art happens here

5th Graders Express Themselves!

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:57:23 +0000

After our Rembrandt vs. Rouault debates, in which students were teamed up to defend an artist, students created their own expressive portraits in the style of Rouault. Each student began by creating a web that shared emotions they feel and reasons behind them. Then, they chose a feeling and communicated it in their portrait through physical expression, oil pastel technique and color choice.

What emotion do you think these students are trying to show?

Artwork above by: Drew N., Shane B., Peyton W. and Quinn K.

Find this project and more in our online gallery at Artsonia!

Using Shapes to Create in Kindergarten

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:45:41 +0000

I’ve always enjoyed using Eric Carle as inspiration for this lesson, not only because the kids are familiar with him, but his illustration style makes it so easy to build from drawing shapes to creating larger objects (in this case, animals) with them.

Students practiced identifying, tracing, drawing, coloring and cutting basic geometric shapes. Then, we looked at several works by Eric Carle (like the one below) and tried to figure out what shapes Eric Carle used to create it.

Click here to see the bats and horses that we made in the style of Eric Carle! Here is Mason’s horse:

Here are the steps we followed:
1. Paint paper with a variety of painting tools.
2. As a class, vote on the animal we will each create.
3. Draw the shape needed on the back of the painted paper.
4. Carefully cut out the shape.
5. Carefully glue the shape in its place.
6. Repeat drawing, cutting and gluing until animal is complete.
7. Add minimal detail with crayon.

Gettin’ Real with 4th Grade

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:36:50 +0000

Fourth graders recently had a lesson to focus on drawing from observation. They did several activities to challenge them to draw what they see and not what they THINK they see. Students concluded this lesson by drawing a simple still life of objects from our room. Click here to view our Artsonia gallery of still life drawings. (Artwork above by Addison H.)

After the lesson, I shared some Photorealistic works with them. They, like me, were in awe of what some of these artists are able to do with paint!

Shape Madness with Matisse

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:30:04 +0000

First graders learned about three groups of shapes: geometric, free-form and organic. We looked at several works by artist Henri Matisse and found examples of each of these kind of shapes. What do you see?

Then, students thought of a time or place where there may be a lot of action. They created abstract works of art using all three types of shapes. Click here to see our Artsonia gallery of the Matisse project. Here are a few examples by Ava, Eliza and Maya. Can you figure out what may be happening in these images?

Color Studies in Grade 1

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:23:06 +0000

First graders learned that red, yellow and blue are the primary colors. They also learned that these colors are special because you cannot make them, but they can be used to make all the other colors on the color wheel!

Inspired by Kandinsky’s color studies (above), students created their own color study dots. We created 5 dots: a primary dot, a secondary dot, a “how to make purple” dot, a “how to make orange” dot and a “how to make green” dot. Click here to see all works from Mrs. Decker’s class at our Artsonia gallery page. Here are two examples from Amelia and Lilah.

Tech Tool: Voicethread

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:09:12 +0000

Tool: http://www.voicethread.com/

Cost: FREE (for up to 5 files), see levels of subscription at http://voicethread.com/products/k12/

What is it?
With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install.

A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too. (taken from voicethread site)

How I am using it:
To be honest, I’ve only used Voicethread for my classroom curriculum one time. I used it as a station to help show how the artist Henri Rousseau shows space in his work. I only took advantage of uploading images, recording sound and drawing on the images. There is so much more you could do with this!

Click the link to see the voicethread:
http://voicethread.com/share/999930/

Teacher Tips:
Use a voicethread to bring together a vareity of media files on one topic. I find it works well for the visual side of things- reading diagrams, critiquing artworks, etc.

Create a voicethread to introduce, reinforce or close a topic in class. If used to introduce a topic, students could post questions.

Have individual students or small groups access voicethreads to get instruction directly from you (recorded into the voicethread) while you work with other students.

Give students access to a voicethread (simply use the web address) and they can leave comments (audio or written) of their own. Great way to document participation or understanding.

