SECOND GRADE . . . The making of an Egyptian mask

Second graders looked forward to this art project all year. The day we created our plaster masks, we left the art room covered in white plaster and smiling from ear to ear! This fun project took us on a journey around the world and over 3,000 years back in time to the rich art and culture of Ancient Egypt.

Here is a video of how we created our own King Tut masks... enjoy!!

FIFTH GRADE . . . Is it Math or is it Art?

Maurits Cornelis Escher, best known to us as M.C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. His woodcut, called "Sky and Water," from 1938, is typical of Escher's work. It plays around with the positive and negative spaces in the print, tricking us to focus on just the bird in the sky or the fish in the water. In mathematical terms, his artwork is often called a tessellation, a repetition of tiles that fit together like a puzzle.

Fifth graders worked on original illusions with one image that tessellates together with another image in the negative space. This project was difficult for us to do and definitely called on our creative thinking skills. It is hard enough to solve a problem, even harder to come up with our own puzzle for everyone else to solve! I think our fifth graders lived up to the challenge!

Here are a few examples of their illusions. To see all of our work, check out the 5th grade exhibit page on Artsonia.com.  http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Jillian

Artwork by Taylor

Artwork by Evan

Artwork by Annabella

Artwork by Haeun

Artwork by Noah

FIRST GRADE .... Joan Miro Project

Our First Grade Joan Miro project has covered many different activities as students learned about the whimsical work of Joan Miro. In our earlier first grade posts, you can see videos showing how we discussed Miro's artwork on our Smart Board and our fun activity of drawing objects hidden inside a brown paper bag. With this final project, first graders created a sculpture of a person using part of the drawings they made and assorted wooden and paper shapes. Their only rule was that the person should have a face and some indication of arms and legs. Miro was very abstract in his interpretation and we used that inspiration to create our three dimensional figures.

In every grade, we are learning that art should tell a story. To keep that focus in mind, our first grade figure sculpture is not only a sculpture of a person, but of an artist, a musician, or perhaps a veterinarian. The sculpture can let us know about who the person is by what it might be wearing or holding in its hand. Here are a few examples of our completed sculptures. You can see all of our work by following this link to the first grade exhibition on artsonia.   http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Drew

Artwork by Abriella 

Artwork by Anthony

Artwork by Layla

Artwork by Cole

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

KINDERGARTEN . . . Cleo the Cat

Kindergartners continued to work on their painting skills with this latest project. We read 'Cleo the Cat' in art class, one of a series of picture books by Caroline Mockford. As usual, we were most interested in the illustrations that bring the story to life. What is unique about the illustrations in 'Cleo the Cat' is that they are paintings done on a black background.

We learned how to draw a cat, either sitting or standing, with shapes to create the head and the body. Using black paper for our scenes, we added bright colors of tempera paint, to fill in the cat and the areas of our background.


Here are a few examples of our colorful cats! To see all of our work, check out our exhibition on artsonia by clicking on this link.    http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Drew

Artwork by Mara

Artwork by Vijay

Artwork by Zahra

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

Our first published eBook!

One of my favorite things to do as a teacher at Ranney School is to share what we do in my art classroom with everyone in the Ranney community. I am so proud of the creative efforts of all of my students and I want to give them every opportunity to see their artwork displayed, both in the galleries at school and digitally on the computer. With my art blog, for example, I can post videos, pictures and stories directly from our classroom, and through Artsonia, every student has their own digital portfolio of artwork from all their grades in school. (If you are still not registered as a family to Artsonia.com, please send an email to blevine@ranneyschool.org and I'll reply with your child's registration code.)

My latest list of Featured Artists for Lower School is now highlighted in an eBook you can download onto your iPad or iPhone. If you have an iPad or iPhone, or know someone who does, make sure you have the iBooks app installed. (It is a free app to download.) In this app, search the store for RANNEY SCHOOL FEATURED ARTISTS, and download the book to your app. (Again, a free download.) It will be found under the category of education.

This eBook not only sits on your virtual bookshelf in the app, it opens with animated pages that turn using the swipe of your finger and it has an audio feature as well! By pressing the interactive play button for sound on the pages of the book, you can hear the voices of our students as they offer an artist statement. I hope you all enjoy our first published eBook!

FEATURED ARTISTS!

