Marble Coasters
in connection with the students' work on force and motion in science, we created fully operating marble coasters from card stock. They each have a theme, at least one run, a 180 degree turn, and a jump or loop. So fun!
Graphic Design and Composition
The Trees have been spending some time in the area of drawing and design. The assignment was to simply take 5 color or black and white images that related to one another in a theme, and arrange them in a pleasing composition. Although not everyone in class has brought this project to completion, here are the results so far!
Completed Science Fiction Characters
We have finally brought our 3-D figures to completion! They represent the main character in their Science Fiction story for ELA.
Science Fiction Characters in 3-D
The Trees started this unit with a review of portraiture and figure drawing, then jumped in by building wire figure armatures, wrapping them in tin foil, and covering them with plaster gauze. They will continue to work on these characters which also come to life in their science fiction stories from Language Arts.
Maps of our city
To further extend out Landmark projects, we assembled the buildings into a city and took photos. The students then created maps of the city focusing on visual interest and 2-D accuracy. The results are below!!
The Trees' finished Landmark structures
Trees hard at work in Construction!
The Trees are currently working on an integrated assignment that has them designing and building landmarks. These landmarks will then be arranged as a city and the students will create a 2-D map of their city to go with their mapping skills study in social studies.
Trees studying Trees!
The Trees have been studying trees and the change of seasons in science. Ms. Morris and I worked together to bring some integration into this unit by working on observational drawings of leaves from the tree they are studying. Check out these beautiful sketches!
Sketchbooks and Studio Exploration with the Trees
The Trees have started this year with brand new sketchbooks! We will be trying to draw for the first 5-10 minutes of each class to move our brain from left to right and to establish our environment for thinking and creating. Check out their sketchbook covers and a few of them exploring the Drawing, Painting, and Collage studios below!
2012-2013 End of year work
Bones
The trees have started their construction unit with bone-making for the One Million Bones project out of paper mache. This is their collection below - a few are still in the finishing stages!
Drawing With Wire
The Trees spent a few weeks studying the human figure through gesture drawings. We closed the gesture portion of our drawing unit by creating these wonderful wire gestures.
Drawing Unit
We are nearly at the completion of our first drawing project. Here are a few of those finished!
Drawing Unit
The Trees have begun their drawing unit with observational drawing. A few pics of the students at work!
Clay unit - wrap up!
Our clay unit ended with a quick pendant project that allowed us to use a firing kiln. Below are the results!
Clay Unit
Our Clay unit with the Trees is coming to a close. We just finished some masks in which we created cardboard, paper, and tape armatures to give a realistic third dimension to their work. The results are below! We will finish the year with a clay pendant design.
Clay Unit
Our coil pots are complete!
Clay Unit
Our next project is the coil pot following the Jomon culture's way of vessel building. The pictures below document our progress.
Clay Unit
Our first finished project - a clay medallion piece that reflects three embellishment techniques: incising, adding clay, and pressing.
Clay Unit
Our clay unit has begun! We are integrating with the Trees' classroom curriculum by studying the early ceramic pottery of the Jomon period in Japan. The students are learning about the ages of the earth, archeology, as well as the perspectives of early people groups. In the art room, we have taken some time to learn about the Neolithic Jomon culture which holds the earliest ceramic use and pottery collection known in human history. We have discussed their manipulation of the clay and what their purpose for it may have been. We then took some time to experiment with the clay using some of the same methods that the Jomon people used, and that many ceramic artists still use today. Some photos below will give you a window into our current work.
The Cardboard Project
Every student at the Birches began their year with a mixed media project that reflected something personal about them. We felt it important for the students to make their mark on the school early. To do this, we used the material that most of our school arrived in...cardboard! We began with a cardboard base and added construction pieces to represent the interests of each student. They then added paint, collage and drawing to finish off their personal project. It was an excellent introduction to the making of art and allowed the students to begin taking ownership of their school!