This month the focus will be moving towards form in most classes. Kindergarten and first grade are starting with pinch pots. The first grade children add a suprise in the inside of theirs. In fourth grade the students are designing their own containers using either slab construction or coil method with clay. The fifth grade students are creating faces from clay using the additive processes. As you can see, our new kiln will be getting a lot of use this month and I hope to experiment more with glazes.

The second grade children are finishing up their study on flowers and close up view- they worked on foreground, middle ground and background an other ways to create an illuaion of depth or space. Then we studied Georgia O'Keefe's flowers and drew one of our own from the eye of a bumble bee!

The third grade children work with perspective as a way to convey depth and then painted howling houses after looking at Charles Burchfiled's paintings. We discussed how he used color as feeling and what that could mean in their work.

Thank you for all your support and feel free to come in any time!

For the month October, the kindergarten children will be finishing their Matisse study. The children looked at Matisse's collage work and how he "drew with scissors" to create shapes that were both abstract and representative. Their interpretations of Matisse's The Thousand and One Nights will be on display in the halls soon. Come and enjoy!

First grade and 1/2 children are working on a Kandinsky inspired painting using both geometric and organic shapes. They also studied silhouettes as shape and will be learning about Mondrian's use of primary color this month.

Mrs. Barrett's second grade children focused on organic and geometric shapes at the begining of this month and are creating a colllage from cut shapes where we will also discuss space as foreground, middle ground and back ground.

Third grade children in Mrs. Chadburn's room learned about Paul Klees' use of line and color and then created their own Klee inpsired work using a grid and filling with contrasting color. When we are finished this project, we will move on to a short architecture unit about houses and focus on space and color.

Fourth and 3/4 students are creating abstract paintings about what they know about shape- lines make shapes, shapes can be organic or geometric and how to overlap shapes to create depth and space. This group will also be studying Matisse's use of shape and positive and negative space.

In fifth grade, the children have been learning about line as illusion and studying various Op artisits such as Victor Vasarely. We discussed kinetic, barrier and weaving lines then created an assymmetrical composition using concentric circles and weaving lines. After we complete this project the children will be working with tessellations as shape.

TAP children are taking their study of Op Art further by moving into Pop Art and the use of color in work by artisits such as Andy Warhol. They are creating a self portrait with complimentary colors observed in both Op Art and Pop Art.

As you can see we have been very busy in the art room- please remember to send your child's art shirt in to keep at school as I want to be sure all children's clothing is protected when we paint and use permanent markers! Thank you for all your support!

 We have started off the year in all grades with a painting about our shool. Look for these to be on display by the end of the month! Also this month, the 5th grade children will be working with kinetic, barrier and weaving lines and positive and negative shapes. Fourth grade and multi-age 3/4 students will be exploring different kinds of lines in a project around a hair raising experience. The third graders will be studying Paul Klee's use of line, shape and color to create a painting about an animal. In the lower grades we will also be focusing on line and in second grade, the children will be using line to create abstract animals from organic and geometric shapes. Multi-age 1/2 and first grade will study leaves through contour line drawings and kindergarten children will be discovering different kind of lines through collage! So a busy month ahead with fun projects and lots of learning. Please don't forget to send in your child's art shirt (a note went home) and also I'd appreciate any newpapers, kleenx and baby wipes! Thank you and feel free to stop in the art room and say hello.