Our Chihuly Chandelier Finds a Home

Our Chihuly chandelier was installed in the commons area today.  It seems a little lonely all by itself, so we need to get started on our next one soon!

Zoom! This year is really flying by....it's time for an update.

Wow! This school year is just zooming by.  I usually feel like I start off at a run and then we slow to a walk and then everything takes off again in April and May.  This year has been usual, because we started off running and have never slowed down.

I started an Art newsletter to share what is happening with parents at home and I forget to add all that information to our blog.  But here is a quick overview of what we have been up to so far:

Kindergarten has been learning all the basics of Art.  They have covered drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture.

1st grade has been reviewing all the things that they learned in Kindergarten and have focused learning more about subject matter.  At this point they should all be able to explain what a portrait, still-life, and a non-objective picture are.

2nd grade is once again building on what they have been learning for the last two years.  We worked on collaborative sculptures for the commons area.  (I'll post more about this later.)  We have just started clay and their pottery is looking amazing.

That sort of sums up what has happened over the last 99 days of school!


We have a student intern with us from Truman this semester, Miss Lisa.  She visited our class last year and loved us so much she wanted to comeback for her internship.  We are thrilled to have her and learn new ideas from her too.

Lastly, I have been doing a lot thinking and planning trying to get digital art into our classroom.  As of today, we have registered with donorschoose.org requesting help for purchasing an iPad.  The possibilities for an iPad are a simple as a digital drawing, but what I would love to see happen is animated movies or interactive books created by our students for each other to enjoy.  I have seen a lot of creative ideas happening with iPads in other Art rooms and I am really excited to get this started for my students.  With donorschoose.org you can choose to donate a little towards funding a project or a lot.  It is your choice.  Every little bit helps us to reach our goal. So see our project's progress.....  http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1730664.-340888601

Creating a Chihuly-inspired Chandelier from Plastic Bottles

All we needed for this project was some plastic bottles,  (We used about 500 bottles to create our large chandlier) acrylic paint (Ours was donated leftovers.) scissors, string, and a frame to tie the bottles onto.

Collecting the bottles and preparing then took the longest.  All bottles needed to be clean and free of their labels.  Once we had this done, the students went to town painting them.  There was no certain way they had to be painted, so each bottle was unique. We did use the color scheme of blue and green, because those were the colors we had the most of in our stash.  Once the bottles were dry after painting, the bottom was cut off and the rest of the bottle was spiral cut up to the mouth of the bottle.  String was tied onto each bottle through the mouth area and then tied onto our frame.  (A tomato cage covered in chicken wire).  I started off doing everything for the students except the painting.  After a while it became very overwhelming when I couldn't keep up with the students and their finished bottles.  Eventually, I cut a slit at the base of the bottle and the students did the rest.  I was really impressed with how they took on the responsibility and how quickly it got finished.

Here is our finished chandelier!  We are just waiting for the lift, so that we can hang it in the commons.  It was a great project and really got the kids interested in Chihuly and working together.

1st Quarter

I can't believe how close it is to the end of 1st Quarter.  This year has gone by so quickly.  Here is what we have been working on since our last update...

Kindergarten has continued to work just with drawing materials.  There are so many options to use (pastels, oil pastels, colored pencils, markers, and crayons)  It take a while to test them all out and get familiar with how each one works.  We have also discussed how to use the texture plates and patterns.  These items can be fun to use and add some 'spice' to our pictures.

1st Grade and 2nd Grade have moved on to include paint as one of their choices to work with in addition to the drawing materials.  They have all review color mixing and how we can use crayons and watercolors to create a watercolor resist painting.  Most recently, we have been working on writing Artist Statements to accompany our artwork.  Every quarter we will be featuring a group of  KPS student artists and their artwork in the front office and the conference room.  We have some very talented artist and we want to share them with our school visitors.

Finally, I would like to explain what we are doing with all those clear plastic bottles that you are sending to the Art Room.  One of my favorite artists is Dale Chihuly ( http://www.chihuly.com/ ) and 2nd Grade is going to be creating Chihuly-esque sculptures for the commons.  One of these will act as a window covering for the commons to help filter the light and add a little color.  The other will be to create chandeliers to hang from the ceiling of the commons.  This will add some color to the commons and give the students a chance to work together to make a work of art that will stay at KPS long after they head off to Ray Miller next year.

Be sure to check out are Artsonia Gallery to see what we have created.  More artwork will be posted very soon!

Beginning of a New School Year

We are now a couple of weeks into our new school year.  For me it has been the busiest start of school that I have ever had, but it is also so exciting.  I have worried so much about how a new class of Kindergartners would handle coming into a choice-based classroom.  Would they be able to handle the freedom of choice or am I going to have to plan several activities to divide up their time.  To my surprise, the kindergartners are handling all the freedom and responsibility of choice like pros.  Even on the very first day of school they were completely engaged in their work.  (Usually I have to have 5 different activities just to keep them busy and working.)  They ran our usual schedule of an Art Talk at the beginning of class, moving on to work on our own artwork, and then finally sharing their artwork with the class just like my older students.  It just goes to show how when they make their own choices they remain more engaged in their activities.

For the first two weeks of classes all my students have been discussing how our choice-based art program works, the class rules, and our Tiger Pride Goals (Respect, Responsibility, and Best Effort).  1st graders and 2nd graders worked on portfolios.  I really want the students to examine their own work and reflect on how they did, write artist statements, and examine their artwork over a period of time.  I think it will be really good for them to see their growth and self-assess their work.

Last week we moved on to discuss the different drawing materials that are available in the art room.  All my classes really got into experimenting with the materials to see how they work.  It has been a lot of fun to see what they create.

Kindergarten kept on with the theme of discovery this week using drawing materials while my other classes reviewed Portraits.

Here is a glimpse at the fabulous pictures that my students are creating this year......

Food for Thought

“Every student can learn. Just not on the same day or in the same way.” ~~ George Evans

Another One of My Crazy Ideas...

I am working on another one of my crazy ideas that will take place this spring.  But before that can happen, I could really use your help.  We could use clean, empty clear plastic water bottles.  Like this....

I am not sure how many we are really going to need, but I have a feeling that we will need A LOT!!!

The Art Room is always a great place to recycle items you no longer need.  These are some of the items that we regularly recycle in a creative way....

magazines and calendars
leftover crafts from finished projects
leftover acrylic paint
tp and paper towel tubes
plastic containers
yarn
beads

Basically.....If you think we could use it we probably can.  My students find the most creative ways to use these items and if they can't use them we will find them another home.

When we can receive items that we can recycle and use in creative ways it really helps our budget and supplies stretch.  Thanks for all your help.