My fourth grade artists recently brainstormed some of the many reasons that artists make art, including: to make money (!), to express yourself, to relax, and….to give as a gift.
Since we will soon be hosting students from Raey Guang Elementary, our sister school in Pingtung, Taiwan, we put our creative abilities to work and made these fun bookmarks to welcome our friends to Georgetown.
Our friends will be visiting over Halloween so they can experience this American holiday. We hope they enjoy our Halloween bookmarks!
Fourth grade artists have been exploring the abstract work of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky. They loved watching this short video, “The Kandinsky Effect”. They kept saying… play it again, play it again!
Inspired by Kandinsky’s “Several Circles” piece, fourth graders printed circles with black tempera paint and colored their circles with oil pastel. We finished with a yellow watercolor background.
Kandinsky’s “Several Circles”
Printing circles
Student work
This project was inspired by this post from the blog, “A Faithful Attempt” .
Third grade artists have been learning about the abstract work of “Action Jackson” Pollock. We began by creating a background that resembled Jackson’s “thrown paint” pieces. Our backgrounds were made by dipping string in paint and tapping the gooey string on the paper. Lots of fun!
Action Jackson at work
Preparing the background for printing
Printing with string
Our portraits of Action Jackson are my third grader’s first attempt at drawing a realistic portrait, using drawing pencils and value shading with blending stumps. My kiddos loved using the blending stumps and enjoyed creating a REAL portrait.
The ArtPrize Top Ten have been announced, and some of our favorites are in the top 10!
My students are really fond of the “Horses in the River” ”Stick-to-it-ive-ness” by Richard Morse.
We all love “Lights In The Night” by Mike Carpenter and Dan Johnson! I’ve been showing this clip of the event, and we’ve had some interesting conversations about this different form of “art”. Check out this video – it is beautiful. To see the rest of the ArtPrize Top 10, follow this link.
Third grade’s “Button Project” was our first art project this year – a little line, shape, and color review. The pieces uploaded to Artsonia are beautiful and well worth a look! Third grade parents – you will be receiving a “Parent Slip” home this week detailing how to access your child’s artwork on line. You may leave comments for your child, let them enter and artist statement about the piece, and order custom items with the artwork printed on the piece.
The Georgetown Elementary Art Department receives 20% of the sales when you order items printed with your childs’ artwork. Funds earned will be used to purchase ART BOOKS for the Art Room!
Look for more artwork from your child on Artsonia later this year!
I am in love with my sweet first grade artists! We began our first big art project by exploring lots of media – markers, crayons, watercolor, ink pens, and Model Magic. They enjoyed reading books about farm animals and learning about the critters on my farm – and their “Pig in a Puddle” pieces are spectacular.
Coloring Barns
OINK!
Pig in a Puddle
Model Magic pigs – too cute for words!
Thanks to my art pals over at Jamestown Elementary for this project inspiration!
ArtPrize is here – the world’s largest art competition! Downtown Grand Rapids has 1,517 pieces of artwork on display on street corners, in restaurants and museums, and even on the bridges spanning the Grand River….there is even artwork IN the river!
The top winners of the $560,000 in prize money are determined by public voting. I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy some of the artwork on display. And I should mention, one of our own HPS Art Teachers, Mrs. Bandstra from Alward Elementary, again has a piece in the ArtPrize competition! Check out her painting, “A Royal Ternion Rejoicing” here.
Here’s a look at some of my favorites from ArtPrize 2011.
Classroom routines are in place and we are ready to turn on the Georgetown art making machine. Here’a a peek at upcoming projects for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade artists. Stay tuned for the finished results!
The annual walk-a-thon is coming September 26th and this is our primary PTC fundraiser. Our theme for the 2012-13 Event:
TREK FOR TECH
Why is the walk-a-thon donation so important? This money helps to provide to pay for:
School assemblies
Framed Art Work
Score Board and Hoops for the Gym
Recess Equipment
Family Days like the Carnival, Mother/Daughter and Father/Son Events,
Music materials
Popcorn Days
Field Trips
Classroom supplies
Reading Counts Motivation Program
Raz Kids Online Reading Program
Book Fair
Santa’s Secret Shop
Library Books, Nooks AND SO MUCH MORE!!!
We need your DONATIONS of Money!
We want all of these activities and events to continue this year.
PLEASE DONATE! If every child raises $25, we can fund the events above AND reach our goal for the year:
TECHNOLOGY TOOLS FOR THE CLASSROOMS!
We would like to raise enough money to continue the events above and provide affordable tech learning tools to each grade level to assist with student learning. Please help us support learning through technology by donating to the school PTC.
For our walk-a-thon days, we want everyone to wear BLUE and GOLD…EAGLE Colors. Parents and grandparents are invited to join us. The more the merrier!
Wednesday, September 26
9:45 ECSE, Kindergarten
10:00 Grade 3
10:10 Grade 1
10:20 Grade 2
10:30 Grade 4
10:35 Grade 5
Walkathon ends at 11:30.
What are the prizes?
Top EARNING WINNERs (5): MAY 2013 POOL PARTY AT MRS. REAGAN’S HOUSE
Top WINNERS for EACH GRADE (6): PIZZA PARTY WITH MRS. REAGAN
Top WINNING CLASSROOM: TOP SECRET SPECIAL ACTIVITY
EVERY PARTICIPANT who raises $25 or more get the most awesome FOAM FINGER!
EVERY PARTICIPANT will be entered into drawings for a LASER TAG FAMILY FUN PACKAGE and more…to be announced.
Friday, September 28: Completed donation forms and money due back to school. You do not need to send the money this week. You have until September 28.
PARENTS STILL NEEDED AS VOLUNTEERS! Amanda Impens is still looking for PARENT HELP. This is a fun event to work. Low stress….and loads of fun. Please let her know if you can help by emailing her. She is in need of bubble machines, spray bottles (for water) and big hearts who are willing to help her keep walking kids walking and hydrated!Amanda Impens Email Address:amandabeaimpens@yahoo.com
