Leaf Prints- A peak

Prints, prints and more prints. 1st graders worked on printing the leaf prints they designed last week. Such an amazing array of leaves. When you see them you would think they were professionally designed. Check out some of these prints.

The ink needs a day to dry. They are hanging in the art room until tomorrow when I collect them and hold them until next week when we will assess our work and think of ways to create a flawless print. you too could do this at home. Just buy block printing ink from Michael's. Cut 4"x4" squares from the meat trays and have them use a pen to draw an image. Make sure they thicken the lines so that the image comes through clearly.
Here are the stamps after we used them. Still as beautiful. I will be washing them and we will be using them next week to make a group print project.

Recycled items I need for the art room....

Here is an updated list of recycled items I'd love in the art room. Your contribution opens up the yearly allotted art funds to be used on other art supplies and allow your children to explore more sophisticated and higher quality art mediums.

LIST: (items in red are badly needed NOW)

* Buttons

* Magazines

* Cigar boxes......we can;t have enough of these.

* Newspaper (city paper sized preferred, but all accepted)

* Yogurt cups

* Corks (No, I won't judge you for bringing me hundreds....LOL)

* Cardboard (8x11 or larger) for everything

* Cutting board (for garden related art signs)

* Old house paint (any color) to paint old discolored wooden shelves

* Sheets (any color as long as it's solid and not prints. I use this for banners)

* Large old T-shirts (for smocks for kids who have not yet brought one in)

* Thread spools (for everything from stamping, sculpting to construction)

* Used or new canvases on stretchers for permanent art for the school

* Cardboard baby books (any kind)/ (We will repaint and make new books)

* Ribbons -for collage, to construction)

* Old broken toys - for construction projects.

* shoe boxes- all sized for construction

* Calendars- for visual resources

* Plastic/styrofoam egg cartons- for palettes (no cartons please)

* Wire roll (any kind as long as its easily bent

* Small boxes of any kind (soap, gift box, toothpaste box)

* beads/old broken jewelry for sculptures, etc

* old clean towels

Things I don't need ever:

* Cardboard egg cartons

* Milk cartons

* Water bottles

Things I do not need right now:

* Large yogurt containers

I love my Murch Parents

I love my Murch Parents. I come to work everyday to find bags of recycled items waiting for me. They are like mini presents and they absolutely make the art program work at its best. below, dozens of yogurt cups. We use these for all sorts of projects. We use them for paint, for glue, for construction projects....and the list goes on.

Thank you all.....

I am also posting an updated list of recycled items I need for this semester right after this post.

4th Graders Learn About Ways in Which One Can Add Character to a Portrait

Children in 4th Grade are working on creating character-filled self portraits this month. We began by looking at portraits dozens of portraits. Children were given descriptive labels and asked to walk around and place their label on the portrait that was congruent to their description.

During the end of the class the young artists were asked to describe three things about themselves and to list ways in which they could include these characteristics in their portrait.

3rd Grade Create Sculptures from Tetrahedrons

In art we discussed what a 3D shape was. Some kids began by describing 3D as a "pop-up shape". We went further in defining solid 3d shapes by defining it as an object that can be measured 3 ways; length, width, and depth.

My Monday 3rd Grade art class (Friedman) see me twice a week for the first quarter. One of those days is used to go further within the unit we are working. Today we learned about tetrahedrons. It's a solid shape made out of 4 equilateral triangles. Children traced 4 triangles as shown and created various tetrahedrons and begin taping them together to make a much more complicated shape solid.

Connections with books

In one side of the art studio classroom I have an art library. These are books I use with specific grades and units. In making unit connections with books, it allows children to witness ways in which books can help us further inform ourselves on topics of interest.

5th Grade Plunge into painting water.....

Children in 5th grade have been studying traditional paintings of water/ocean. They answered questions that required them to really look at the paintings. The questions were:

1. What colors were used in depicting water in these paintings?

2. The brushstrokes go which directions (vertical, horizontal, vertical strokes)

3. How long are the brushstrokes you see?

4. How do you think the colors were applied? which one was first and last, etc.

children will paint their 'water' this week and next week they will be adding their shorebirds onto their water paintings.

Half the children in art choose to stand while they work. They all are so focused on their paintings.

2nd Grade Learn About Molds and explored uses of Plaster of Paris

The children in 2nd grade are going to create molds of basic doll faces and individualize them. This week children are first creating very basic molds using plaster of Paris. See the molds drying below.

Children used modeling clay in cups, used tools to create imprints on the clay. We then mixed plaster of paris and poured them onto the cups. Next week will be the BIG REVEAL and children will discuss what they learned about the working of molds and come up with creative ways to use this new medium.

1st Grade Leaf Paintings-(Bergin)

Last week children learned how to create various types of marks using a thin flat brush.

This week, they used their skills learned in using a brush to paint giant leaf paintings.

Since we are working with lines, leaves are a perfect subject in which to explore this topic.