Winter-Spring 09-10

5th graders  Students have just finished their portraits, based on classic proportions and Chiarascuro (light and dark) made famous by Leonardo Da Vinci.They added oil pastel spheres, using analogous colors, to their collages. They also added magazine cutouts of objects that symbolized themselves.They painted backgrounds of complementary colors.See the beautiful results of these talented artists in the halls of Highland Park.

They are just beginning to develop symbols and draw animals based on their own characteristics or personalities. They will be quilting felt onto burlap in reference to colonial quilting,as they study colonial lifestyle and history in their academic classes.

4th GRADERS Our 4^th grade Graphic Designers made Fire Prevention posters for the purpose of teaching their families and others many aspects of preventing fires. We studied, took notes & brainstormed ideas before completing the posters, which were quite amazing in the successful illustration of the concept chosen by each. The posters have been sent home so you can learn important Fire Prevention information. 

Currently we are studying Aerial and Atmospheric Perspective. We critiqued the artwork of American painter of Western scenes, Frederic Remington. We are learning to make a picture have visual depth by putting objects that are closer lower on the page, more detailed and bigger. Objects farther away have less detail, are smaller and higher on the page, closer to the horizon line. We will finish these with extra fine permanent markers and water colors.

3RD GRADERS Students just finished a printmaking unit based on African Adinkra cloth. They designed their own symbols inspired by their interests and personalities. They used wet on wet water color background to represent the fabric. They used stamps they made with printing ink and oil pastels represented the sewing lines. They did a great job using fine brushes and white paint with the Adinkra symbols on the borders. See the beautiful work they did on a wall of the cafeteria.

They are brainstorming character clues for their puppets that they will be sewing from felt. They will be required to give visual evidence for the characters they are creating and developing.

2ND GRADERS Students have been making greens and changing them by adding white or yellow or blue or a little red to change the color green, which they discovered as they prepared for a collage based on the art of Henri Rousseau. A warm color tiger, plant, moon, etc was added for contrast.

The Swirling Textures and Lines of Vincent Van Gogh inspired our oil pastels with watercolor wash, which can be seen in the hallways of Highland Park School.

Excitement is evident now as the students are learning, in a hands-on and cognitive way, about the properties of clay. Working with clay in its plastic form, they will be making Pinch Pot turtles, using slip to attach and probably one other item. They will take these home after the project is made, becomes bone dry, gets fired in the kiln and is painted with appropriately mixed colors, applying again their color-science knowledge.

1ST GRADERS Students have been using Primary Colors of construction paper and markers to make PriMary, and other animals and objects. They learned a song about PriMary, helping they to remember the primary colors.

For the next project we studied fabrics, such as Burlap and Felt. A Hands-on learning approach was used to discover that burlap is a woven fabric which frays when un-woven, to create a lion’s mane. We used collage technique for the background objects and used African Adinkra Symbols for the borders

KINDERGARTENERS  

We have been studying Fashion Design after reading the book, “Ms. Moja Makes Beautiful Clothes”. We made our own clothes pin people from a variety of fabrics. We are now designing hats for an upcoming fashion parade through another classroom. We made three dimensional decorations onto a two dimensional circle for the hat.