Where are the missing pencils?!?!?
The pencils are sharpened are ready to go for another fun year in the art room. Projects are started and the students are working hard. We start each year with rules for the room and how to tell if you are the helper table or not (the real important stuff). Honestly it is a week of talking when it will take months of practice to get all the procedures to HAPPEN! After this week, which is exhausting for me and boring for the kids, is over, we jump right into ART! That is why we are here! 5th graders made pattern squares that will be displayed in the art room for the entire year. These examples of the awesome 5th graders patterns will inspire any student who needs inspiration during the year. 4th graders started learning about GUSTAV KLIMT (try saying that without spitting on your neighbor). He is an Austrian artist (with a scandelous personal life) and beautiful artwork. His most famous work is The Kiss (or Der Kuss--I have the students say this in a very angry way, it is fun). The 4th graders are making "Sleepy People" inspired by Klimts pattern, design and metallic colors. 3rd graders are starting work with symmetry and balance. We started with a piece of paper, crayons and an old school clothes iron, it was great! The next 3rd grade project is mobiles and learning about Alexander Calder, and amazing engineer, inventor and sculptor. 2nd grade, oh second grade... They get to come to an extra art class (Wacky Wednesday) each week. 2nd graders have already been fashion designers this year. They showed off their knowledge of pattern and put together awesome outfits. Ms. B. (they students teacher from UNI) will be starting a Mix-A-Monster book with them in the next few weeks, and yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. 1st graders are reviewing lines . . . it might sound boring to you, but it is the best part of my day. The 8 lines they know are straight, wavy, bouncy, curly, zig-zag, smily curve, frowny curve and diaganol. The FUN part of this project is that there is a noise and action to each of the lines. The students are up and out of their seats and having FUN!! You should ask one of then to show you, but just as an example . . . diaganol's sound is a HIIIIIIIIII-YAAAAAAAA!!! Imagine the action! The little kindergarteners are still trying to understand this "school thing". Slowly and surely they will all "get it"! Their project in here is circles!! We have looked at the artwork by Wassily Kandinsky the included 12 brightly colored circles, and were inspired to make some circles of our own. We ZOOMED our crayons around the circles using lots of colors. When the students are done we are adding a little water color paint (I might be crazy) for a craon resist element. That's the art room in a nutshell . . . how did I get in this nut shell? What kind of a nut has a shell this big?