Can You Find Your Design?

The best part of doing a collaborative project is finding out which important part of the whole design you helped to create. We finally finished one full rotation of our 6 day schedule and everyone has visited the art room. As an introduction to the first day in art, all students in Kindergarten through 5th grade designed circles to celebrate International Dot Day, inspired by the book, "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds. To learn more about this wonderful story, scroll down to my earlier post and watch a video of the book.

Our dots are as unique from each other as we are, but together they spell out the name of our school. Just in time for Back to School Night, our dot display celebrates the start of a new year with best buddies and brand new friends.

Happy International Dot Day, Ranney School!

INTERNATIONAL DOT DAY!

Off we go with a creative start to our new school year! One more day and all of our Lower School students will have been introduced to the art room. We are learning the names of our new friends and finding the perfect seat at my big blue tables.

For our first project across all the Lower School grades, we looked at a short clip of  "The Dot," a story by Peter H. Reynolds. In this inspiring tale, a young art student, Vashti, is afraid to draw on paper because she thinks she is not a good artist. Her teacher suggests that she just make a mark and see where it takes her. This journey of how Vashti discovered her creativity with just a simple dot inspired us to make our own spontaneous designs on paper.



In celebration of this book and the encouraging message it brings to art students, schools all around the world join together in recognition of International Dot Day, September 15th! At our school, students are working together to help design the name of Ranney School in a large and colorful collaborative dot project.

My message for today...
Just make a mark and see where it will take you!

A NEW AND CREATIVE YEAR!

Welcome to my daily art blog for Ranney Lower School! Be sure to follow my blog, see highlights of student artwork and videos featuring our young artists, and be updated with news from the art room all year long! (You can join this site with a link to the right.) As we take our creative journey through this school year, you may notice that many of our projects are based on the work of a famous artist or illustrator, and that we often look beyond our classroom walls to other cultures for inspiration. Together, we will see how the style of an artist can influence our own creative efforts as well as help us realize and represent our place in the rich world of art history.

All of my students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.


Getting Ready for Art

All students, grades Kindergarten through 5th grade should bring in an artist portfolio. If you have one from last year, you are welcome to use it again. Place a new label on the front with the student name and new homeroom teacher. I prefer to have these thin cardboard portfolios for storage in my room, frequently found as a red cardboard portfolio with plastic or woven handles. 17" x 22" or a little larger is perfect. Please do not bring in a very large or a thick leather case. It is only for storage in my room and I will not have the space to hold extra large cases. I look forward to filling these portfolios with wonderful artwork all year long!

5th grade art students should also bring in a sketchpad each week on art days. We will talk about sketchpads in class. Otherwise, all materials you need for art, including artist's smocks, are already in my room. Come ready to have fun!

FEATURED ARTISTS!

Congratulations to all of my Lower School artists for another successful year in art! I hope that everyone has a fun and relaxing time with their friends and families. Be sure to save some time to draw during your time in the sun and bring in your creative sketches to share with us in September. We would all love to see how you enjoyed your vacation away from school!

Here is my latest Featured Artist video for this year. Make sure the sound is turned on to hear the voices and artist statements of all of our artists. Well done everyone!

FIFTH GRADE . . . Crossing the Lawn!

Congratulations to all of my fifth grade artists! To celebrate the class of 2021 "Crossing the Lawn," we have an art exhibit in Panther Hall gallery that shows their favorite sketch pad drawings and their final painting project.

For their final paintings, students selected a piece of work by a famous artist that interested them, based on style and subject matter. Using their knowledge of drawing and color theory they learned in Lower School art, students created their own painting inspired by the work of their chosen artist.

Here are a few examples of our paintings. All of our work is on display in the gallery and can also be viewed in artsonia.com. Here is the link for the Ranney home page at artsonia.
http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Olivia B.

Artwork by Fatima

Artwork by Ava

Artwork by Ryan K.

Artwork by Tatiana L.

Artwork by Claire P.

Artwork by Jillian

Artwork by John K.

Artwork by Trent

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

FIFTH GRADE . . . What Creativity Means to Me

To be creative is a goal we all have and fifth graders showed off their creative styles not only with their choice of painting but through their quotes. Here is what creativity means to us...

“Creativity comes from imagining something amazing.” – Julian B.

“Creativity is like an empty world with nothing in it and you use your brain full of ideas to fill it.” - Gordon R.

“Creativity means that you will take risks and be brave. I always feel creative when I sing because I feel like I can do anything and anything is possible.”  – Olivia B.

“Creativity means thinking of something from your mind and using it in drawing, music or life.” – Ethan T.

“Creativity is an instinct. Everyone has it. Creative people are just people who dare to use their instinct of creativity. The people that say they are not creative are just people who don’t let their creativity thrive.”-James G.

“Creativity is when you get lost in your work and have fun.” - Ben S.

“Creativity is knowledge doing its own thing.” – John L.

“Without creativity life would be dull. I like to make things up and draw what I like and feel. I like to sketch characters and animals. Creativity isn’t art; it’s a way of life.” – Peter W.

“When I think of creativity, I think of beautiful paintings and works of art. Creativity helps people express themselves. It means tons of bright colors and beautiful designs. When someone is creative they spend time on their work so that it can be perfected in different ways. Everyone is creative in their own way.” - Emerson G.

“Creativity means being able to express yourself freely.” - Anna C.

