Art to Remember and Cultural Projects

Art to Remember projects are officially finished, and classes have already begun their cultural art pieces.
I will be posting pictures soon of these fundraiser pieces.  I am hoping things will go as scheduled, but we may have to extend the dates for Art to Remember as the school has not received our class labels or parent order packets yet.  This will be fine, and orders will still be here in time for Christmas break!

Jr. Kindergarten has finished colorful handprint flowers for ATR and has also completed their Lascaux Cave art.  This lesson was inspired from The Incredible Art Department's website: http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Lessons/6-cave.htm

The children were able to trace their own hand (a new thing for many of the students of this age), draw an animal after looking at pictures and discussing animal body parts: head, body, legs, antlers, etc., and color with crayon, cray pas, and paint.  Kindergarten will also be finishing this project next class period.

Kindergarten was able to learn some things about perspective with their ATR projects this year.  They were to draw a barn and silo on the top half of  their paper.  We discussed how this, along with the small size of the buildings, caused them to seem far away in the picture.  In the foreground, the children created an adorable chicken with her 3 chicks using their handprint and fingerprints.

First grade completed Native American pouches.  During this process, they learned a bit about Native American culture, sewing, weaving, pictographs, and using beads in their work.  The past week we began learning about northwestern totems.  After learning the purposes for these large carvings, students were able to draw the bird of their choice.  These will be painted later.
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/0876287887_63_64.pdf
For Art to Remember, 1st grade will be using the beautiful renditions of Van Gogh's Starry Night which Mrs. Wallace teaches the first graders every year.

Second and third grades learned about wax resist--how wax crayons or oil pastels resist water color paint.  They created really cute geckos, snakes, butterflies and more for their ATR projects.  They have also been learning quite a bit about the famous vase artists of ancient Greece and how art played such a huge part of their culture.  The students were able to draw their own kraters and amphoras from real pictures of ancient versions.  They then decorated each with geometric patterns in the style of ancient Greece.  The next step was to transfer this pencil-drawn image over to scratch-art paper.  The kids had a lot of fun seeing the bright images "pop" out of the scratch paper.

Fourth grade and fifth grade were able to use more of their own creativity with ATR this year.  We drew a circle on the paper, and we discussed the Indian Mandala.  They then decorated the circle with either rotating colorful pattern or turned the circle into a creature of their own design.  Fourth grade has begun their cultural artwork as well.  They have been learning about the Kuna Indians' Mola.  This is a fabric appliqué process.  They have been learning to draw a primitive-shaped animal and then cut this shape out in three colors while growing in size.  This has proved to be quite a challenge for the 4th grade, but one that will stretch their artistic skills.  We will continue working on our Molas for the next couple of weeks.
Fifth grade is becoming acquainted with ancient Egypt.  This seems to be quite a fascinating subject for them.  They are learning to draw in the stylized methods of this ancient culture, creating static figures amongst hieroglyphics as seen in the paintings of old.

Art to Remember pictures are coming soon, along with pictures of our cultural art as it is being completed!