Fifth grade students are hard at work making animal paintings inspired by totem poles. Check back to see more of their work, they are looking quite amazing!
This project was full of color mixing! Students learned that in art, value is the lightness or darkness of a color. Each student choose a hue, a pure color to begin a ice cream value scale. They added black to the hue to make shades, and white to make tints. These new values were painted in the "scoops" of ice cream. Next, students learned about complimentary colors. They are across from each other on the color wheel. Complimentary colors look great next to each other, but when mixed make a neutral color. Students mixed complimentary colors to make brown for the ice cream cone. They also used the color that complimented their ice cream's hue to create a patterned background paper. Students had great fun making these ice cream cones and learned a ton about color theory in the process! For our winter project, students were taught how to make delicate snow flakes. Folding the paper correctly was the most challenging part of the project for many students. Fifth graders used paper that was photocopied to include folding guides. Third graders used flattened white coffee filters. We concentrated on trying to create intricate patterns that had balanced positive and negative space. The positive space is the white paper, the negative space is the holes created by cutting the paper. Students came up with some amazing designs and discovered that snowflakes with more negative space were the most impressive. After ironing the snowflakes flat, they glued their snowflakes to background paper that really made their designs pop! Students in all grades are revisiting color mixing. They are reviewing the color wheel and the three main color groups: primary, secondary, and intermediate colors. After mastering the color wheel, we will focus on value by mixing hues with black and white to create tints and shades. Students are practicing creating a value scale using paint swatches from the hardware store. This activity checks for understanding of tints, shades, and pure hues. Third graders are using tints and shades to make ice cream cones! Fifth and sixth graders have been learning about Day of the Dead and making cardboard skulls inspired by sugar skulls. They layered cardboard and added texture to create depth. They used oil pastels and glitter(!) to add surface designs. In the true spirit of the holiday, many students have dedicated their skulls to loved ones who have passed away. Students used stencils to make ghosts and other creatures with white chalk on black paper. Students blended the chalk in order to give their stencil creations an eery glow. They made great effort to try to create a sense of depth by defining the foreground, middle ground, and background in their spooky scene! Third grade students are learning about the Fall migration pattern of the monarch butterfly from the Great Lakes region to Mexico. Some of our students' families come from Michoacan, Mexico, the monarchs destination! We looked at the book Migrating Monarchs and many images to aid in our understanding. Students paid close attention to the shapes that form the structure of the butterflies and their wing pattern. In order to make sure our drawings come out symmetrical students were shown how to transfer their butterfly image, using the light from the windows. Our next steps will be to add color with oil pastel and paint! Below is an image showing the monarch butterfly migration that was just found on weather radar last week! Super cool! Students watched a brief video about the radar discovery, please take look at the weather channel coverage of the phenomenon. If the video doesn't work, you can also find it by following the link below, it is well worth a look! http://www.weather.com/news/butterflies-fill-radar-missouri-20140924 The linked video also talks about the decline of the monarch population over the past decade. We discussed why the butterflies are dying, mostly because of habitat loss in Mexico and use of herbicides that are killing milkweed plants. Students are excited about seeing what they can do to help the monarchs! We have brainstormed ideas such as writing the Mexican government to urge them to stop the deforestation of the fir trees and planting milkweed plants around the school campus! We will keep you updated on our activism!
Third graders are concentrating on the element of line for their first project of the year. We looked at many artworks that contain lots of different types of lines and tried to name lines we saw in the art room. We are focusing on horizontal, vertical, diagonal, zig zag, wavy, broken, and spiral. Fifth through eighth graders are experimenting with the element of line by making Zentangle-inspired designs. Zentangles are black and white patterns that are drawn with the purpose of opening the mind to almost a meditative state. We examined several images of Zentangles noticing differences in line quality, pattern, contrast, and density of space. Students are creating their own Zentangles in the negative space around a drawing of their initial. Amazingly most classes have been almost entirely silent while making their designs! They are really getting into the Zentangle mindset! Stay tunned to see their finished drawings! |
Intermediate art Blog!The place to see what Hayt students in |