New Jobs Posted!

There are two new jobs posted on the P.V. Job Board!
Art Selection Board
If you are interested in critiquing the art submissions to the Magical Mailbox and selecting the next Artist of the Week, apply!
Artist in Residence
Artists will have an opportunity to design and create an independent art project in any medium.
Both jobs are available to fourth and fifth graders only!

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The third graders are exploring the world of emotion!  Elated, confused, furious and annoyed are just a few of the many, many emotions that the third graders have chosen to depict in their self portraits.  They are each selecting six different emotions to portray in six self portraits.  These six drawings will be used to create a cube, with an emotive face on each face of the cube.  We'll get a chance to see the many sides of our artists.

The Animal Behind the Grid

The fifth graders are working on oil pastel drawings of animals from photographs.  They measured out a grid over their photos, as well as, black paper and are currently working one square at a time to render the images of their animals.  Two years ago, the fifth grade class worked on a similar project using their self portraits.  My long term substitute began this project with animals instead and the results have been ahhh-mazing!

A Silhouette Self Portrait

Each year, our budding artists tackle capturing their own image and likeness in a work of art.  Each grade approaches this objective in a different manner.  This year, the fourth graders are creating conceptual self portraits.  They are currently scouring the pages of magazines in search of words and images that describe them.  These words and images will be used to fill their silhouette's profile.

 

My Bouncing Bean

Starting the school year the last week in February, I suppose I've hit the ground running.  Actually, I believe I'm sprinting!  I should, however, pause and state the reason for my absence.  Introducing... (drumroll, please)... my little baby boy who recently sprouted two tiny chompers!

It's Positively a Bug!

While I was home with my baby bean, I had a fabulous visiting art teacher take my place.  One of her many engaging and original projects included creating clay bugs with various textures with the second grade classes.  I've decided to stick with this bug theme and introduce positive and negative space in a two-dimensional project involving tissue paper.  The second graders sketched their bugs, outlined the contour line, cut out their drawings and used the bugs as tracers to fill a 12"x18" paper.  The second graders are using colored tissue paper squares to fill in the negative space of their works of art.

Cold Winters Bring Cool Landscapes

We've had a harsh, frigid, and loooooong winter this year.  Even in March, the ground outside resembles a frozen tundra with temperatures still 20 degrees below average.  Before the weather finally warms up, we've delved into the world of abstract landscapes with the 1st graders.  After compiling an extensive list of various lines and shapes, and distinguishing the two, these aspiring artists sketched a horizon line and filled in the ground with patchworks of lines and shapes.  We're focusing on using cool colored oil pastels to color the land in our landscapes, before we turn our attention to the sky.

Warm Birds in Cool Cages

Warm and cool colors have been our most recent topic of discussion and exploration in kindergarten.  The little guys cut a curved line at the top of their papers to make a birdcage shape and then, used cool colored chalk pastels to color in their cages.  After cutting and gluing black strips of paper to finish our birdcage semblance, we focused on creating warm colored birds, complete with tail feathers!