Click here for Rainbow Art Video
Grades 1-5 Art
Click here for Rainbow Art Video
Art: Distance Learning
Dear Parents,
I am posting this here, in order to avoid the need to post it on daily slides every week. Thank you.
The 20 minute time allocated for art is the minimum requirement. As this is little time, please know that any art activity started on the first lesson of the week, can carry over to the last one. Students may use two art times to work on one piece. In fact I would encourage this. The nature of our art program means that students are free to work at their own rate – some will use all the allocated time on one piece of work. Some will do several things in one week.
They should upload to Seesaw on the second art lesson of the week.
The majority of our AAS students really do love art and will want to spend more time. If this is your child, I recommend that you save art to be the last activity for the day, so that they may spend as much time as they like (with your permission of course) on being creative.
Thank you for your attention,
Helen Arnold
Examples of First Grade Rainbow Art
A quick thank you for the support you are providing students with Distance Learning. A very large number of artists have been actively engaged. This is great to see. Let the motivation continue! Grades 1,2,3 have submitted some wonderful Rainbow art this week, demonstrating a great variety of creativity and approaches to the idea of bringing light and love to our community through their art. This idea has been inspired by a current trend in the UK and some parts of the USA where children are posting Rainbows in their windows. See here for news article. Grades 4 and 5 will be asked to contribute next week (Deadline will be Friday 10 April), after they have completed their transdisciplinary work (Unit of Inquiry related Art). We hope to put these together, to form one large community artwork (or slide show) for our end year ‘virtual’ closing ceremony. Therefore, good clear photos, with no text boxes are encouraged for this work. Stay home, stay safe, and keep on being creative!
This Cycle, Grades 2-4 have begun thinking about a new W.O.W piece. It was quite amusing yesterday as Second Grade entered the room and saw the above slide on the Smart Board, and one student exclaimed “WOW! Wait…. but we already did a WOW piece!” Yes, and it is time to start another, and another and another, until we reach Grade 12 and beyond! As students become increasingly familiar with this, and thinking/behaving like artists, they will work at different rates, and make this move, more independently.
Now that we are in our second semester of our choice based program it is great to see students increasingly independent in their understanding of our essential questions “What do artists do?” and “Where do ideas come from?” During the first semester, the focus was very much on self management of the environment (our studio) and time. Organisation has been the key. In order to simply allow them to gain confidence, those who wanted, were allowed to copy from images. This semester we are focusing more on the word ‘original’ in ‘wonderful original work of art – WOW’. Some may still feel the need, and this is ok – however students now encounter questions of “where is the creativity?” , “What are YOU bringing to this work?” and/or “Why/How is this important to you?” as a means of making that closer, personal connection to their art.
As the year has progressed, planning documents have grown, as students now have access to four stations, ie. Art Forms: Drawing, Painting, Collage and Printmaking. Students are encouraged to think about which is their favourite art form – one which they feel most passionate about, and incorporate this, into their ‘WOW’ piece. Fourth grades are taking things a step further by considering combining two art forms, or two skills, which they will later be expected to discuss in their artist’s statement.
We look forward to the results of our second round of WOW projects. (Example of Planning Document below).
A choice based system most certainly does not mean full time free choice. Of course there must be room for specific skill building and learning of new techniques, which students can then apply to their choice based art later.
Since the start of the new year, Grades 1-4 have been involved in some ‘have to’ lessons (otherwise known as Skill Builders), through the introduction of our Printmaking Station. Emphasis has been placed on organisation of workspace, the actual process of various printmaking techniques, and self evaluation and reflection. Printmaking techniques have been planned to allow progression throughout the grade levels.
First Grade: Fingerprinting, Sponge Dot Printing (after observation and critique of pointillism and work of George Seurat), and Printmaking with Found Objects
Second Grade: Styrofoam Prints with washable markers
Third Grade: Styrofoam Prints with washable markers, and basic reduction print with ink (single color/layer)
Fourth Grade: Mono prints, and reduction prints with ink – two colors/layers
Students are encouraged to keep ALL pieces, no matter how ‘bad’ they may turn out. Bad prints are good! Not only will students be able to demonstrate the progression of their skill, they can also use these to discuss their evaluation of the quality of the print, reflect on problems which may be occuring and seek solutions to these, or strategies for improvement.
Ongoing reflection and evaluation should take place through self talk and discussions with peers and the teacher. Thus students are becoming increasingly familiar with discussing their process, inclusive of art specific vocabulary.