“Creativity means a spark, an idea, and having your own style. I love to dance, sing and act. In dance, creativity is moving to your own beat or when you do improv which is making a dance up on your own as you go. You have to put emotion into it. In acting, you have to put creativity into being the character and be the character, not the actor. In singing you don’t always have to belt it out. You should put your own voice into it. Overall, creativity means be yourself.” – Sarah P.

“Creativity lets you express yourself in any way you want. I feel creative when I play the violin. Even though I didn’t write the songs I play, I love the feeling of knowing that I can play the song. I feel accomplished when I play a piece well.”  – Samantha J.

What does creativity mean to you?

FIFTH GRADE . . . Leaving our hand prints in Lower School

A Zentangle is a doodle made up of lines and shapes that repeat to create an overall filled pattern. It is a very relaxing way to sketch and some of the designs can be very creative.

Fifth graders drew their hands on paper to create a basic outline shape. Using black marker,they filled the spaces of their hands with intricate lines and patterns. Some of the designs extended beyond the shape of the fingers and others followed neatly within the outlines. All are wonderful interpretations of this very popular technique of drawing.

As the class of 2021 crosses the lawn next week into Middle School, I am hoping that all of my students will continue to draw, whether they draw from observation as we did in our sketchpads all year, or just for fun as we did with these hand prints. The important thing is to feel creative and keep drawing!

Here are a few of our Zentangle hand prints. Some of these designs are so intricate. To see them in more detail, click on each picture. For all of our prints, follow this link to the Ranney home page on artsonia.com.   http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwor by Abbi

Artwork by Chloe

Artwork by Ava

Artwork by Siobhan

Artwork by Saxon

Artwork by Morgan

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

THIRD GRADE . . . Sculpting with Clay

Artwork by Colette

To learn how to see our animals in a 3-dimensional way, we first drew each side of the stuffed animal we brought into school on six sides of a cube. This way we could learn just how the animal forms look from the front, the side, the back, the top and the bottom. Scroll down to see my earlier 3rd grade post for pictures of our finished animal cubes.

Finally, we were ready to work with clay. With our stuffed animals as models we had a pretty good idea of what shapes we should mold. We used an air-dry clay in class, but it works the same way as firing clay. We learned how to knead the clay to make it softer, how to add water to moisten it as it dries and begins to crack, and how to score and add slip as glue to attach the parts of the animal to the body.

Once the clay set, we painted them with bright colors of paint and then a glossy spray was added to seal everything. Here are some of our wonderful sculptures! To see all of our work, check out this link to the Ranney home page at artsonia.com.   http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Ashley 

Artwork by Ava

Artwork by Maria

Artwork by Tomas

Artwork by Pierce

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

FOURTH GRADE . . . Architecture

Fourth graders just completed a unit on architecture. Last year, we created animal cubes out of cardboard and learned how each side of the 3D cube gave us a very different view of our animals. This year we took that lesson a step further and made architectural designs that went beyond just a simple cube. Since our designs are 3D, we learned just how important each side of the building is to the whole design.

We began with a presentation of buildings from all over the world, looking at both traditional and very modern looking designs. Inspired by the unique shapes of some of these architectural photographs, we used graph paper to lay out a design for a building we might find in any neighborhood. For example, some of us chose to make a house, others created a museum, a theater, a store, or a church.

Once every side of the building was designed as a shape and details were considered, such as windows, doors and signs, the designs were transferred to a large sheet of card stock. Students colored in the details of their buildings before they were cut out, folded and glued to a base.

Here are some examples of our architectural designs!

Artwork by Emma S.

Artwork by Matthew

Artwork by Maya

Artwork by Morgan

Artwork by Taylor

Artwork by Tucker

SECOND GRADE . . . Flowers are blooming at Ranney School!

Inspired by the artwork of Vincent van Gogh, second graders painted a still life in art class with a vase and a bouquet of flowers. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), a Dutch post-impressionist artist, is well known for this painting of "Sunflowers." All of his work including hundreds of self portraits and his famous, "Starry Night" scenes were painted with short directional brush strokes that helped to define the shape and movement of the scene.

To explore this style of artwork, we painted our vase, table and back wall with bright colors and added patterns with our brushes all over the page. Then we learned a technique for painting flowers using the thickness of the brush to create the petals. We did not draw our flowers first, but used our brushes to do all the work. They all look like realistic bouquets of wildflowers, and just like Vincent did with his sunflower still life, we signed our names right on the vase!

Here are some examples of our work. To see all the 2nd grade flower paintings, click on this link for artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Jason

Artwork by Shaya

Artwork by Crosby

Note to families...
This art blog will be updated regularly with new posts sharing our daily activities in the art room and news about upcoming art exhibits. To respect the privacy of our students, names will always be limited to first name only and identifiable photos will never be accompanied with a name. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write in the comment box below or send me an email at blevine@ranneyschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
    In my class, students are given the chance to explore different materials and fun new techniques as they develop their signature style. Some young artists love to draw with a pencil, some like to paint on canvas or create images in a digital format, while others prefer working with clay and molding three-dimensional forms. In my classroom, we use a variety of materials allowing all artists to experiment and figure out which type of art they like the best. At Ranney School, we place a strong emphasis on originality and celebrate artistic differences, always nurturing and encouraging the imagination of every student.
     Remember to check out our display of finished artwork and student portfolios in the Ranney home page of Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839