Mouskin's Golden House

The Mousekin's Golden House project was inspired by the book of the same title by Edna Miller. This project required several different skills for kindergartners. After reading the story we began our creations by tracing  a pumpkin shape and adding a Jack-O-Lantern face.  The pumpkin then was glued down onto a brown paper. The most challenging part was to make a cut paper mouse that would hide "inside" the pumpkin for winter. The final step was to add fluff for Mousekin's bed.

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Dia De Los Muertes

Fifth grade learned about the Mexican celebration known as Dia De Los Muertes-"Day of the Dead.  We looked at images of different types of Day of the Dead art  and we were inspired to create our own cut paper designs. We listened to music from Mexico while we created these whimsical images!

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Picasso Portraits

Fifth grade students learned about the artist Pablo Picasso and the Cubist art period. We studied different works by Picasso and saw how his art transformed over the years he created art work. The assignment required students to draw and then color a face with oil pastels. The portraits had to include profile and frontal features. After they were colored students then cut them out and mounted them on a black background. 

Caps. Caps and more Caps!

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We have started preparations for our bottle cap mural. Thanks to families who have graciously collected, washed and sent in oodles of caps!The first step was to sort out unwanted caps due to material or size. Kindergartners learned about the importance of  recycling while sorting through many, many caps. Second and third grade students began sketches of ideas of our Learning Center Mural. We discussed how art work is copyrighted and we can't just use a character from a movie or book and we would be creating our own original artwork and ideas.

Kindergarten/1st grade 3-D Paper Line Sculpture

Kindergarten and first grade continued their exploration of line by creating paper line sculptures. They learned about different types of paper sculpture techniques like creating tabs to attach things to each other. They used different colors and sizes to create playgrounds, skate parks and generally fun places! This was a project students got to take home as soon as they made it, otherwise art work goes into portfolios and shared at the end of the school year.

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Second and Third Grade Clay Pandas - Take Two!

Our China Unit continued with an exploration of Pandas. We watched videos, painted them in the Chinese style and then sculpted them out of clay. Our first batch of pandas had a rough time in the kiln and we loss many of our sculptures. This was an opportunity to explore the science of clay and evaporation as well as artist's need for perseverance. We made a second round of bears and they made the journey for a second time to Fleming to be fired in the kiln. Success, all the pandas made it through without any damage. When they came back to Summit we painted them with black and white acrylic paint in a realistic way.

Second and Third Grade Learned about China and its Art

We began our unit of study on China with lessons on Chinese Brush painting  and Panda bears. We watched a video on brush painting and learned the traditional grip for the brush. Our first focus was painting bamboo with ink and then they were instructed the on the technique of painting Pandas.

The next lesson in the unit involved sculpting Pandas out of clay. After the Pandas dried and were fired it was time to paint them with acrylic paint. Stay tuned for a our final paintings of the unit when all the things we learned came together to create our finished work. Students in our classes benefited from the experience of Student Intern Clark duPont who came in a few hours either to Fleming or Summit Street once a week.