Category: Art Programme

Arts Alive Display

After a two month process our art pieces are ready to be adjudicated by the Burnaby Art Gallery tomorrow morning.

This ‘competition’ is a biennial event put on by the Burnaby Art Gallery – every other year this is available to elementary school students.  Each year there is a central theme.  This year the theme is ‘places of memory’.

Division 5’s Places of Memories

This was quite a wonderful process for our class.  We initially read Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, by Mem Fox.  This is a great story about a young boy who lives near an “old folks’ home”.  When he hears that his ‘senior’ friend, Miss Nancy, has ‘lost her memory’ he begins a quest to discover what memories are, and then works to find her memories for her.  It is a rather touching story.

We spent a fair bit of time discussing and learning about memories, including thinking about what emotions are involved in our memories.  Students drew and wrote about memories associated with a variety of feelings.  We then focussed on powerful memories – ones that are so strong that they are not easily forgotten.

Students made a preliminary drawing about the place associated with their ‘powerful family memory’.  They then drew a second smaller drawing where they zoomed in (focussed) on the key elements of that memorable place.

Their final pictures were created on heavy card stock using plasticene as the medium.  Students used their prior knowledge of colour theory to create a variety of shades and tints by blending different colours with white or black.  They also made interesting colours by blending different colours together to achieve their desired effect.

Students wrote about their pictures (memories), as their “artists’ statements”, which are a requirement for entry into the Arts Alive programme.  They also chose titles for their pieces of art.

As you can see, from the above photo, these finished pieces are on display in the Multi Purpose room at school.  Tomorrow morning a Jury Panel, from the Burnaby Art Gallery, will come to Rosser and look at this art.  Each piece will be photographed to be included in the digital display which will be shown on a television screen at the gallery.  Some pieces (hopefully) will be chosen to be taken to the gallery for display.  We will find out tomorrow!!

Mrs. O’Meara’s and Mrs. Iverson’s classes also produced pieces of art for Arts Alive this year.  Hopefully some pieces will be chosen from each of the three classes.

Once the Jury Panel has left our school we will be hosting a ‘gallery walk’ for the other classes in the school to come to see all three classes’ work.  Then our great pieces of plasticene art will be put in the display case outside the Multi-Purpose room.  Please come by to look at them!!

Value Lesson – with charcoal

We spent an enjoyable (but rather messy!) afternoon on Friday working with a new art medium – charcoal sticks.

Students began with a shape that they cut out of tag board.  They coated the edges of this with charcoal and then placed the piece of tag onto their white drawing paper.  Using a finger they pushed the charcoal ‘dust’ off the tag piece and onto their paper ensuring that they remove it completely around the circumference of the shape.

Through repeating this process, and overlapping the outlined charcoal shapes, they each covered their drawing paper with a very interesting, and unique, design.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to a new ‘calendar’ year in the midst of our current ‘school’ year.  We have six short months remaining together and a lot of great learning left to do.

We are currently exploring the sport of hockey – the floor variety.  Students are learning correct hand positions on the sticks and the fundamentals of the game.  A huge focus of ours is in safe play.  We had a great class discussion yesterday on why we have to be more careful than the ice hockey players do.  I was really impressed with how much the Grade 2’s shared about what they had learned last year!!  Without all the padding and safety equipment (helmets, face guards, mouth guards, etc.) that ice hockey players have, we are more vulnerable to injury and therefore need to exercise more caution.

We have also begun the process for our artistic entries which will be included in a biennial art programme put on by the Burnaby Art Gallery called, Arts Alive.  This event is a great opportunity for our students.  Arts Alive happens every year but alternates between secondary and elementary schools – this year being ours.  Completed art is adjudicated by a jury panel from the Burnaby Art Gallery who come out to the schools.  Pieces of art which are chosen are taken to the BAG to be put on display for the duration of the art show – about one month in the Spring.  All art pieces are photographed for the ‘digital display’ which can be viewed at the art gallery and is also available on-line.

Themes are chosen for each year and the theme for this year is ‘places of memory’.  In preparation for our art production we are exploring the concept of ‘memory’.  I read a picture book by Mem Fox called Wilfrid Gordon MacDonald Partridge.  This story is about a young boy learning about and exploring the idea of what memory is through bits of advice he receives in his quest to help an elderly woman from the ‘old folk’s home’ next to his house regain her ‘lost’ memory.

