Have a wonderful summer! Here's a look at some of the art making and learning that took place this year. Remember to draw, paint, dance, visit new places, journal, and stay connected to the world around you! Artistically yours, Ms. Farah 

VALUE, TINT and SHADE

4th and 5th grade are using a variety of mediums and techniques to achieve VALUE.  Value is the lightness and darkness of one color, or it can be achieved through hatching, crosshatching and stippling techniques.  Students are moving well through the exercises.  Practice and repetition are helping them remember concepts and applications. The final piece of the value unit will be an art piece to honor American artist, Wayne Thiebaud.  Thiebaud was famous for his paintings of food and confectionery images.  Students will apply tints and shades to create delicious works of art.  Stay tuned for photos.  Art Smart words: Value, Tint, Shade, Hatching, Crosshatching, Stippling, Composition, light source, shape, and form.  

Spring Public Library Art Show

This year each grade level was represented at the Spring Art Show sponsored by Jacksonville Public Libraries.  Art can be seen at the Murray Hill library branch March 18- April 5, and many locations throughout Jacksonville.  4th grade artwork is in The Best of Elementary Show at the Main Library downtown.  We hope you can visit this amazing body of work!    Below are pictures of the art.  The first picture is a collage of K, 2, 5, and 4th.  The 2nd picture is 3rd, and the bottom picture is by 1st grade.  

Congratulations to these talented artists!

Our multicultural event is just one month away! Each grade will study a different continent. Kindergarten- North America; 1st grade- Asia;  2nd grade- Europe; 3rd grade-Africa; 4th grade- South America; and 5th grade- Australia .  There will be art, performances and food tastings from all over the world!  Stay tuned for more details. 

Several classes are exploring the art of printmaking. They painted a plate for a monoprint, where a temporary image is made to make one print. The other type is a relief print. It is an additive process where materials are used to make two levels on the printing plate. 2nd grade is gluing rope on cardboard to make raised images. ART SMART words: printmaking, medium, plate, pulling the print, monoprint and relief.

Monoprints

Additive Relief Plates

Ms. Wilson's class was one of two to win an art party!  They had the most students wear dots on Dot Day. They ate popcorn and made sculptures from toothpicks and mini marshmallows. It was amazing to see them collaborate and use strategies. Everyone enjoyed the STEAM project and the group with the tallest sculpture received a prize of color palette erasers and sketchbooks.

RLE has a brand new kiln! Same workhorse as our old Skutt but this one has features like a preheat mode. It took at least 3 DCPS departments to get it installed and now it's ready to go! Thanks to Consolidated Services, Code Enforcement, Maintenance, and much gratitude to the district Arts Department for this wonderful gift. Tiles will be the first pieces in the kiln to continue the mosaic around the flagpole.

My principal found a slab roller in a trailer that had to be emptied for demolition. Looks like it needs some cable adjustments but otherwise in good condition. I'm looking forward to putting it to good use, what a time saver!

3rd grade is learning to draw gesture. Gesture is a quick, snap shot of the action the figure is doing at that particular moment. Students drew the angles of the mannequins limbs and torso showing many different poses. After class I noticed they positioned them all alike. Dabbing mannequins! ART SMART words: gesture, movement, torso, limbs, action. 

I call this -What the art teacher did during scrimmage testing =)  This is a blind contour line drawing.  The process is exactly as it sounds, no looking at the paper only the contour of the subject -my leg. Typically the tool should not be lifted from the paper until the drawing is complete but I got up a few times to assist students.  Can you tell where I stopped and started again?

   

It was wonderful to see my good friend Dale Harris who was the art teacher before me at Reynolds Lane. She's fabulous, tiny but mighty and left big shoes to fill. Happy Holidays, everyone!

I love the PRISMA app!  Have you tried it?

3rd, 4th and 5th grade looked at the work of Wassily Kandinsky and created compositions using overlapping geometric shapes.  They painted them with tempera cakes and used a third color in the shapes that were made by the overlapping. This project gave students opportunity for drawing, paint application and color theory.  Great job Pride artists, your compositions would make Kandinsky proud!  ART SMART words: geometric shape, overlap, composition and technique.  

Composition in shape paintings in progress, 4th grade

3rd grade critique

My wonderful pre-intern, Ms. Montero, read the book The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers, to 2nd grade and did a lesson on cast shadow.  ART SMART words: cast shadow and light source. 

We had a great turnout for our Dia de los Muertos celebration!  There was school wide participation for the music performance, traditional dancing, and art making.  I was not able to get to the other areas, so if you have any photos from this event, please send them my way and I will be happy to add them to this post.  Was very glad to find these Fred and Friends Sweet Spirits cookie cutters, they were perfect for the clay skulls.  Here are some photos of the sugar skulls.  Thanks to the RLE staff and guests who made the event a success.  We hope everyone enjoyed it!  ART SMART words: Calaveras (skull), offrenda (offering), altar, marigold and symmetry.  

