May 23, 2012
This was not my idea, but rather something I saw on my good friend Katy Tannert's blog. It is based off of the work of Stephan Bucher and the daily monster he does. My students absolutely loved his concepts. Using india ink we set out on our way to whole new creation. Check out what developed!
April 15, 2012
Biographical Artist Board Games
Let the games begin! Da Vinci Run, VanGopoly, and more! Students gained incredible art knowledge by working in partners to create these board games based off of the lives of famous artists. Friday was their last day in art class this session and so they were able to rotate around the room and spend time playing eachothers' games while learning about the life of the artist and his or her work!
March 19, 2012
Printing with Miss Flegal
This is our student teacher's second session with fourth grade this spring and she once again did a very wonderful job with her problem and solution printing lesson she developed in February. Today students wrapped them up and used potatoes for an organic printing approach to add borders to the outsides of their diptychs.
February 27, 2012
Now that they have been fired, students are adding paint to their timelines they completed in previous weeks in our class. For more details on this autobiographical approach to art, read below...
February 16, 2012
Printmaking!
Students in fourth grade are learning under the instruction of our fabulous student teacher, Miss Flegal from Kent State University. She recently taught them about printmaking, specifically-- silkscreen, intaglio, woodcut, collagraph and monoprint. Next, she introduced them to the concept of two part art, also known as a diptych. In correlation with the idea of creating a diptych they developed a problem and then a solution in our world today. Some of the themes addressed in their art are pollution, endangered species, oil spills, natural disasters and physical fitness.
February 1, 2012
Landmark Timelines
Students in my fourth grade class are experiencing the great privilege of being taught my Miss Flegal our student teacher from Kent State University. Currently, they are using our slab roller to construct these timelines of their lives. For inspiration they looked are major memorials that mark timelines in U.S. history. They also viewed The Map of My Day by Sara Fanelli. We are delighted to have her in our classroom and her expertise in three dimensional art creation!
This six week session I will be repeating the projects I just completed throughout the previous six weeks due in part to the fact that I want to keep all of my fourth grade students working in the same art media and walking away from my classroom with a similar experience and comparative art knowledge about artists and art styles. I feel this is advantageous to the art program I am fostering here at The Falcon Academy of Creative Arts. Please stay tuned for new projects in January at the start of the new semester. Until then please enjoy what my current students are creating! Thank you!
December 19, 2011
Don Drumm Plaster Sun Faces in progress...
Third session Jazz Instruments!
December 2, 2011
November 15, 2011
November 11, 2011
Fourth Grade Jazz Instruments
Fourth grade concentrated on art and music this week and the way music has appeared in art throughout history. For example we discussed the mood of Picasso’s Old Guitarist versus the piece shown above. After utilizing the knowledge of our music teacher, Mrs. Goldman, we looked at the five main instruments of jazz. We decided that while listening to jazz, it typically evokes the feeling of energy and should be painted with vibrant colors. Line and a sense of movement were also incorporated as students painted their way through this very exciting project. Inspiration for this project came from another fabulous art blog: SmArt Class. Check it out!
November 4, 2011
Finalized Glazed Leaf Fossil Bowls and Zig Zag Self Portraits in progress...
October 24, 2011
Plaster Suns in progress...
October 17, 2011
Metal Rainforest Animals
To raise awareness about some of our endangered animals living in the rainforest, students created these vibrant metal relief projects. My explanations are getting shorter and shorter, I am sorry, due to the fact that these six week sessions are going by so fast!
October 6, 2011
The end of our six week session is tomorrow!! We are wrapping things up and having a great time doing it! Here are some of our final leaf bowls...
October 5, 2011
Finalized Instruments!
October 1, 2011
Fourth grade concentrated on art and music this week and the way music has appeared in art throughout history. For example we discussed the mood of Picasso’s Old Guitarist versus the piece shown above. After utilizing the knowledge of our music teacher, Mrs. Goldman, we looked at the five main instruments of jazz. We decided that while listening to jazz, it typically evokes the feeling of energy and should be painted with vibrant colors. Line and a sense of movement were also incorporated as students painted their way through this very exciting project. Inspiration for this project came from another fabulous art blog: SmArt Class. Check it out!
September 21, 2011
Zig Zag Self Portraits in progress...
September 14, 2011
Zig Zag Self Portraits
I did this project last year and absolutely loved it! I thought we would tackle it again this year with some tweaking of course! Here they are in the beginning stages. More to follow...
September 6, 2011
Don Drumm Inspired Sculptural Sun Faces
Because the Ohio state standards require us to study specifically an Ohio artist, we have been looking extensively at the life and work of Don Drumm (www.dondrummstudios.com). Don Drumm works in metal and create large suns with human qualities. The students love this creative twist on an everyday object, and it gave us the opportunity to integrate their science curriculum by looking deeper into all the useful qualities of the sun. Unlike his metal medium, we chose to work with plaster. Plaster is a medium that is giving my children the opportunity to finely sculpt intricate details among their sun faces. Below you can see we started with the inside surface of a bowl before flipping them to construct the face on the reverse side.
