In 5th grade, (Levy) students finished their Van Gogh-inspired world-famous landmark

Children in Ms. Levy's class ended their painting unit this week. Finished works will be photographed and I will be designing a calendar parents could purchase online.

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Ms. Levy's Class finish their Joseph Cornell-inspired 'times capsules'

The objective for this unit was to create personally meaningful time capsules inspired by Joseph Cornell's boxes. Students had two weeks to bring in items and/or images that were of importance to them personally. Ms.Cutelis shared items that she has kept from when she was in 5th grade, such as a card from her Garbage Pail card collection. Pictures of all boxes will be posted soon....keep checking.

Tessellations Introduction (5th)

5th graders have been creating tessellations in art after looking at M.C. Escher's work. Below are some samples. We will explore more complicated designs using other geometric shapes after this week.

below is a video, so you and your entire family could play around with tessellations at home....

(warning, there is a very annoying ad right before this video.....ignore)

$370 raised for International Bird Recue Research Center

I am happy and proud to announce that we raised $370 for the International Bird Rescue Research Center to help wildlife affected by the Gulf spill. Calendars will be in by November 19th. Way to go 5th Grade.

5th Grade Wesrward Expansion Update (step 1)

In 5th grade children are making small paper mache figurines of key figurines in the Westward Expansion. Here are the initial wire sculptures before they are paper mache-ed.

Here are the kids mache-ing their figures.

2011 ART Calendars for Sale NOW....Shorebirds of the Gulf Fundraiser

Get a sneak peak at the (revised) 2011 5th Grade Fundraiser for Shorebirds from the Gulf Coast. Please click to pre-order your copy online through Pay Pal or pay by personal check through an order form that will go home later next week. The 12-month 2011, 8.5"x11" Calendars will be professionally printed through Shutterfly and is for sale for just $18. The money above what it would cost to print them will go to International Bird Rescue Research Center.

The last day to order these calendars will be Friday, November 5th, 2010; no exception. The orders will go out that Saturday so they could be delivered in time for holiday break.

50 calendars have been ordered so far (updated November 5th, 2010)....Our goal was to sell at least 50 calendars!!! Way to go Murch!! So rush in your orders, deadline is Friday, November 5th at 4pm and midnight for online orders.

To VIEW all paintings up close go to the gallery page.

This is the front cover. The children in each class voted for their peers. The top of each 5th grade class is on the cover.
Because there are 61 paintings and only 48 large slots, some paintings are displayed on the dates. This allowed me to also show these paintings in detail. See how the bird from the painting on the 10 of the month is highlighted on the 8th of the month.
Your calendar will be a spiral bind.
On the month pages, there will be 4 paintings per page. Each 5th grade class got 4 pages each.
I used the kids' in-class votes of each others' work as the criteria for choosing which work gets highlighted.

Letter to 5th Grade Parents

Dear 5th Grade Parents,
In the 5th grade students have been using their new painting skills to paint shorebirds in their habitat. They spend a whole class looking at how painters have depicted water in their work and practice those skills themselves. They have also spent an entire class carefully looking and drawing shorebirds in their sketchbooks. We have one more week to work on our paintings. The combined images of all the paintings created for this unit will be printed in a 2011 Shorebirds in Their Habitat calendar which will be for sale online through the Murch art blog next month. All proceeds above and beyond what it cost to print them will be donated to International Bird Rescue (http://www.ibrrc.org).
As part of the assignment I will have children write about what their wishes are for their contributions to this organization. Please take a few minutes to explore the site www.ibrrc.org. They have beautiful and relevant images, video and stories about their work restoring wildlife bird populations in the Gulf. In class this week I will be reading an excerpt from the site called, Procedures for Rehabilitating and Releasing Oiled Birds. Please review and use some of the vocabulary words below at home to help facilitate discussion about the subject in class and express relevant ideas in their writing; some of which might also be included in the calendar.
Miriam Cutelis
Miriam.Cutelis@yahoo.com
www.Murchart.blogspot.com


Relevant Vocabulary
* Stabilize: to make stable
* Waterproofing (in birds): What give shorebirds waterproof ability is the position of the feathers
* Criteria: standards that must be used in evaluating a decision.
* Hyperthermia: is an elevated body temperature due to failed thermoregulation.
* Hypothermia: is a condition in which core temperature drops below that required for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as 35.0 °C (95.0 ...
* Debilitated: make weak
* Preening: What a bird is doing when it preens is carefully aligning each feather, which is made up of a shaft, veins, and tiny barbs that connect the veins into a tightly woven unit. This feather structure does not allow water or air to penetrate and provides buoyancy and insulation.
* Agitate: to give motion.

More Shorebird Sketches by 5th grade