Week in Review: May 13-17, 2013

Bad news, guys.  I fell last week on Tuesday night and broke my elbow.  Went to the emergency room and an Orthopedist only to discover that I needed emergency surgery on my elbow (they put screws in it!).  So, the rest of the year in the art room has been totally shot.  I feel awful about it.  There will be subs to get you through, but I'm out for the rest of the year, recovering from my injury/surgery.

I'm so sorry.



I can, however, do a short recap of where we were before all of this happened, and what still has to go on between now and the end of the year (just over a week or so):

6th Grade Art:


Letter sculptures = finished.  These have been photographed and posted to Artsonia, thanks to Ms. Marotta, who will be my sub for several days while I'm out.  You might recognize her, as she was my sub last year when I was out on maternity leave.  I'm pretty sure these have all been graded (I think the grades need to be entered in Powerschool), but sculptures should go home this week coming up.

During class time in art, 6th graders will be working with pen and ink to finish out the school year.

7th Grade Art:


7th grade students took home their monochromatic portraits, but not before I took some fun photos with them first!

All during last week, students worked on their aluminum soda can still life using colored pencils and an actual soda can.  I imagine those will be finished up this week.  Any students who finish early will get to experiment with oil pastels to draw one of their crushed cans.

8th Grade Art:
Last week (and any days left this upcoming week!) are all about finishing up unfinished projects.  Any students not finished glazing their ceramics will need to glaze.  Any students not finished painting with acrylic on their plaster will need to do so.

I believe last week was also pottery wheel week for 8th grade students, and I'm hoping that all went well.  You'll need to talk to your 8th grader for full details on that, I suppose.

I sincerely hope that everyone has a great summer and I hope to be back at 100% again this fall!
Thanks for a great school year!
-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! May 6-10

6th Grade Art:


6th grade artists FINALLY got the chance to finish up their letter sculptures!  We've had to deal with a lot of absences in class due to the orchestra tour and two consecutive days of MAP test make ups... so, our schedule has gotten a little behind.  But we push forward.  My plan is to have these graded, photographed, and up on Artsonia by the end of next week (we'll see how that goes!).

Also a reminder: 6th grade 1-point perspective room design drawings will be due next week Wednesday (5/15).

7th Grade Art:


Today in art was so much fun!  Mr. DeGrace came in and presented to the class about his art and design-related career.  He showed us some of his drawings, and told us stories about his experiences with creative problem-solving and the design process.  Mr. DeGrace works for a super fun carpet square company, called Flor.  He showed us how the company collects and recycles old fishing nets in the manufacturing of his company's products!



It was fun to discover that no matter what career path a student chooses, creativity and design-thinking are always an asset!

This week, we finished up our self-portrait paintings, and began our final drawing assignment: "Evolution of a Soda Can" still-life.  See previous examples of this project here.

Also, a reminder that 7th grade Op-Art-inspired sketchbook drawings are due next Wednesday, 5/15!

8th Grade Art:


8th grade is in the final push to try and complete all of our projects currently in-progress.  That means that this week was GLAZE WEEK!  We're attempting to finish up our ceramics projects (and our plaster taxidermy projects!) so we can get our final grades in - the end of the year is approaching SO very fast!

Next week is planned to be pottery wheel week.  But I'm sure we'll have to do a little bit of catch-up on some old projects as well...

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This week in art! April 29 - May 3

6th Grade Art:


Check out our progress on our paper mache letter sculptures!  Today we will be starting our acrylic paint layer, and next week we should have these beauties all finished up!

This week, we also began our second sketchbook assignment - a 1-point perspective dream room design.  This drawing will be due on Wednesday, May 15th.

7th Grade Art:


This week, 7th grade worked really hard on their monochromatic portrait paintings.  Check out our progress above!  Next week, we'll finish these up, and begin discussing our next unit: still life!

We also began working on our next sketchbook assignment: an Op-Art/Zentangle inspired design in black and white.  This drawing will be due on Wednesday, May 15th!

8th Grade Art:


We've gotten really far on our plaster sculptures this week - by next week, we should have these completed.  We're also going to begin glazing all of our clay pieces next week!

We began our third sketchbook assignment this week, too.  It's a design for the cover of the promotion ceremony program, and will be due next Friday, May 10th!  The really exciting part is that voting will begin in order to choose which design from the entire year gets used on the actual program!

In other news:


Photos from our K-8 student art show at the Elmhurst Art Museum were featured in last week's IAEA "Bits N Pieces" email newsletter!  It's awesome to be able to share our successes with others - especially other art teachers!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.