Also, because we changed our schedule at school this year, I am able to see my students everyday for six weeks, twice a year, as opposed to every three days all year long like last year. I love this new schedule because the possibilities are endless in having my children in my room everyday! See their works in progress below...
And now the real construction...
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June 8, 2011
Finalized Frank Stella Pieces
Read on below.... It has been a great year!
June 1, 2011
FRANK STELLA INSPIRED SCULPTURES!
Students in fourth grade recently analyzed the work of Frank Stella. Using the elements and principles of art they had to find various properties such as color, line, texture, space, movement, balance, contrast and more! Next, using cardboard, students integrated math by cutting shapes that met certain criteria (parallel lines, five edges, four corners, etc.). Lastly, they painted their shapes using the color wheel for guidance to incorporate many basic color combinations we have mastered this school year (primary, secondary, color, warm, monochromatic, metallic, etc.). For more information about this lesson. Feel free to email me at ROBYN.PETERSON@fieldlocalschools.org.
April 20, 2011
Self Portraits with a twist...
It has been awhile since I have posted on my blog because we recently had our Art Rocks show that was consuming every spare minute of my time! All the while, students have still been working hard on various fabulous projects. Below we embarked on self portraits with a different approach. After an extensive self portrait sketching unit, students finalized their drawings with thin sharpie marker. Next, I ran their drawings through the copy machine giving them the exact same piece of art, twice. Below students have used technical skill (tints and shades) to create various value to make their portraits look very realistic.
After creating a realistic version of themselves, students then went on to create a similar portrait with unconventional colors. Eventually these paintings will be cut up and zig zagged to create alternating realistic/unrealistic portraits!
March 13, 2011
PRINTING!!
Because the Ohio state standards require us to study specifically an Ohio artist, we have been looking extensively at the life and work of Don Drumm (www.dondrummstudios.com). Don Drumm works in metal and create large suns with human qualities. The students love this creative twist on an everyday object, and it gave us the opportunity to integrate their science curriculum by looking deeper into all the useful qualities of the sun. Unlike his metal medium, we chose to work with printing inks. Printing is an art form that allows the artist to change and repeat his work all at the same time. Below are a few of our first prints!
March 2, 2011
Making music by making art!
Students in fourth grade explored the origination of maracas from South America and their impact on the musical world by creating one out of clay. This intricate process required them to create two pinch pots, that they filled with 32 small clays beads wrapped in a tissue before placing it into the kiln. The scientific process of this allowed the tissue to burn out, leaving behind the clay beads that now rattle and make various noises. Students learned and practices 2/3 rhythm by watching a youtube video in class. They also added texture to their maracas by using random surfaces from around the art room. Once they were fired, they were able to add color through various bright and beautiful paint colors.
February 8, 2011
Klimt inspired trees!
January 31, 2011
Students recently became acquainted with the work of artist Gustav Klimt for inspiration for their metal relief projects. After looking at his abstract Tree of Life, they were challenged to draw an abstract tree with their own twist, including hidden images. They are still in various stages of creation at this point, but so far, I am amazed!
January 14, 2011
If you could live anywhere, in any type of house, what would that look like? This was the challenge for this week's students in fourth grade. Using exact drawing tools students learned a variety of techniques to create three dimensional buildings as true architects do.
Fourth grade students integrated art with other major subject areas including science, language arts and social studies through this paper making unit. By placing paper scraps into old blenders with water, we were able to turn the paper back into its previous state of pulp. Through this we discussed the different physical forms of matter, and also the significance of recycling to our planet.
Next, we incorporated the Native American culture by discussing how they were forced to make many things that they needed rather than purchase them at a store. Lastly, these handmade papers with their design concepts included will serve as front and back covers to language arts journals that they will be using in Mrs. Walker's class.
November 29, 2010
Ceramic Leaf Bowls
Opening the kiln this past week to see our glazed creations was such as surprise! This is always a favorite part of my job when I get to see how pottery has fired in the kiln. The children were thrilled with the end results. Stop by and see all leaf ceramic bowls in the front hallway showcase at our school.
Art and Science Integration
November 15, 2010
Students integrated art and science using clay to create leaf fossil bowls. I posted this amazing project a few weeks back on my homepage. Currently they are working on adding glaze to their greenware pieces. We can't wait to see what will happen once they are done firing in the kiln!
"Footprints worth Following" Inspired Art
October 12, 2010
Students in fourth grade are on their way to making an amazing piece of they art. They started by discussing out district wide motto "Footprints worth following." Next, they took a very close look at their shoes. We discussed how we take everyday items like our shoes for granted and how many people in the world do not have shoes. We are training our eyes to see minuscule details for these fantastic drawings.
Underwater Chalk Creations
October 11, 2010
