2nd Grade Side Facing Portrait Practice

Children in a 2nd grade are working on drawing side facing portraits. Children took turns 'modeling' for each other. There are the most adorable sketches. Keep in mind this is the very first attempt by most of the kids in drawing a profile of a person. I can tell they were really doing a great job looking.

The glasses look great!
Those lips!
The ears and the hair bun.....those eyes....just such a great sketch.
Great job on that bun.
this remind me of a Picasso drawing....genius.
The artist even included the necklace.
Cutest lips.
Great job on the hair and capturing its direction.
Love it!
Very proportionate.
Look at that curly hair.
the nose.....! love it.
So rich....
Love those lips.
I love how amazingly different all these are. They all have their own personality.
the lips....great job.
The hair looks very realistic.
The glasses! classic....
A warm little smile on her.

3rd Grade Create Imaginary Maps

Last year parents donated dozens of maps to the art room. Since the 3rd graders are studying maps I thought it would be fun to create imaginary maps. Children were shown a typical map legend (map key) and were asked to create their own map keys for an imaginary place.

In class we created a basic map legend. Children were given time to explore real maps.
Students making their imaginary map legend.

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.

Letter to all 3rd Grade Parents

Dear Wonderful 3rd Grade Parent,

In art class we are studying the basic elements of a map to create our own imaginary map of a make believe location next week. This week, each child created their very own Map Legend/Key after carefully studying dozens of real maps that were kindly donated to the art room by last year’s parents. Please support your child by pulling up a paper map you may have at home and looking or finding some or all of the elements listed below:

Map Title
Compass
Map Key/Legend
Distance/Scale key
Smaller side maps and their purpose
Abbreviations that may be used.
Color and names of bodies of water
Separation likes

Some activities you might want to do are:
* Find symbols on the map and look them up on the Map Legend/Map Key
* Discuss why some names of places are written in larger letters than others
* Discuss why there might be some smaller maps on the borders of the main map.
* Try to figure out how far one place is from another by using the distance key.
* Allow plenty of time for your child just to look at the map. There is so much to look at.

Miriam Cutelis
Miriam.Cutelis@yahoo.com


Note: This should all be done in a fun and relaxed environment. This is not homework or mandatory. This flyer is just a way for parents who want to make connections at home with school content have the tools they need to make those connections. If your child looks frustrated or uninterested it’s best to try at a later time when the experience can be seen as a positive activity. If you do not have a map, please ask your child to borrow one from me. I have about 10 I can lend out to kids for a night.

Painting Gallery of Animal Habitat Watercolor Paintings

These are watercolor paintings painted by Ms. Friedman's 3rd Grade class. All 3rd grade children have been studying animal habitats. To raise our skill level in preparation for our final work, children practiced drawing animals by looking at images of real animals and sketching them in their sketchbooks. The painting process was a 2-step process in which they used larger brushes to paint the big shapes first and smaller, detail brushes to paint the smaller details the week after. I hope you enjoy these and share them with your family.

We talked about grass, and how blades of grass are not always just green. That sometimes the sun shines on them and makes them brighter, or sometimes they might be in the shade, making them a bit darker.

In their sketches, children were encouraged to pay attention to which direction the fur or feather went and to try to replicate that in their sketches. This artist is a great example of how this was achieved.

Pre-k combine shapes to make a portrait of their bodies

Children in pre-k have been working on portraits. Last week they combined drawn shapes to create a portrait of their families. This week they combined simple pre-cut geometric shapes to create a portrait of themselves. Afterwards they were given oil pastels to detail their bodies with eyes, nose, mouths, fingers and clothing decorations.

Primary colors, secondary colors and complementary (4th Grade)

In preparation to painting their portraits children created color wheels, learned about primary and secondary colors as well as the magic effect of complementary colors.

Young artists were only given blue, red and yellow oil pastels to create color wheels. To make secondary colors they had to blend the oil pastels with their fingers. Some children enjoyed this practice so much that they chose to create tertiary colors (mixing a primary and a secondary). It's truly fascinating to see 3 colors have the ability to create so many new colors.

Oil pastels are very creamy....we used our fingers to rub the colors together.