Have students (if they have email addresses and create accounts) create a voicethread on a certain topic to share with the class.

Have students create a voicethread to share their work. Have other students log in and use the comment feature to give peer feedback.

Parent Tips:
Have students make voicethreads about what they are learning in school. Share with the teacher!

Families could create voicethreads to send to family and friends far away. It could include pictures and narration of things happening in your life!

2nd Grade: Warm and Cool Landscapes

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:48:49 +0000

Second graders learned to separate the primary and secondary colors into warm and cool groups. Students created educational posters to teach others what the warm and cool colors are. They also had to show and tell that they warm color tend to stand out, or “pop,” in a work of art, while the cool colors seem to receded, or “drop” in a work of art.

As students started sketching landscapes for a warm and cool artwork, we learned about foreground, middle ground and background. Students made sure that they showed these three levels of space in their artwork.

Drawings were then transferred onto black paper and traced with glue. This created a clear boundary between shapes in the drawing. Students then added oil pastel, choosing one group (either warm or cool) to use above the horizon line, and the other below the horizon line.

Check out all of the landscapes in our Artsonia gallery here!

Here are a few examples by Cara O., Lauren G., and Jasmine Z.

PTA Reflections Program 2011-2012

Mrs. Vance — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:39:14 +0000

Diversty Means…

The PTA Reflections Program encourages students in all grade levels to pursue artistic expression. Rosa Parks-Edison students can enter thier best creative work to illustrate this year’s theme– “Diversity Means…” — in six categories: visual arts, dance choreography, film/video production, musical composition, literature and photography. Each project must be the original work of one person only, but students may ask for advice from their classroom teachers and special teachers in the areas of art and music.

To participate, please complete the form sent home and return it to your teacher. Within two days, you’ll recieve an entry packet with the program rules and registration information. You may entre more than one category, and you may have more than one entry in a category.

All entries will be judged by a panel of experts in January 2012. School-level winners in each category will advance to the Indiana PTA Reflections Program.

Projects are due on or before Tuesday, December 13th, 2011.
If you have any questions about the PTA Reflections Program, or need an additional entry form, please contact Manda Newlin, 317.881.7581 or manda_newlin@yahoo.com.

4th Grade Learns to Show Value a New Way

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:49:38 +0000

Check out these value scales and geometric forms drawings from a few forth graders. After a review of value, and a reminder that not all art supplies can do the same thing, students learned four ways to show value- hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and expressive line.

above value scales by Zackary B.

above value scale close-up shaded by Addison H.

above geometric forms shaded with line techniques by Kaitlyn G.

Gettin’ Real with Fourth Grade

Mrs. Vance — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:21:47 +0000

Our focus in fourth grade art has shifted to drawing realistically from observation. To get our brains warmed up to this difficult skill, we are going to go through a series of activities:

1. Pre-drawing of a fellow classmate (Students are asked to draw as realistically as possible.) After students complete this drawing, I go through common “crimes” that young artists create (football eyes, L shaped noses, oval heads, etc.) I’ve found that fourth and fifth grade is a good time to expose these “crimes” because students are able to see the flaw in drawing those ways.

2. Pre-drawing of hand

3. Blind contour drawing of fellow classmate (no looking, don’t lift up pencil) Students are asked to focus on looking closely and paying attention to details.

4. Blind contour drawing of hand

5. Upside down drawing from photograph (I like to use the horse image from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.) This exercise forces students to look closely at shapes, sizes, line angles and more. Since the drawing is upside down, and not a typical side view of a horse, students can’t revert to their preconceived notions of what they are “supposed” to draw.)

6. Drawing of chair by looking at negative space (Again, I like to use materials from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.) This activity encourages students to look at the space around and within the object rather than the object itself. Paying attention to the negative space is a very helpful skill in observational drawing.

Try some of these on your own! With practice, you’ll find you get much better at drawing from life!

Soon, students will do a final drawing bringing all of these skills together.