Ms. Wilson and her intern, Ms. Troha helped students embellish
their clay skulls with feathers, glitter and jewels

The set came with 4 designs.  The templates were easy to handle and plastic over the clay before cutting made for easy removal.  

Don't you just love autumn?!  Even in Florida we can have an appreciation for falling leaves, color, and a changing landscape. Pumpkins are the ideal subject matter to study contour line, organic shapes and experiment with rubbing plate textures. ART SMART words: autumn, contour, organic shape, and texture.  

Students in 2nd grade looked at a painting called "Castle and Sun" by Paul Klee.  They learned about geometric shapes and used a variety of templates to create art in his style. Below is a photo of the painting and the art students made.  ART SMART words: geometric shape, template, and pattern.

"Castle and Sun" by Paul Klee
Oil on Canvas, 1928

Happy International Dot Day!

Students celebrated Dot Day and made circular art and wore dots!  The book, the Dot, 
encourages  bravery in art. 

Make a mark. See where it takes you.

the Dot

Starting the school year with a DTO pep rally!  Looking forward to making art with the amazing and talented students at Reynolds Lane Elementary.  

We are The PRIDE! 

Participation-Responsibility-Initiative-Determination-Effort

You may recall from an earlier post that the curriculum format has changed to CHOICE BASED art making.  The model is called TAB- Teaching for Artistic Behavior.  The Drawing, Architecture, and Fiber Arts Studios are available now.  Drawing is the first studio that is introduced using the TAB model, because after all, everything with art begins with a LINE.  There are a variety of supplies and materials in the drawing studio for making shapes, freehand designs, observational drawing, and how-to draw example pages.  There is an art library for everyone to use to spark ideas and inspiration.  New to the Drawing Studio are rubbing plates.  The plates are great for adding texture in the work such as a brick background, or to include botanical elements like leaves and flowers.  The most popular plates with kindergarten are the giant insects!  In the Fiber Arts studio are practice weaving materials for the youngest artists.  These are great for fine tuning motor skills.  3rd-5th are working on yarn weaving.  The architecture studio has modeling clay, soft sculpture building materials, and sets to practice attachment skills such as notching and clamping. Below are photos of students working with the materials in the studios. 

ARCHITECTURE STUDIO:  Kindergarten using the Brain Flakes set which helps students learn "notching" and how two parts attach.  Of course it fine tunes motor skills too!

FIBER ARTS STUDIO- 5TH GRADE WEAVERS

DRAWING- 2nd Grade using templates and how-to draw pages

FIBER ARTS- Close up of 3rd grade Weaver. 
This student is interweaving a second color with a block he has done.

DRAWING STUDIO- 2ND GRADE

            2ND Grade Ceramic Owls

2nd grade made these charming owls.  They looked at photos of owls and identified the major parts- head, wings, beak, etc.  Next there was a practice session using modeling clay and at the next class the owls were hand built using white clay.  After the owls were constructed students used a pencil to draw texture details such as feathers.  They painted using the glaze colors of their choice.  Some looked more real, while others chose arbitrary color.  Great job artists, you should all give a HOOT about your hard work and successful owls!  ART SMART words were realistic, arbitrary, natural clay, texture, details, bisque and glaze.

Kindergarten made clay medallions!  A medallion is a circular pendant.  We read the story "Hunta's Medallion", and learned how clay is formed and where it is found.  These little artists focused on the element of texture and used a variety of objects to press into their medallion.  Next they painted them with the glaze and they were fired in the kiln.  Our ART SMART words were medallion, circular, natural clay, texture and variety.   

Exciting curriculum changes are happening in the art room!  Instead of each student making the same art like we do with PROJECT BASED learning,  CHOICE-BASED  ART provides opportunity for students to decide how they make their art and with which mediums they would like to use.  This type of approach will allow for more exploration and creativity, planning, problem solving and collaboration.  This is how artists create!  We will begin with Drawing Studio.  As students become proficient with the practices and procedures new studios such as architecture, fiber arts (weaving and sewing), collage and painting will become available.  Stay tuned for photos of the studios as they open, and photos of student work. 

2nd grade is doing a unit on Greece and will invite their families to see their displays.  In art we studied the different shapes of vessels made by the ancient Greeks. Each vessel shape dictated a specific use such as for storing grains or carrying water.  An art object that is designed to be used is called "utilitarian".  The vessels were embellished with geometric patterns and black or red figures, depending on the color of the clay composite.  Our ART SMART words were symmetry, geometric, vessel, and utilitarian.