Congratulations to all of our newest 'Featured Artists' for Lower School. Each student, as the featured artist for their grade, has their work is highlighted and displayed on the monitors in Panther Hall Gallery.

Enjoy this slide show of our talented young artists at work!

FIRST GRADE . . . Seeing with our fingers!

Last time we met, first graders were introduced to the artwork of Joan Miró, a Spanish artist best known for his whimsical paintings. We learned how he was inspired by the colors and movements of the circus and we talked about how he showed that through his artwork.

When Joan Miró was a young art student, he became frustrated when he tried to draw objects realistically. One of his art teachers saw that Miró had a good understanding of color but had a hard time copying shapes. The art teacher blindfolded him so that Miró could better understand the forms of an object by feeling it with his fingers before trying to draw it.

We tried that in our classroom today, using brown paper bags to hide our objects instead of wearing blindfolds. Putting our hands inside the bag, we felt the objects with our fingers and then drew what we felt. We let our fingers see for us! Everyone was so surprised and impressed with their "touch only" drawings and I had a hard time believing that this was the work of just first grade!

Here is a video taken today in art class... part 2 of the Ranney School Miro Project.

FOURTH GRADE . . . Keith Haring Figure Drawings

Mural designs by Keith Haring

A goal for all of my art classes this year is to experiment with figure drawing. I have noticed that my fourth grade students still revert to using stick figures in their independent doodles. I don't mind when students draw a quick stick figure as long as it shows movement and is done in proportion. Drawing arms that come out of the figure's waist is not allowed in my room! So, to begin this lesson, we took a few minutes to practice drawing stick figures. We learned how to make the arms and legs in proper proportion to the head and body and how to show movement through correct placement of elbows and knees. Even in a quick figure drawing, the joints of the arms and legs are very important focus points. As we learned back in third grade when we looked at a wooden artist model, the arms and legs are made of straight bones and can only bend at a joint. A stick figure can express movement the same way.

Keith Haring (1958-1990) was best known for his street art filled with figures in motion. He produced more than 50 public murals in dozens of cities around the world, many of which were created for charities, hospitals, children's day care centers, and orphanages. During his short career, Keith Haring became a very well known artist although that was never his goal. When he was asked to create murals for organizations and public displays, he took the money he raised and created the Keith Haring Foundation to help support the charities that meant the most to him.

We created our Keith Haring figures by drawing stick figures in fun positions, even upside down! Then we drew outlines around the stick figures to create drawings very much like Keith Haring's poses. We used bright colors of paint for the figures and background and worked hard to create a thick but evenly painted black outline. Painting the outline was probably our biggest challenge! For our display in the spring, we are going add a free standing sculpture with cardboard Keith Haring figures. Here are a few examples of our paintings. To see all of our work, check out our home page at artsonia.com. http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Artwork by Emma

Artwork by Madison

Artwork by Ashley

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

FIRST GRADE . . . How many patterns did we use?

Ranney students love their weaving project! Taking a break from drawing and painting, we used yarn to learn about what makes a pattern in art. We began by recycling cardboard that was used as a tray for water bottles and made handcrafted looms for our weaving project. Each loom has 6 strings attached to the cardboard and we used an over and under pattern to weave colorful yarn through these loom threads.

Cardboard loom

Weaving on the loom

First graders learned how to measure the correct length of yarn for their loom and cut their own pieces of yarn out of 16 different colors! We practiced the over and under pattern of weaving using our fingers first. That was a little tricky for some of us! Then we wove the colorful strands of yarn over and under the loom threads, following one basic pattern for weaving and creating yet another pattern by alternating colors of yarn.

The wonderful bark that each weaving is displayed on are twigs and sticks that the students found outside and brought in for their project. Here are a few examples of our finished weaving. Please check out our page on Artsonia.com for all of our first grade projects!   http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=114839

Weaving by Ian

Weaving by Eva

Weaving by Gavin

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

SECOND GRADE . . . Talking about Ranney School

One of our favorite projects in Second Grade has always been our landscapes of Ranney School. Each student has their own idea of how to represent the campus of our school. Some of the drawings are as realistic as the illustrations of Norman Rockwell, the artist who inspired us with this project, and others are more creative and unique in style and color. For everyone who loves Ranney School, these will all bring a smile to your face.

With this video taken today in art class, we can now also enjoy the voices of our second graders as they describe what they like about their school and their drawings. Enjoy!!! (Make sure your sound is on!)