Art Studio - Winter 2015

Dear Parents,

In our previous newsletter, we discussed the philosophy of the new art studio and ways to talk to children about their artwork.  Now we are excited to tell you about the curriculum and the experiences the children are having in art class.

We started the school year teaching the children the basics of colors,

starting with black and white.  They experimented with collage and drawing techniques.  They also explored paint with a variety of tools to mix different grays.

We then focused on primary colors (red, yellow and blue) and made monochromatic works of art using different techniques.  We discussed how mixing these colors produced secondary colors (orange, green and purple).  Some techniques used were mixed media collage, fingerpaint prints, and crayon resist.

All of the children have experienced working with clay.  We started out challenging the children to make certain shapes with the clay such as a ball, a pancake and a cylinder  shape.  They also used ‘slip' (watered down clay) to help the pieces stick together.  The 4's used the techniques they learned to create beautiful nameplates.

In the art studio we believe everyday materials can be turned into works of art.  We recycled cardboard to create ‘cardboard constructions'.  All of the children worked with cut pieces of cardboard to create anything they desired.  The 2’s created their first group project on long, thin cardboard backgrounds.   The 3’s created 2-dimensional designs on a flat background. The 4’s created 3-dimensional free form works of art.

We are very proud to see our students’ skills grow over the year.  Recently with a class who tray painted for the first time, a child expressed that he wanted to paint a rainbow to a fellow classmate.  “But we don’t have all the colors,” he said.  “Well, we can make them!” responded the second student.  They both proceeded to paint a rainbow, in order while using primaries and mixing secondaries.

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On another note, our new hanging systems are currently being put up and we look forward to posting more work very soon!

Janae & Julia

"Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Pablo Picasso