FALL PROJECTS from all grades...

journals from each grade being filled with fun drawings, paintings, and mixed media
a great way for them to explore art materials and personal expression!

4th grade puppet project. Students discovered puppets from around the world then created drawings of their ideas for both sides of their puppet. One was of a self portrait and the other was of their alter ego/future profession/fantasy character.
They then sewed together their canvas puppets using the sewing machine (with some help from me) The next step was to paint the faces and hands and then to sew or glue on clothing. The last step was adding things to their hands, bodies or heads that would further describe their characters. This is an interdisciplinary project so they will be taking their puppets and drawings into their french or spanish classes to learn how to describe them in the language they are studying. Much fun was had by all!

drawings and puppet by Ethan Hynes.

5th graders studied Oaxacan Animalitos wood carvings and created drawings of their favorite animals. Their next challenge was to create their animals out of clay, stressing the 3 dimensional aspect of the material. Can't wait to see them painted in bright colors with the great design patterns they came up with!

6th graders learned all about landscape architecture during this project... They looked at images of landscaped yards, skate parks, Japanese Zen rock gardens and more and dreamed up their own "Out Door Space" to create. They used mixed media including; sand, grass, wood, pillow filling, wire and recycled objects to illustrate their ideas. They did an excellent job!

a close up of Kiersten Chu's "Faith Garden"

7th graders explored Totem Poles in tandem with what they are learning about Native Americans in their history class. They were instructed to create a sketch of an animal and to construct a story to accompany their part of the totem pole. They then spent a double period of art mastering the slab building technique to recreate their ideas with clay.
Each 7th grade section will place their separate totem pieces on top of one anothers, with a hole in the top and bottom so that a dowel can hold them all together to create class totem poles.
The stories will also be displayed in ArtBeats.
This is a photo before the glaze colors were added.

8th graders created recycled sculpture using objects they each received in envelopes from friends of the art teacher... They had fun drilling, breaking, cutting, gluing and attaching their objects! Coming soon - a movie of the process...

K.C. Kelly's "Debbie Bliss" sculpture created from objects sent by an avid knitter/gardener/artist