Due to lack of time, students are not required to write or record reflections/evaluations on Seesaw daily. Simply uploading a photo of stages of the work, at the end of the lesson is enough to gain a habit of documenting.
In a few weeks students will complete a ‘W.O.W’ piece of art (as a reminder please click on the following link)
which was posted on 21st November 2019. This will require a more indepth, written or spoken reflection on Seesaw.
Speak to your child about his/her printmaking experience. We hope they can freely discuss their process inclusive of art vocabulary such as ‘found objects, printing plate, printing ink, brayer, sponge, styrofoam…’ according to grade level.
Please enjoy some photos below taken during Printmaking Classes, Grades 1-4.
We are very excited to announce the arrival of our brand new, art shirts, designed for ES Artists! They are of course supplied to protect student clothes from art materials (as best possible).
However, the design is especially important, as it reinforces the student’s sense of identity, as an artist, and our ongoing mantra “You are the artist, and this is your studio“. We have choices of blue, green, red and yellow. Yes! Color is very important!
All students are expected to wear them over their clothes during art. The majority of students gladly accept this. However there are just one or two who do not want to wear them. Students will be highly encouraged, but not pushed, to wear the art shirts.
Please enjoy these fun photos of the first set of students to wear our very cool art shirts!
Welcome back to school and Happy New Year! We hope you had an enjoyable and restful holiday. For those who have not been able to visit school, and view our very large exhibition, both in the ES Lobby, and also upstairs, outside the Art Studio, we have a Youtube Video, which shares much of it. Just before the break, some classes had the opportunity to view all, and document their favorites on Seesaw.
For any new families, welcome! And please see below the video, the notice which was sent out in our ES Newsletter in December, which reviews the first semester of our Choice Based Art Program. Enjoy!
Parent Conference: Thursday 28 November 2019
Unless specifically requested, appointments are not made beforehand. The large studio (3006) will be open for students who choose to show their parents the room and their portfolio. If students choose to bring parents to the art room, they are expected to discuss, as well as show their work. They should be speaking to you about topics along the lines of – from where I found my inspiration, new discoveries, and the process of creating it, reflections on successes, lessons learned from mistakes, the current stage of their work, and how they envision it when finished.
If you specifically would like to meet with me, please email me before 8 am Thursday. Alternatively, write your name on the waiting list which will be posted in the room (3006). It shall be a matter of first come first served. Please be respectful that others may be waiting, and therefore keep to a ten minute meeting approx. All parents/students are welcome to enter the room, even if there appears to be a parent conference taking place at the time. For any more confidential discussions, we have the small room next door, available to us.
W.O.W – Stage Two
Below are some photos of First (1DE) and Fourth Graders (4SC) working on the second stage of their W.O.W artwork (see previous blog post), thinking about quality, gathering feedback, and working on ways improve and perfect a work to completion. Also, with the aim of meeting a deadline – the end of our next art lesson. Demonstrating stamina to engage and persist when challenges are met, are being practised by all.
You may have noticed three large paintings (1.5m square, each), recently hung near to the ES Office. Sofiya Shiyan (Class of 2020) led Grade 4-5 students, and some Grade 9 student assistants, in creating this artwork to mark the 70th Anniversary of AAS.
The three colors represent our three divisions – Elementary, Middle, and High School. The variety of shades/tints and shapes represent the 60+ nationalities of students, who attend AAS. Please enjoy the photos below, of student involvement in this permanent artwork.
AAS Moscow, October 2019
Respect – Integrity – Courage – Curiosity – Care
Grades 1,2,4 and 5 have started work on their W.O.W artwork. AAS Artists will tell you, that W.O.W, stands for Wonderful Original Work of Art.
After weeks of practising studio navigation, setting up their work space, exploration of various media, ways to research and generate ideas, artists are ready to demonstrate what they know and can do, by creating a final piece which they would feel proud to display in a public space.
The criteria for the W.O.W piece, is as follows:
The above criteria is expected to be fully met by Grades 4 and 5, and lower grades are specifically working on the ability to engage and persist with an idea, and work to refine a piece, to a point of completion, over a number of lessons.
We have three full lessons before the December break, so the timing is perfect. A wide variety of artworks are emerging as students make choices about subject matter, format, and art form. (Current options are painting, drawing, and collage only)
Watch this space!
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