I run the room like a children's museum with lots of objects to touch and combine, blocks, touching tables, tubs filled with oatmeal and red beans and rice, microscope and binoculars. I want the children to experience an aesthetic moment. I'm not interested in making little artists. What I want to create is an atmosphere that encourages tolerance of different artistic expressions and promotes experiences of beauty by looking and doing....more

Art Rules

How am I graded in Art?

Art Talk Handout (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view)

Course Descriptions -1-5

REVIEW OF ART CLASSES January 2008- March 2008

First Grade – The students were assigned classroom responsibilities including walking to and from the art room and methods for passing out art folders and materials. They created designs on their art folders based on the 6 visual elements of line, shape/form/values, color, texture and space. The students played the scribbles game to engage their imaginations and made images out of random lines. They had been introduced to a series of artists’ names and styles through a call and response game and these names were reinforced with large flash cards and a power point presentation. The students were treated to a class period of center time. They were free to play with clay, drawing, dress-up, and build with blocks. Each class began with a warm-up handout and five minutes of silence. The children had been told that drawing was a skill that could be learned by repetition. As the children progressed the warms-ups became more complicated. Finally, the students were taught how to make rubbings to reveal the texture of objects. Their rubbings were placed inside drawn geometric shapes. A collage was made from these shapes as the students cut and rearranged them into several varieties of animals and things.

Second Grade – The students were assigned classroom responsibilities and cooperative behavior was an expectation for all students. They created an art folder based on the six visual elements of lines, shapes/forms, values, textures, colors and space. The students made small folders to play the scribbles game in which random lines became recognizable images by the addition of other lines. This game engaged the students’ imaginations and was fun too. They had been introduced to a series of artists’ names and styles through a call and response game and these names were reinforced with large flash cards and a power point presentation. The students were treated to a class period of center time. They were free to play with clay, to draw, to dress-up, and build with blocks. The children began classes with a warm-up handout and worked on these for five minutes in silence. They had been told that drawing was a skill that could be learned by repetition and as the children progressed the warms-ups became more complicated. Finally, the students were taught how to make rubbings to reveal the texture of objects. Their rubbings were placed inside drawn geometric shapes. A collage was made from these shapes as the students cut and rearranged them into several varieties of animals and things.

Fourth Grade – The students learned to create three-dimensional objects using graphite pencils to render forms, values and cast shadows. The class created a flip book. As the pages turned a face was viewed in bizarre combinations of hats, portraits and tiny figures. The students worked in class on weekly homework assignments based on the 6 visual elements of line, shape/form, value, texture, color and space. The children were very enthusiastic about the sculpture project that used half papier mache balloons or small boxes glued to a recycled cardboard box to create high relief sculptures of horses, people, monsters and a turtle. Finally the students made a zigzag book and decorated the pages with pop up figures in environments and a mouth that opens and closes. The students made delightful combinations of designs, colors and ideas using mixed media for the creation of personalized books.

Fifth Grade – The students worked on a community service project – posters for Teachers’ Appreciation Week. They used printmaking and painting techniques in the creation of these posters. They also made a warm up folder for drawings of overlapping forms and one point perspective in the landscape, interior of a home and block letters. They drew horses in mixed media and eventually painted horses in the landscape with a touch of collage. These drawings were displayed in the Lower School hall way. Finally, the students made two paintings using ideas and techniques that were personal expressions of ideas.