourth Grade-We finished our "Follow the Line Through the House" Project, then learned more about contour line, working on a drawing of our shoe.

Fifth Grade-We finished our texture names (many took these home as homework-due next Tuesday!) and started a new project using line to create a cityscape.

Sixth Grade-We have continued to work on our one point perspective names-they are looking great!

Seventh Grade-We learned about contour lines and practiced blind contour line drawing like last week's class.

Eighth Grade-We worked on value scales.

I will get pictures up Monday!

Thank You

Thank you to whoever left me some plates, wipes, and foil last night on my desk. It is greatly appreciated. I am thinking of more projects to do some printmaking and all of those supplies will help with that! I am so blessed to be part of such a caring school.

Things I Could Always Use...

I am starting multiple projects and there are some things that I will be buying to use in the classroom that are every day objects. These would be easy things to donate if you have them laying around the house. The list includes:

Paper plates-the foam kind work the best but the regular paper kind work just as well. We use them as palettes to put paint on. Old aluminum pie tins work well for this, too!

Aluminum foil-I am about to do a lesson on printmaking with the 3rd grade and we will need some aluminum foil to use as our "plate". I can also always use foil to build the armatures of sculptures, which we will be exploring later this year in many grades.

Baby wipes- It's hard to believe, but baby wipes clean almost everything! They are much easier to clean paint and printmaking ink up with! If you have any extra laying around after potty training your little ones-bring them in!

Plexi-glass-I know this isn't something that you normally have laying around, but small plexi-glass rectangles would be perfect to roll ink onto for printmaking or to use as plates later on. They would be perfect cut into 9"x12", but smaller would work too. I will put masking tape on the corners of these to keep them from cutting students.

That's all for now, but I will be reposting and updating this list often.

We can always use more books!

I came across a cool idea for people to help me out in my classroom! I am trying to create a library of art texts to use with my lessons. I created a wish list of these books and games on amazon.com. If you purchase any of the books, they will be sent directly to the school and we will start using them right away! I appreciate any books that we can get donated! I love reading to my students to get them excited about art! Here is the link to my wishlist.

http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/1MLOWL8WW4BQ0/ref=sr_1_1_acs_wl_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377289107&sr=8-1-acs

Thank you!

Photos of My Classroom

Here are some photos of the room your students will be learning in this year!

Objectives Board

Art Room Rules

Color Wheel-Primary and Secondary Colors

Cool, Warm, and Neutral Colors

Think outside the box!

Mike from Monsters Inc!

My desk

Schedule!

In this class we..

Minions!

Kevin!!

Class Drawer

I'm all done...NOW WHAT?!

The Lorax

A Little Bit About Me-Letter to My Students' Parents

August 21, 2013

Dear Parents,

                Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year!  I am so excited to begin my teaching career at St. Robert Bellarmine School.  I have many exciting new ideas to bring to the art classroom and look forward to working with students to expand their creativity and critical thinking skills while learning how to convey their interests and faith through their artwork.

                I grew up in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.  Fort Calhoun is a small town north of Omaha, near Blair.  I discovered my love for the arts during high school, participating in music as well as many art classes.  In May 2013, I became a graduate of Wayne State College.  I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in education with a K-12 art endorsement.

                I have high expectations for the students here at St. Robert Bellarmine School.  Along with learning about the elements and principles of design, here are a few things that I plan to incorporate into the curriculum this school year.  In kindergarten, first, and second grades, students will explore using different tools to create art, explore the color wheel, and begin learning how to reflect and self-assess their artwork.  Third and fourth grades will begin learning about different types of printmaking, begin mixing colors to create additional depth in their artwork, and explore creating three-dimensional artwork.  In fifth and sixth grades, we will begin working with perspective, learn some techniques using watercolor paints, and begin having class critiques based on project objectives.  An exciting change that will be put into effect this year with art is that students K-5 will see me twice a week!  This extra time will allow us to complete more projects and cover more subject matter, as well as learn more about the history of art and artists that inspire us.  I am excited to have this chance to teach students  about how art became what it is today.

                Seventh and eighth grade students will be busy this year as well, learning about color schemes and incorporating them into their artwork.  They will be creating variety and interest in their artwork, and working on creating illusions in their artwork such as depth or motion.  Eighth grade students will also have the opportunity to create a small digital portfolio of their work, and reflect on their improvement.

                I believe working together this year is important to create a successful environment, and I thank you for being interested and willing to help if need be.   You can reach me at school by phone at (402)334-1929 or by sending me an email at rlewis@stroberts.com.   Also, please stop in and say hello at Back to School Night-I look forward to meeting all of you.

Sincerely,

 Miss Rebecca Lewis

Art Teacher