Summit Street School Celebrated Dot Day!

Every student at Summit Street School enjoyed creating wonderful "Dot" inspired art after reading the book  The Dot by Peter Reynolds. The idea behind Dot Day, which is now an international event with school children and adults [participating, is to celebrate one's creativity and take ownership of it. Two of our classes had the opportunity to Skype with third and fourth graders from Williston Central School, which was a lot of fun for everyone involved. Students from M.C. Baker's art class in Williston and our art classes shared work and spoke to each other about Dot Day.

Observational Drawing with Daffodils

Fourth and fifth grade students spent a day practicing observational drawings from fresh daffodils. Students had the option of just drawings the flowers or sketching and then adding color through watercolors or colored pencils. it was a treat and challenge to draw from real life.

Fifth Grade Second Trimester Projects

Fifth grade got to create the long awaited first clay project of the year by making clay gargoyles. We looked at gargoyles found on cathedrals and other public buildings around the world. They learned that a gargoyle serves the purpose of directing rain water away form a building, but a grotesque is simply there to adorn the building. Students created their gargoyle using a pinch pot and slab base and then they added lots of details!
After drying for about one week they were fired and then ready for glazing.

Students also created small paintings that demonstrated their understanding of value in art. They used an implied light source and and drew 3D forms which were painted with a primary or secondary color and then tints and shades were added to them to create an even better 3D effect.

A favorite "Hobbit" inspired project was our Fantasy Tree lesson. Trees were designed that incorporated the elements value, textures, perspective and lots of creativity. The houses all required at least one window and door which were made form acetate and colored with Sharpies to give the look of stained glass. The door led to each student's idea of a fantasy world.

Our TAP (Teacher Apprentice Program) intern Joe Scherer worked with the fifth grade students to create an arts integrated lesson  that combined music and art. Mr. Scherer played original compositions on his guitar and piano while students listened and visualized shapes and colors. The students were reminded that this lesson was very subjective and there was no one right answer. They then created abstract paintings using only black paint. The following week the students chose one of their three black line compositions, mounted it on large black paper and added small amount of color, which added pattern, texture, and emphasis to the final piece. The resulting work is quite varies greatly in style, but all are quite beautiful.

Second and Third Grade Second Trimester Projects

Owls, Owls, Owls! During our owl unit we explored all kinds of owls through a guided drawing practice session and by examining numerous photos of owls. we created beautiful drawings using oil pastels and some students had time to make owl puppets. We continued the unit by making clay owls using a pinch pot and and pulling/protuberance technique. we added texture like feathers and other details. After the owls dried they headed over to Fleming school to be fired for the first time in the kiln. Upon their much anticipated return to Summit they were painted with ceramic glaze and prepared for one more journey to the Fleming kiln.

We also worked on a warm and cool water color weaving. We explored water color techniques and limited our color palette as a way to study warm and cool colors. After each student created one warm and cool painting they they chose one to be used as their loom, otherwise known as the warp. We then cut the other painting into strips which were used as the weft to be woven through the loom.

We worked on value study snowmen by adding a shadow to one side of their snowmen and a light source coming from the opposite side.

Like Kindergarten and First grade most students made portfolios to organize their work.