Line is an important element of art.  Students in fourth grade practiced their cutting skills by drawing six different lines, cutting them out and gluing them to a colorful background.  It was like putting a puzzle together, except they left a small space between the lines to create more lines!  The students did a fantastic job cutting out intricate lines.  This was an introduction to a project we will start next week on Native American designs.

I would like to thank the blog http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/ for this great idea!

Kindergarten learned that mixing two primary colors together-red and yellow-make orange!  To introduce this concept we read the story White Rabbit’s Color Book by Alan Baker.  After students painted a page of oranges, we used stencils to trace and cut out six leaves.  We glued the leaves to a background.  Some students chose to put their leaves in the sky on blue paper and some chose to put their leaves on the ground using green paper.  The final touch was using oil pastels to draw wind blowing the leaves.

First graders practiced a number of skills in this Days of the Dead calaca collage.  They practiced cutting a symmetrical shape by folding the paper and cutting half the shape.  They also practiced cutting a shape within a shape to create eyes, noses and mouths.  Students observed a number of examples of calacas, or decorated skulls from the Days of the Dead celebration in Central America and added designs using oil pastels.

Third and fourth graders went on a trip around the world to the Days of the Dead celebration held in Mexico and other Latin and South American countries on November 1 and November 2.  They learned about Los Dias de los Muertos through the artwork created to celebrate the event.  We looked at colorful and vibrant images created by local artists in Mexico and learned that the celebration is meant to honor and celebrate loved ones who have died.  Calavera art is a popular art form during the Days of the Dad.   Calaveras are skulls and/or skeletons.  Skulls and skeletons are seen as a promise of resurrection, not as a symbol of death.  Students used paper, craypas, metallic colored pencils, sequins and scissors to create their own a multi-media collage of a calavera.

I got this idea from a great website: http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/

The art studio at Phippsburg Elementary School has had an awesome start to the school year.  We have already jumped into painting, collage, printmaking and drawing projects.  Several classes are learning about the art and traditions of the Days of the Dead festival and others are using autumn as an inspiration for artwork.  Look for images to be posted soon.

This year art classes are on Tuesday mornings and all day Friday.  Please do not send your student(s) in their best clothes on art days!  We have art shirts available to wear, but paint and ink has a sneaky way of getting around and under the art shirt.  All the materials we use in art are washable and non-toxic.

Here is the schedule:

Tuesday: Grade 3, Grade 5 (Mrs. Snell), and Special Projects

Friday: Grade 4, Grade 5 (Mr. Kovacs), Kindergarten, Grade 2 and Grade 1.

I look forward to sharing Phippsburg Elementary art with you this year!

Fourth grade students were shown the basics of coil pot construction.  They used a pinch pot as a base and then added height with coils.  To add variety students used coil that were thick and thin as well as circles and spirals.  Some students chose to add lids to their pots.

Fifth grade students learned how to construct a rattle using two pinch pots and small beads of clay.  The clay beads were wrapped in tissue paper and placed inside the two pinch pots that were attached to make a hollow body .  Once they formed the rattle part, they had a choice of what to turn their rattle into.   By gently pulling and pressing the rattle base students were able to transform their rattles into abstract characters, bears, cats, lizards, a car and more!  The students did a great job scoring their parts before attaching them and were careful not to make parts too thin-making for a successful, musical art project!

Every year students participate in a drawing contest for aviation week.  This year Aviation Week coincided with Space Week.  Students created drawings using oil pastels and/or watercolor washes.

During the first week of May this year, RSU #1 was fortunate to have a Space Week.  Our elementary students were treated to a presentation by an astronaut.  Students were also learning about space in a literacy unit.  Prior to the event, kindergarten students created a multi-media space-scape.  We used white paint and a toothbrush to create the Milky Way, paper, crayons and textured rubbing plates to make planets and cut paper and oil pastels for the space shuttles.  Sparkly stars were created using shaped sequins.   As you can see, the results are out of this world!

In RSU #1 second grade students study birds in science.  Near the end of the unit, we created bird sculptures using newspaper, cardboard, feathers, colored paper and paper mache.  Our birds have all the characteristics that make it a bird, but students used artistic license in their color and/or pattern choices to create unique birds that have yet to be discovered!