WO Elementary Art Show at the HAAC

Congratulations to all of the WO elementary students who got their artwork hung at the Elementary Art show!  The show is up until March 31.  It is at the Holland Area Arts Council, downtown on 8th St.  The entire upstairs is FILLED with art from our most talented artists!  In the main gallery is the High School Debut Show.  When you visit the HAAC, be sure to visit both shows, this will give you a great idea of what our students learn from elementary art through IB and AP art!

Wow It's been too long!

With all of these snow days and report cards I have fallen behind!  I have been taking pictures of your students and will be updating all of the pages soon!

Until then, our Student of the Month in Art were:

September:  Joelle S.  3rd grade
October:  Jennelia C. 3rd grade
November:  Makenzie H. 3rd grade
December:  Bonnie G. 1st grade and Alberto S.  Kindergarten
January:  Andrew T. 1st grade and Jacob P. Kindergarten
February:  Danna C. 2nd grade


Congratulations!

Art Spirit Sticks

They have arrived!!!  Today I gave away my first spirit stick.  It was so fun I can't wait to do it again!!!  Students will be receiving spirit sticks for getting art put up outside of school.  So, in October I put up work at the administration building and will be passing out those spirit sticks this week along with giving those pieces back to the rightful owners.  Also, I am hanging more works this week so stay tuned for more awesome artist announcements!  Joelle was the artist of the month in September, Jennelia for October and Makenzie in November.  They are also receiving spirit sticks! If you see them, give them a big Congratulations!

So far we have:

Aiden	1	st Grade
Keagen	5	th Grade
Elijah	1	st Grade
Joelle	3	rd Grade
Jennelia	3	rd Grade
Makenzie	3	rd Grade

Crazy Art Lady

So, every once in awhile I will get on a crazy saying kick.  I have a couple little girls at home that laugh at me when I make up songs and this has crept into the art room.  Sorry!  The kids laugh and end up singing along which I'm hoping makes them remember what I teach them better.

Some of what I've been singing:

              "Along the edges and a little in the middle."
This refers to gluing along the edges of the little paper and then adding a little dab of glue in the middle.

              "Thumb in the little hole, fingers in the big hole.  Elbow by your side, thumb up."
This refers to how to hold scissors.

I've also taught the kiddos about how embarrassing underwear is.  We talked about how we don't want our underwear to show and if we have holes in our pants we don't like it.  Same thing with our coloring.  The paper is the underwear or "unders" and the coloring media is the clothes.  It's embarrassing to have the paper showing through our colors so we need to color "around the edges and then in the middle" (another song) so we don't have holes in our coloring.

November in the Artroom

Kinders are in full swing with their shapes.

1st Graders are beginning to learn about family traditions and Pueblo Pottery.  They were introduced to Maria Martinez who was a potter from New Mexico.  We are creating paper pots along with knee pots.

2nd and 3rd graders are finishing up their trees in the next couple of weeks and will begin Storytellers shortly.

4th and 5th graders are also finishing up their Picasso pictures and will be moving onto Romare Bearden.

The Weeks of October 21 and 28

Kinders are still working on shapes:  shape collages, cutting shapes, coloring shapes, drawing shapes.  If it's shapes we're making them!

1st graders are completing their wild things and writing artist statements on them.  We are working on describing our art to people that have not seen them.  So, if you have a 1st grader ask them to describe their art using details.  For example:  What color is the body?  How many eyes, arms, legs, hands and feet does it have?  It's still at school so I haven't seen it; "draw" me a picture of what it looks like with words.

2nd and 3rd Grades are creating very abstract (imaginary) trees.  They are using one shape for the trunk and branches and one line for the leaves.  They will be coloring them in using warm/cool colors.

4th and 5th Graders are creating art in the likeness of Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist from the late 1800's.

Movin' On

This week we have started new projects in all grade levels.  I have finally completed the daunting task of grading over 700 works of art!  Students should be bringing home projects unless they are up in the hallways or at the Administration building.   Please check the grading section to see what the numbers mean on the back of the works.

Kinders and Young Kinders have moved from lines to shapes.

First Graders are still using their imaginations to create Wild Things.

Second and Third Graders are working on gluing paper to paper to create Tree Collages.  (This one is missing the leaves.)

Fourth and Fifth graders are creating collages like Piet Mondrian.