New School Year

New Projects

2015-2016

Observation

Classes have begun with a reminder about what we see with our eyes and what we know with our brain.  In an effort to be good observers, we need to be able to distinguish between the two.

Kindergarten drew spiders.  We observed 8  jointed legs, two body parts, a spinneret where the silk comes out, and jaws. This was the kindergartners first drawing and there were so many things to learn; landscape or portrait, title, where to start, what size the shapes needed to be.  They did great!

First graders drew insects.  We drew a house fly and a honey bee.  We observed that insects have 6 jointed legs,  3 body parts, 2 compound eyes, wings, and antennae.  I was so pleased to realize they remembered most of the body parts and drew slowly so as not to erase.

Second graders also worked on insects; a grasshopper and a dragonfly.  We learned that insects have no nose but breathe through spiracles which are holes in their body.

Change of plan....

Third, fourth and fifth graders really wanted to do zentangles.  I ditched my original plan and got the markers out.  It's amazing how quiet the students are when they're concentrating on doodling with a fine tipped marker.
We did zentangles last year at this time ... 
  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8683930502591108761&pli=1#editor/target=post;postID=4717030666904940835;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=15;src=postname



Chihuly

Dale Chihuly is a famous glass sculptor.

"Glass itself is so much like water.

 If you let it go on its own, it almost ends up looking like something that came from the sea. "

After studying Chihuly's organic glass forms, the students wanted to blow glass.  There are many videos about his work on the internet and the students got very excited.  It wasn't possible to blow glass (why not?) and so we decided to try our hand at investigating his forms through melted plastic.  Our whole school wanted in on the project and so we all started to save clear plastic water bottles.

We collected plastic.

We cut, colored and melted the plastic.

 

We glued them into a sculpture and named it.

 

 

 

 

Clothespin Tree

 

After exploring with clothespins, students wanted to make a tree.  The Tree of Imagination, Design and Memory...  and add "memories of 4th grade" as leaves. 

 

 



Mobiles

 

 

Students have begun studying

Alexander Calder

who was an American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of kinetic sculpture made with delicately balanced or suspended components which move in response to  air currents.


"I used to begin with fairly complete drawings, but now I start by cutting out a lot of shapes . . . Some I keep because they're pleasing or dynamic. Some are bits I just happen to find. Then I arrange them, like papier collé [paper collage], on a table, and ‘paint’ them—that is, arrange them, with wires between the pieces if it's to be a mobile, for the overall pattern. Finally I cut some more of them with my shears, calculating for balance this time."

"I begin at the small ends, then balance in progression until I think I've found the point of support. This is crucial, as there is only one such point and it must be right if the object is to hang or pivot freely. I usually test out this point with strings to make sure before bending the wires. The size and angle of the shapes and how to use them is a matter of taste and what you have in mind."

"I feel an artist should go about his work with great respect for his materials. Symmetry and order do not make a composition. It is the apparent accident to regularity which the artist actually controls, by which he makes or mars a work."

"To most people who look at a mobile, it's no more than a series of flat objects that move. To a few, though, it may be poetry."
 



4th graders used pipe cleaners, paper clips and DVDs.

 

 

5th graders

 

 

 

Non-fiction

 

 

All students work on non-fiction projects in connection with their grade level curriculum.  There is always writing involved and sometimes it becomes a classbook.  Please check our school website for classbooks.

 

Finished art starts with a preliminary sketch, sometimes studying shapes, sometimes textures, sometimes using research to help add details.

 



kindergarten studied hibernating animals

 

 
 
first grade studied baby animals
 

 
fourth grade made books about animals

 

 
 
fifth grade used non-fiction research to add details and
non-fiction text features to make individual books

 

 

 

Weaving

 

4th graders have been weaving.
 We already knew that Native Americans wove fabric.  We learned that most ancient civilizations needed to weave clothing.  Weaving is also a technique used today. 
We've seen woven leather shoes, woven rattan furniture, woven baskets and even spiders weave webs.  It was really hard at first but then we figured it out pretty quickly and we loved it!
It was amazing how meditative weaving was.

 

 

 



 

If I Were 100 years old.......

 

 

Ms. Bullock's kindergarteners celebrated 100 day

 with self-portraits of what they might look like when they reach 100. 

 We looked at pictures of old people and the kindergarteners made great observations. 

 We even talked about using walkers, not seeing or hearing too well and taking our teeth old. 

You can see from the drawings that they "saw" the wrinkles.