This week my High School mentor Piper Bolduc and I were busy setting up the district K-12 art show at the Saco Museum. This year the title is "Hungry for Art", and much of the work in the show reflected upon that theme.
It was a wonderful to get to experience setting up a district art show, to meet many other art educators, and to see countless examples of amazing lessons I could potentially teach in the future.
"The Big Chill" was the pride and joy of the advanced art students from Old Orchard Beach High School.
Inside of "The Big Chill", all of the food was made larger than life out of paper mache
Inspired by Andy Warhol's Pop Art prints, this Campbell's soup can was made entirely out of candy by Old Orchard Beach High School students.
Sections were divided by theme, this is the Mexican Cantina.
The museum is filled with SO much art! Here are some of the projects that I really enjoyed:
Paper mache letters by Loranger Middle School 7th grade students, Giacometti figures by 8th grade Saco Middle School students, and Nevelson studies by 1st grade Young Elementary School students.
"Living Letters", a digital design project by Saco Middle School 7th grade students.
Collapsable paper lanterns by Saco Middle School 8th grade students.
Baskets by 5th grade Loranger Middle School students and sandwiches by 1st grade students at Young Elementary School.
We brought some humor to the show by giving captions to the cardboard portraits by 1st grade students at Fairfield Elementary School.
The show is up until April 20th at the Saco Museum located at 371 Main St. Route 1, Saco, ME.
Hours at the museum are:
Tuesday-Thursday- 12:00-4:00PM
Friday- 12:00-8:00PM
Saturday- 10:00AM-4:00PM
The view of the art room featuring illustrated names by all students and patterned portraits by 1st and 2nd grade students.
I had a busy last week at Poland Community School! First and second grade students made large patterned shelf-portraits and contemporary paper mosaics were made by 3rd grade students. Students in grades 4 and 5 finished up their observational drawings and self-assessments, and the 6th graders finished up tessellations.
Fourth and fifth grade students practiced gesture, contour, and blind-contour drawings before beginning their final copy.
Drawings improved with each attempt!
Self-assessments gauged understanding of the vocabulary and the objective of the lesson.
I had so much fun with the patterned portraits done by the 1st and 2nd graders! Each student had to create a self portrait on three pieces of paper featuring three different patterns. Once students were finished they hung their portraits in the hallway grouped by class. The self-portraits were a colorful and welcome addition to the hallway leading to the art room.
First grade patterned self portraits
Second grade patterned self-portraits
More second grade patterned portraits
The kindergarten students needed a one class project, so I decided to have them draw simple patterned birds. First we talked about different qualities of birds: beaks, feathers, talons, and webbed feet. Then I showed students how to make a simple bird from a half circle for the body, a circle for the head, and a triangle for the beak. Students were then asked to decorate their birds with a pattern. I was so impressed with these adorable birds from such a short and simple lesson, I would love to have more time for a project like this with the younger age group. Because we had a little extra time in one of the classes I had students come up with a story to share about their bird(s). Hearing their stories was so inspirational- I would love to teach more literacy themed projects.
Some students decided to draw multiple birds.
"This bird has a garden growing out of it." -Olivia
Some students were very focused on their patterns.
Some students added other elements to their compositions.
I am going to miss everyone from Poland Community School. I have learned so much from my time here.
Next week I switch gears and start teaching at Old Orchard Beach High School!
After the students in grades 3-6 at Poland Community School finished their handmade paintbrushes, they learned about Chinese Landscape Painting. Students discussed the particular qualities of Chinese ink paintings and identified their use of value, contrast, and texture. I explained how they could achieve value, contrast, and texture in their own ink paintings, and reinforced that they did not have to paint scenes that looked exactly like Chinese Landscapes, but that they could paint any kind of landscape in any way they desired. After careful collection of materials, students set to work creating some really amazing landscape paintings using paintbrushes they had constructed themselves.
It was wonderful to see how each student discovered different ways to use their paintbrush.
Students were required to demonstrate the use of contrast, texture, and three different values in their landscape paintings.
Some landscapes looked like they were inspired by the Poland area.
Some students took a bold graphic approach.
Some landscapes had beautiful pattern and rhythm.
Some demonstrated incredible use of line.
Many paintings looked as if they were inspired by the impending blizzard that canceled school on Friday.
There were many beautiful renditions of mountains.
There were lovely studies of trees and orchards.
It was so difficult to choose paintings to photograph because every student did an amazing job. All of the students pushed themselves beyond their comfort zone in the construction and use of their handmade paintbrush, and I am so incredibly proud of the artwork the students at Poland Community School are creating.
Hopefully many of these ink paintings will make it into the district art show!
This week, Poland Community School students in grades 3-6 made amazing, handmade paintbrushes from found and recycled materials.
After an introduction to the traditional method of Pueblo yucca paintbrush construction, students were let loose to explore combining various materials in the construction of a personal paintbrush.
Materials available included chopsticks, popsicle sticks, straws, yarn, pine needles, hay, rubber bands, wire, and wool.
After students completed their paintbrush, they created observational sketches labeling the materials used in the construction of their new tool:
It is wonderful to see what materials went into each brush.
The observational drawings looked great next to the creative paintbrushes.
Some of the paintbrushes were designed and crafted very carefully.
Some of the paintbrushes had four or more sides!
The students loved making their own paintbrushes and are super excited to paint with them next week. Stay tuned!
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