Dot Day

Celebrate Creativity,
Courage & Collaboration!

Dot Day September 15

Raymond Elementary Celebrates Dot Day

So it's with great excitement that Raymond Elementary will be celebrating International Dot Day for the first time ever!! Seems like a perfect fit for our school as we're always trying to find ways to celebrate creativity and collaboration. In the art room we read Peter Reynolds' book The Dot. RES artists kicked off the year making lots of different kinds of dots, to decorate our school for Dot Day. We are using so many different materials to create so many colorful dots. Be sure to ask your kids what they are creating in art, they are very proud of their dots. Also, make sure to help your kids dress up for dot day. We are encouraging everyone to wear clothing with dots on it. If you don't have anything at home maybe you could help your child color dots on an old shirt. It should be a lot of fun! We can hardly wait. Below is a link to more information on Dot Day and an idea for creating a dot shirt. 

Dot Day Link: 

http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday

T-Shirt Idea:

http://www.marthastewart.com/892787/sharpie-tie-dye-t-shirt

Kindergarten Crowns

 RES kindergarten artist have been preparing for their castle celebration in the art room. Kindergarteners at RES study medieval times and castles in the spring. In the art room we create special crowns to wear to the castle feast. We talked about royalty in medieval times and then discuss if we'd like to be a king, queen, prince, or princess. First we cut out, and painted our crowns with our magical, glimmering metallic paint. You can only imagine the ewws and awws from our kindergarten artists when they got to use the special sparkly paint. Later, we connected to the learning of shapes that  we've been building upon all year when as we drew our gemstones. Each artist tried to draw at least five different types of shapes. We looked at pictures of real gemstones for inspiration. The details they added were incredible. Later they got to wear their spectacular crowns to their castle feast. You can see it was a BIG success!

Japanesse Bamboo Emakis

Japanese Emakis

Ms. Cummings class created Japanese emakis, which are hand scrolls with illustrations. We looked at traditional Japanese art and noticed that much of it was inspired by nature. We created ink paintings of bamboo, which is symbolic for prosperity in the Japanese culture. Much of Japanese traditional art is simple, so we tried to focus on the basic lines of the Bamboo. We used rice paper and Japanese calligraphy brushes to create a variety of lines and leaf shapes. We learned how to control the flow of ink by the amount of pressure we put on the calligraphy brushes. The results are magnificent!

 We completed our figure sculptures and they are gorgeous! After we finished with the plaster, artists layered black and metallic paint to create the look of bronze. JSMS fifth graders are so proud of the sculptures they've created.

 

Giacometti  Inspired Sculptures

Fifth grade artist began this project by looking at the artwork of artist Alberto Giacometti, who created large figurative sculptures. We began by learning how to create a gesture drawing, which expresses movement. We created many drawings and each student chose the pose that expressed the most dynamic movement. Once we learned how to express movement in two-dimensional form, we moved onto creating figurative sculptures that express motion in three-dimensional space. We began building the base of the sculpture with wire and added tinfoil to create mass on the figures. Artist are in the final phases of building a layer of plaster to create a strong finished sculpture. Photos of the final pieces of art will be posted soon!

 

Vincent Van Gogh Inspired Sunflowers

                                                                                      

Second Grade artists studied the masterpieces of Vincent Van Gogh. We noticed the vibrant colors he chose and his expressive brush strokes. Artists practiced observational drawing with our own bouquets of sunflowers. We looked closely and drew what we saw. Artists used oil pastels to make their own expressive marks, experimenting with color blending to create brilliant works of art!

Art is...

To kick off the year with 5^th and 6^th grade artists at Jordan Small Middle School we brainstormed the idea of what art is. Leaving the window of possibilities open students had a chance to brainstorm, discuss, and have fun with their answers. Each student started with the prompt Art is… and the rest was up to them. After artists decided on their concept, they set to work illustrating their words. Using drawings, colors, and designs to convey the meaning in their sentence choice. It was really interesting to see the variety of ideas  and even hear a few healthy debates about what students thought is and isn’t art. 

 Sketchbooks

JSMS 5th and 6th graders have also spent some time creating a sketchbook they'll use throughout the year to draw, brainstorm, and reflect on their art. Artists had an opportunity to make the sketchbook their own by designing the cover. Fifth and sixth grade students will learn to use their sketchbook to record ideas (when inspiration strikes) and to develop their concepts before they begin a final art piece. 

Make Your Mark

All Raymond Elementary artists have begun the year making their mark. We read the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and learned that all Art begins with just one mark. We discussed different kinds of mark making in Art, and how we each have our own unique way of expressing ourself. RES artists each created their own mark using tape to make a watercolor resist. We learned how watercolors flow and blend by experimenting with the amount of water we added to our paints. We will revisit the idea of “Making Our Mark” through other creations this year.