Finished Totems (4th Grade/Finberg)

These are finished mixed-media totems from 4th Grade (Finberg). Children learned a great deal during this unit. They learned about 3d forms, how to make then, manipulate their size, they learned about using paper to create a furry, feathery or scaly look. They learned to sketch out their ideas before moving on and they also learned to change their ideas based on circumstances. Each one has their own personality. They will be on display around the school for about a week.

Congratulations ARTISTS....your work will be on display at The Department of Education

I entered various student art pieces for the DCPS Department of Education Art Show last month and we have 7 Murch winners!!! I am so proud! Murch has more work in the show than any other school. Each winner will be getting an invitation to the ribbon cutting ceremony which will take place on January 26th at 11am at 400 Maryland Ave SW. The work will be displayed at the Department through February. Congrats winners!!!

Winners are:

Leoniya Aksyonov

Connor Yu

Langley Custer

Abubaker Uqdah

Chau Bach

Julia Ansberger

John Keating

Kindergartners use their box-making skills and team spirit to make a town

This is the small town built by the kindergartners.

Each house was built by a 'team' of 2 people.

Children in teams took time to discuss color choices.
Making the roof was new, but with a little extra help they all were able to use 4 triangles to make a roof.

Look at this team work!

Totems ready to be posted around the school

Here are some of the few totems that will be placed around the school in the coming weeks. Two of the three 4th grade classes are a few weeks away from finishing their sculptures since we had so many of their art days off in the past weeks. To think these were made from oatmeal containers and see how far they've come. The kids love their totems.

The totems are glued together......(Hense the drips...they will dry clear)

This artist wrapped a snake around his container.

Sample Finished Puppets (3rd Grade)

Finished mixed media puppets created with cardboard, clay, cloth, yarn. Please ask your children to tell you the myth of Persephone. They loved watching me retell the story using their own puppets and retelling it with a modern twist.....These are just great puppets.

Below is a child trimming his puppet's hair very carefully.

1st graders play with organic and geometric shape to create a unity based collage

This is an image of a work created by Victor Brauner. We used our amazing HSA-funded ELMO to look closely at this art. Brauner was a Romanian Surrealist Painter who lived from 1903-1966. This work has abstract images of human beings in which geometric and organic shapes are used.

The great benefit with using the ELMO allows us to really get up close to the work, no matter how tiny they look printed in a book. The children loved all these depictions of humans and animals.

Below is the kids' rendition inspired by Victor Brauner.

Children used colored construction paper, and varied fancy scissors to create both geometric and organic shapes to create a human being. The artist below is cutting out his person on the second day of this project.

The 2 types of shapes. Children were shown various shapes and they had to tell me where it went.
Below is the work completed. Looks very much inspired by the Brauner work we looked at.
A wonderful Murch parent donated these amazing set of wavy scissors. The kids enjoyed making organic shapes from these scissors.

Printmaking Frenzy (2nd grade and 1/2 combo class)

2nd Graders have been working on winter inspired prints.
This artist is rolling on the ink onto his printing plate.
These are the winter prints created by the 2nd Grade artists.
A child pull a print......THE most exciting part of this whole process.
Wow...this looks great!!
Look at all these beautiful colors!!

5th Graders Explore Roy Lichtenstein's Work

Students in 5th grade are studying the art of Roy Lichtenstein. We will be creating our own 'small moment' paintings inspired by his style. We have been discussing a lot how artists often inspire each other and that it's not called or considered copying.

2nd Grade Explore symmetrical designs (Lipshie)

2nd Graders (and the 1/2 combo class) are exploring symmetry using mirrors. We looked at various ancient containers that had symmetry in their design. Then they were given jar-shaped papers to design. The children became utterly fascinated by the mirrors (as you can see from the pictures).

Once done, children made other unplanned discoveries. They learned that many mirrors facing each other give you an amazing set of repetitions.
hey! a 360 degree mirror!!
What do you see?
This child even made a symmetrical image of her own name!