First Day of Art

Hooray! It is finally the first day of art! Today I read Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall Ets.

It's a sweet story of a boy playing with the wind and all that the wind is capable of doing. Next, we looked at some familiar and not so familiar work from Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night and Arles: View from the Wheatfields. We discussed the difference in the two pieces. Students looked and discussed how Van Gogh created wind and movement in Starry Night as well and a sense of calm in Arles: View from the Wheatfields.

After our discussion students used their markers, colored pencils and crayons to create a scene of their own including a solid structure (house), trees and movement (wind). It was a fantastic first day and so much fun to see all the new faces and some familiar from last year!

Yikes it's August!

What another fantastic and fun summer! And it's not over yet!

I wanted to share this great little kit called doodle roll. It has so many possibilities! The paper come 15' long and yet fits nicely across a table and is manageable for kids to use. They go crazy for the extended possibilities for their drawings! This little thing is going in my bag along with my tiny bottle of sunscreen, hand sanitizer and goldfish as a necessity. You just never know when you might need to create a road for hot wheels or draw a ballerina stage for polly pockets to dance across. It's a great treat to pull out for a break in the day, on the road or for a wait at a restaurant or whenever a creative moment hits you!

Hope the next couple weeks are creative and rejuvenating for you all!

Summer!

Here's a fun project we did today in summer school. I read a poem from Shel Silverstein about tree houses. Next, we looked at some real tree houses on the ipad. We discussed texture, line and pattern and students went to work creating their dream tree house!
There was fun chatter in the room while they were busy drawing!

Wow! Time Flies!

May flew by and I didn't post a thing!
We were busy working on our clay unit and unfortunately it went undocumented. You will have to take my word for it that amazing things happened in one month spent with clay and the results were outstanding!
We also had a Spring bird themed art show at the beginning of May. You could almost hear the birds singing on the halls when we were done!
Here are few other projects that we worked in too!



Students used scraps to create an animal in it's environment.


The upper level took a look at Georgia O'Keeffe for inspiration on these flowers for the halls!


We had an amazing Spring/Bird themed art show at the beginning of May. The upper level looked at Picasso's one line art for inspiration on these bird cages.


Students created doodle books to take home for the summer!


Hot air balloons in the works for the bulletin board in the Upper Level!

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

We had the chance to visit the Arboretum last weekend when it was marvelously warm outside. The tulips were starting to peek out of the ground and the birds were singing a happy song! In addition to going through Patrick Dougherty's 'Uff-da Palace", which is a magical and fun place for kids, we also got the pleasure of walking through, around and under Steve Tobin's Steel Roots exhibit. It is worth visiting this wonderful outdoor set of 16 sculptures. Here is the link for more information!
I love the shadows that this one created!

Spring is Here!

Spring is here and so are the bugs, butterflies, worms and other critters!



The kids did a beautiful job of creating their own personal garden scenes with a butterfly popping off the page!

Happy Spring Break!

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the sunshine and grass that is beginning to show up! We have started Spring break off with a sick bug in our house. Coincidentally, last week when we checked out books from the library my son chose two about germs! One of the books is titled Germs by Ross Collins. It has some fun illustrations of germ characters that have inspired artwork in our house while we are lying low with our own germs. The drawings are shapes that are easy to make and there is most certainly no right or wrong way to create one of these little creatures! The creatures have been carried over to play dough as well and seem to take on a life of their own! Hopefully no one else has a sick house during break but if you do it's a book to keep in mind!