"Tall" Paintings

The sixth grade end of the year project in visual art was inspired by Holten Rower's artworks, which are created by the variation of effects produced when paint is poured onto a three dimensional surface.

                        

I asked my students to save their milk cartons from lunch.... We pressed in the top portions of the cartons, turned them upside down and hot glued them onto squares cut from a green tri-fold board. On top of the carton, a small disposable plastic cup was hot glued to add height and help with pouring accuracy. One of my classes used larger plastics cup in place of milk cartons. Students then poured acrylic paint over the top. At first I tried to use tempera mixed with glue then squeezed directly from the bottles. The glue bottle tops frequently became clogged so I decided to let the kids pour diluted acrylic paint out of small cups cups.  This project was very messy, but  extremely simple and my students response was overwhelmingly positive!

Is that Science?.....

......YES, ART HAS SCIENCE!

For more information on the interdisciplinary

connections between art and science using color

please visit Color Matters

Color Wheel Tints and Shades Abstract Hands

6th and 7th Grade:

Exploring the color wheel in multiple mediums...

Coffee filters colored with ONLY red, blue and yellow markers, brushed with water to create and observe primary colors blending together into secondary colors.

Students used pastels on black construction paper and crayons/color pencils on white paper to show color wheels with shade and tint differences.

6th and 7th Grade:

Art 1 worked on geometric paper collages as they took a careful look at Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians.

Art Supplies

In the Visual Art Classroom we try to recycle and incorporate just about every material possible. When crayons are reduced to bits I collect and melt them together to create new ones. To minimize paper waste, scrap pieces are stored in a box by the paper cutter for future use. I often pick up discarded pencils all over the school grounds so that the handful of students who come unprepared are able to participate.

I frequently tell all of my students about the soon to be crayon nubs, dried up markers, shortened colored pencils, limited paper supply, dull metal safety scissors, etc. I tell them and even show them the consequences of mistreating the supplies, but I can not expect much to be remaining after each year 300 students run through $200 worth of supplies.

Almost all of our parents at Kirby Middle School have sent their children equipped with most of what we need in the art room- UNFORTUNATELY the supplies are collected by the homeroom teacher rendering them unavailable for use by the student while in art class.

The students know that the amount of school supplies bought for their own to freely use and keep up with throughout the day is up to their guardian. With that being said, the following is a list of supplies that the students have expressed wanting their own of the most. (In order from most to least complained about....)

- Scissors

- Crayons (CRAYOLA)

- Erasers

- Pencils

- Color Pencils (CRAYOLA)

- Markers (CRAYOLA)

- Glue Sticks (NOT PURPLE!)

....And if your child forgets to say it....

Please accept this from BOTH of us:

Identifying/Drawing Lines In Trees

Animal Drawings

Various Winter Projects

Paper Food Sculptures

Pastel Drawings and Paper Collages Inspired by Matisse and Modigliani (Displayed at the MCS Board of Ed.!)