Welcome Back!

Art Matters!

I am excited to see the students next week!  Summer was wonderful, and I am so happy to hear many Prescott students took advantage of arts opportunities around the city.  Have them bring any new work to school, and I can add pictures of it to their Artsonia portfolio!  For parents new to the Prescott community, Welcome!  As Prescott's art teacher, I post to this blog a few times each month so you can see the creativity of our student artists and have easy access to our online art gallery and our donation pages (links are at the top of the page).  We will be very busy this year!  Each grade level will be drawing, painting, sculpting, printing and working with clay.  I vary lessons and collaborate with classroom teachers, so my syllabi are never written in stone, but we follow the following basic outline:

Kindergarten:  The Art of Children's Literature
Grade 1:  Art Around the World
Grade 2:  Famous Artists and Art Movements
Grade 3:  The Art of Chicago
Grades 4-5:  Renaissance Art:  Proportion and Perspective
Middle School:  Identity and Self Portraiture

Don't forget to explore Artsonia and find your student's portfolio!  20% of any purchase you make comes back to the art program in the form of art supplies. 

Chagall's America Windows

Chagall's Windows on Display at the Art Institute

As one of our many Chicago-themed projects in Mrs. Phares's third grade class, the students recently finished their own versions of Marc Chagall's America Windows.  His famous six-panel work celebrates the country as a place of cultural and religious freedom, detailing the arts of music, painting, literature, theater, and dance. Because of his admiration for Chicago and its strong commitment to public art during the 1960s and 1970s,  Mr. Chagall dedicated the windows to Mayor Richard J. Daley, a great supporter of public art projects.  These beautiful windows are one of my favorite things to see when I visit the Art Institute of Chicago!  Our students made their own versions with wax paper, sharpies, tissue paper and glue.  They kept the theme of "the arts" and discussed all of the different ways people participate in the arts before they designed their composition.  Here are a few from our classroom!

Castle Construction

We found some decorative "moss", stones and "vines" in our craft cabinet.

The fifth graders learned how to roll a slab of clay, how to score and slip clay to attach pieces, and how to smooth forms and add texture.  They applied these skills to a castle project, and their work shows they got it!  They rolled a large slab, cut windows, doors and stone texture into the slab, and rolled it around a cardboard tube.  I love how they built off of the basic form to add their own ideas and details.  They made spires, flags, stairs, windows, draw bridges and other interesting details that make them all different. Check them out in the glass cases at the entrance to Prescott! 

They made flags out of felt and wire.

Some students finished early and made dragons to protect their castle.

Melanie made a moat and bridge.

Discounted Summer Art Opportunity!

Last summer, I know of at least one Prescott family that signed up for classes at The Paintbrush.  I saw this ad online and wanted to share it with you all.  It looks like a good deal, and I would love for my students to be painting over the summer like I plan to!  Check out the link and see if it's a good fit for your child.  

5 Week Kids' Art Course!

Exploring the Jungle of Rousseau

Henri Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist who loved to paint jungles.

The second graders have been learning about tints and shades of colors.  They made value scales before mixing lots of greens to use in a fun jungle painting.  They have also been learning the various techniques that are possible with round brushes vs. those with flat brushes.  They experimented to find new shapes the brushes could make, and they practiced some techniques I taught them.  They used Henri Rousseau as inspiration as they filled their papers with jungle plants and animals.  They were able to use oil pastels for the animals on top of the dried tempera.  Here are some images of the happy artists, some samples of their work, and a link to the website they used in class to read about Rousseau and to make digital jungle pictures! 

Biography and Jungle Art Game

Stella, Grade 2

Mallory R, Grade 2

Ruby, Grade 2

Monty, Grade 2

Maureen, Maria and Jaeden are experimenting with tints and shades of green

Daniel uses a round brush to practice long, thin brushstrokes.

Kimani invented some new species of plants.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

The fifth graders are learning about the American Revolution in Social Studies.  For their poetry and art project, I chose H.W. Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride.  They enjoyed a few printmaking projects this year, so I had them illustrate the poem and then print their illustrations.  They included imagery of Boston's Old North Church, British ships, lanterns signaling from the belfry of the church and a horseman riding through the town.  I love this project since I grew up going to Boston to visit family and eventually did grad school there.  It's such a fun place to learn American history.

Jason's Print

Salvador's Print

Melanie's Print

Alex's Print

Sing a Song of People

Lois Lenski was a popular children's book author. One of her projects was a collection of regional novels about children across the United States. I remember my dad reading Texas Tomboy to me when I was in elementary school.  I chose the poem Sing a Song of People for Ms. Lindsey's Kindergarten class to illustrate for the Poetry and Art Show coming up in May.  It describes people in the city, rushing around and busily taking different forms of transportation to get around.  I had the students create city collages from construction paper, and then we added little figures.  Here's what we did:

I recycled some corks and made little stick man stamps out of them with cardboard and craft foam.

The students stamped them around their cities to illustrate the poem.

Angie added rain clouds and race cars.

Cash 's City

Lila made a colorful scene with a tree.