Students have been thinking about their own family memories.  We have had many discussions about the different kinds of memories – happy, sad, angry, worried, precious.  We will be talking about ‘powerful’ memories later this week.  Students will be choosing a  special, powerful memory about a place they have been to or know well.  The process of developing their final art pieces will be explored through drawings and writings and will then be melded into a final artistic piece in an unusual (surprise) medium for creating pictures.  More information to come – stay tuned!

 

Fun with Clay

We have been enjoying getting our hands dirty in Art class!

Our Grade 1’s spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday creating nice, fat, jolly looking snowmen – and some snowwomen, as well!!  Students built these snowpeople around a wooden dowel, attached to a baseboard, which creates a hollow form inside.  They then made hats for them.  I attached these after school when I took the snowmen off of the dowel so they could dry.

As our Grade 2’s had made snowpeople last year in my class, this year they created Christmas bells.  Most of the students made these last week – two who were absent last week worked yesterday on their bells.  We were very fortunate to have Mrs. Figueroa’s student EA (Miss M) come into our room as an extra helper.  You can tell which are the most recently made due to the colour difference.

Once all of the pieces are dried they will be fired in the kiln, glazed, and then re-fired.  Final touches will be added and then they will be ready to go home!!

 

Our Poppies

We created some beautiful poppies for Remembrance Day.  We began by drawing the poppies on white drawing paper.  Students then traced over their pencil lines with china grease markers.  Using tempera paint, students painted the centres green and the petals red.  They were encouraged to go ‘over the lines’ of the china markers.  A few days later, when the paint was dried, students cut out their poppies and glued them onto dark green construction paper.

I really enjoy how all the poppies are uniquely different from each other.  These 9 are only a sample of the class collection.  They are all displayed in the classroom on the back bulletin board – with two on the bulletin board outside of our door in the hallway.  Drop by to see them if you get a chance.

Colour Theory with Paint

 As a follow up to our experimentation with wax crayons in primary colours (red, blue, and yellow), where we made the intermediate colours (orange, purple, and green), we had fun last Friday working with Solucryl acrylic paint and water.

We began by working on regular bond paper to get used to using this media.  Most of the students had previous experience with tempera paint but this paint has a different texture and maneuverability than regular paints.

I then gave them each a sheet of 140 lb. water colour paper to work with.  Their instructions were that they needed to: 1) only use the three primary colours given to them  2) create an abstract (not realistic) picture  3) cover the entire paper (no white showing) and  4) have all six colours represented in their finished work.

Most students managed to complete their artwork with all four criteria covered.  Come and check out the bulletin boards outside of our classroom.  I think they look great!

Making Intermediate Colours

We have been learning about one of the elements of art – colour theory.  Students were directed to use only the three primary colours – red, yellow, and blue – to create the three intermediate colours – orange, purple, and green.  Students began by creating a design of a variety of shapes with a felt marker.  They then filled these shapes in by blending the primary colour wax crayons to create the intermediate colours.  They experimented with differing degrees of pressure (for darker and lighter hues) and different amounts of each primary to create a variety of shades and tints.

Class Assignment Expectations

When students are doing their ‘seatwork’ assignments there is a wide variety in the final outcome of what each student will produce.  There are, of course, different learning outcomes for different subject areas; just as there are different levels of expectations for each grade.  I use this visual to explain the difference between a minimal effort and one that has met all the expected criteria.  This idea is used for all areas of our curriculum – not just their artwork – and visually demonstrates what is meant by including ‘details’.  For artwork they can see what is meant by ‘details’ through the gradually more developed pictures.  In their written work, students are reminded that ‘details’ are the way their writing has answered the reader’s questions of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’.

Texture – An Element of Art

In our continuing lessons on the Elements of Art we have recently been exploring ‘texture’.  Texture is how something feels – or how it looks like it feels.  Students spent some time practising with various everyday items and doing crayon rubbings.  They then created pictures which they segmented and coloured using differently textured plates to create the illusion of different surfaces.

Easter Craft Fun!

Students have been learning some valuable skills this week.  We began by learning weaving for our Easter baskets – and also braiding for pipe cleaner handles.  We used yellow tissue paper which we collaged over styrofoam eggs.  When we added the details they became these adorable little baby chicks.

We then took pipe cleaners, google eyes, and pom poms and created these cute little bunnies on another set of styrofoam eggs.

These will be placed amid a bed of ‘craft grass’ in their Easter baskets (maybe with a few chocolate treats).  Ask your child which craft was the hardest to do.  You may be surprised by their answer.

Happy Easter!!!!