I've Got Rhythm!!

Today, 2nd grade had a wonderful time playing rhythm sticks to the African American spiritual "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore."  Look at what fun they had!!

First week back from break!

Well.....are the rest of you kind of like me, and didn't know if we'd ever be back in school with all the snow days we've missed???  This week has been a "catch-up" week for the students in fine arts.  We have finished our Native American projects (FINALLY!), and completed peer reviews today.  Below are pictures of some of the students critiquing their peers.  Students (working as groups) created the rubrics, switched table groups, and judged their fellow classmate's artwork based on the scoring rubric.

Masterpiece of the Month for December

This month our Masterpiece of the Month winners are Jacob Mills and Hannah Looper.  Artworks are chosen based upon originality / creativity, neatness, and adherence to the topic requirements.  Jacob did a self-portrait using only his own fingerprints. Hannah designed a watercolor Impressionistic painting based on Claude Monet's Water Lillies landscape painting.

Native American Art

The last couple of weeks we have been creating Native American-style artworks.This is all part of our culturally diverse curriculum.
Some of us created Native American-style bowls with patterns, as you can see below.

Others of us created a beaded pattern on Native American-style bracelets, with each color representing a characteristic about our own personalities.

As you can see, we are having a blast learning about the Native American culture! 

Colors, Colors Everywhere

This week students are studying all about colors and color schemes.  In kindergarten, students studied the book "Why is Blue Dog Blue?" by George Rodriguez (the artist who created Blue Dog).  The students then drew their own "blue" dog and evaluated their own artwork using a smiley, normal, or frowny face card. 

Colonial Period Art

This week, students in 2nd grade enjoyed making Colonial-era Hex Signs. These signs were originally brought to our country from the German and Dutch immigrants in Pennsylvania.  They were decorative additions to barns and other buildings. They were supposed to bring good luck.

Fourth graders learned about Colonial portraits. They got to draw and watercolor paint portraits of their own.

Colonial Period

This week students began their unit on the Colonial / Early American Period of our country's history.  We have two students from our local university (Mid-Continent) working with students several days per week. This week they are helping 3rd graders build log cabins, design American flags, and create Yankee Doodle "caps" (as shown in the photos below).

Students are responding to Colonial Period drama by performing Readers' Theater plays and then designing props that would go with each play.