Another excellent Edublogs.org weblog
My sweet second graders are really excited to finally take their clay tiles home. This project was part of our Middle Eastern culture study – we looked at images of the beautiful tiles found in shrines in Iran and learned about radial symmetry before creating our own tiles.
Tile Work – Iran
Glazed tiles waiting for gold wire and sparkly beads.
All the lovely beads – ready to add to our tiles!
Finished tiles, ready to take home and hang!
Lily Wressell, a fourth grader in Mrs. Huizenga’s class, is asking her fellow Georgetown students and families to join her in supporting the Pediatric Oncology Resource Team, P.O.R.T., that operates with Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
P.O.R.T. provides much needed resources and hands-on support for families with a child diagnosed with cancer or life-threatening blood disorders.
Lily will be collecting items to put into theme baskets for the P.O.R.T. Winter Night Out fundraiser in February.
In particular she is requesting items related to kids arts and crafts such as; paints, crayons, paper, stencils, stickers, etc.
She is also looking for gift wrap items; paper, bags, bows, ribbon, cards, etc.
If you are interested in donating items there will be a box located in the lobby until Monday, Feb 6 that you may put them in.
Thank you for helping Lily reach her goal of providing two baskets to help P.O.R.T.
Second grade artists are finishing up one of their Middle East cultural focus projects. This project had lots and lots of steps, and my second graders were real troopers, plugging away at each part of the project!
We began with an introduction to Egypt and had lots of fun talking about pyramids. Then we drew and colored in a beautiful little pyramid landscape.
Next came a review of Middle Eastern ceramic tiles – this part of the project tied in to our clay project, yet to be revealed! We stamped the outside of our landscape with designs and colored the outside with many shades of blue crayon.
Adding the doors 
And finally – the most fun part – DOORS that OPEN! We decorated the doors so they looked “ancient” – my second grader’s words, not mine, aren’t they just so smart?! And after some painting and folding and gluing – ta daaa! A desert landscape is revealed behind the fancy ancient doors! Or, as my second graders like to say….the magical phrase: Open Sesame!
doors closed 
doors open 
Georgetown fourth grade artists are finishing up a big Kandinsky project this week. The project is stunning, and we can’t wait to hang these in the hallway!
After looking at Kandinsky’s Several Circles No. 323 and discussing abstract art, we got started.
Several Circles No. 323
We began by thinking about texture and color as we created our background.
texture background
Next came tempera paint in rainbow order, with a little white thrown in for playing with tints.
painting – rainbow order
We traced circles and painted over our marker lines with black tempera paint.
tracing circles and painting with tempera
Then – more color, this time thinking about warm and cool colors as we painted the circles.
One more look at Kandinsky’s circle painting and a big discussion about eye path and leading the viewer through the artwork by using shape and color….and finally, cutting our circles, carefully placing them on the background, and gluing the circles down. The results….stunning.
Assembling Kandinsky project 
Finished pieces!
This project was inspired by “Brooke’s Quilt #3″ …. check it out, it is lovely!
Today I had the pleasure of sitting in a cushy chair and watching someone else work! I visited my mentee, Mrs. Nienhouse, at South Elementary and enjoyed seeing her work some art magic with her students. We had a fun morning, and I was impressed with Mrs. Nienhouse’s planned projects AND her fabulous students. Here’s a look at some of the things they are working on – couldn’t resist showing them off!
model magic turtle
pinch pot – painting with complementary colors
chalk landscapes
Here are some completed projects from the hallway displays.
beautiful birch trees!
Matisse collage
Egyptian portraits
Cities with Van Gogh sky
Nice work, Mrs. Nienhouse! Thanks for letting me visit today.
What could be better on a cold snowy day than a cup of hot chocolate? My talented Fifth Grade artists drew beautiful cups of steaming hot chocolate, concentrating on pattern and color as they created their designs.
And the really fun part of this project….Mrs. Brouwer stirring up cups of hot chocolate for everyone to sip on as they worked. We were using scented markers, but the hot chocolate wafting through the room smelled WAY better!
This project was inspired by Heather Galler on Etsy.
First Grade artists have been working on a fun little snowman project. Last week we drew our skinny snowmen with tall hats and painted the background – reviewing our warm and cool colors of course! This week we read a favorite snowman book – Beuhner’s “Snowmen at Night”; colored some great patterns on our scarves and hats, and finally – a little printmaking with bottle caps and tempera paint for the snowflakes.
Thanks to Mrs. Jackson’s Art Room for this cool project idea!
My third graders have been enjoying learning about the most famous painting in the world, Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa. I’ve done many different versions of Mona Lisa in past years, including Mini Monas, Cat Monas, and even Giant Monas. We’ve also imagined what Mona Lisa was thinking about and included her thoughts with our artwork.
This year’s Mona Lisa project was inspired by two things – the donation of a beautiful pile of small boxes, and an interesting project that I saw on artist Kim Welling’s blog – sweet little panorama boxes.
Here are our fun little Mona Lisa boxes.
Our inspiration – lovely gold jewelry boxes
Many of my students planned to hang their Mona Lisa masterpieces on their Christmas trees!
