This Week in Art: December 15-19

6th Grade Art:


This was the last week of Term "C" art classes for 6th grade. We spent our last day melting our plastic abstract flower forms into 3-dimensional bowl-like shapes, which will be hung up in the cafeteria and become part of our year-long installation inspired by the artwork of Dale Chihuly. We had a short schedule today (and were a little bit busy!) so there is no student blogger this week.

7th Grade Art:


Seventh graders are on a field trip today! They went to Drury Lane to see "A Christmas Carol." Today was also the last day of Term "C" art classes for 7th grade. Here are some of our final painted portrait projects from the term. You can now view them all on our Artsonia gallery, along with some awesome reflective artist's statements to go along with the work.

During classes this week, students finished up their observational pop can drawings, which will also be posted soon on our Artsonia gallery, so be sure to keep an eye out!

8th Grade Art:


Today was the last day of art for 8th grade quarter 2 students! Many of the students were very busy finishing up their pixelated self portraits. Here is a preview of some of the awesomeness I've seen so far! Also today, students took their ceramics choice projects home to show off and/or give as holiday gifts! So act surprised! :)

In other art news...


Sandburg Middle School student artwork is on the cover of the District 205 holiday card this year! I was contacted almost a full year ago to arrange the artwork for the card, and it's finally here! This artwork was done by current 7th grade students (who were in 6th grade at the time of selection). Didn't it turn out awesome?!

On Tuesday night at the school board meeting, 8th grader Jack Rosenberg was honored for his inclusion in the IAEA Student Art Show with a special proclamation by the school board. Read more about our experience on this blog post. Congratulations Jack!



The Elmhurst Art Museum has art camps over winter break! You can still sign up here. You can also register for winter art classes that begin on January 5th! Full details and signup info here on the EAM website.

Have a great holiday/winter break and don't forget to MAKE SOME ART!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: December 8-12

6th Grade Art:


"Today we are making lego versions of our selves. This is mine I used a phone because I love my phone. I did not put in my glasses because I never wear them except for school. I do not actually do not have the shoes I put on myself because I messed up coloring the pants."

- Cate C, Period 8

7th Grade Art:


There is no 7th grade student blogger today, as we began a new project in class and I didn't want to pull anyone away from their work time (7th graders will miss next Friday's art class due to a field trip, too). We've completed (or should have completed) our monochromatic portrait paintings by now, and today we began a new drawing unit all about still life. We brought in cans of pop to drink, and now we're drawing the can!

Students are concentrating on size/proportion, value and shading, and craftsmanship when using colored pencil in order to create the most realistic drawings possible. We'll see how they turn out by next Thursday, as it'll be our last day of art for this term!

8th Grade Art:

Victoria's projects: works-in-progress

"This week in art we worked on glazing our mug with colored glaze and clear glaze. The clear glaze was a very milky substance. We also worked on our pixel projects. The theme of my mug is from the tv show supernatural."

-Victoria Z, Period 2

In other art news...

image via Artnet News

Did you hear about the guy who punched a hole in a Monet painting at the National Gallery of Ireland? He was been sentenced to five years in prison. Respect art, yo.

Speaking of the damaged Monet painting, here's how it was repaired before being put back on display. Amazing!

Here's an article from TeachingChannel.org about how arts education can help students in special education and ELL programs. Hooray for art!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: Dec 1-5

Last week was Thanksgiving and Parent-Teacher Conferences, so we did not have a blog post. But now we're back! (Well, for a few weeks until winter break at least...) Check out what happened this week:

6th Grade Art:

Here is Jack's finished sculpture!

"This week in art we focused on painting our 3D letters. We worked on blending paint and applying all over patterns to them. For my sculpture I did red and black paint for the Chicago Bulls. I kept my all over pattern basic by just doing dots but changing color depending what the background is."

-Jack R, Period 8

7th Grade Art:

Conor's black and white portrait painting is finished!

"Over the past few weeks, we made portraits of ourselves and we used Photoshop. I liked this project, but it was a lengthy one. Since we got to choose the colors we wanted, I chose white and black because they go together well."

-Conor L, Period 5

another 7th grade student works on his painting project

8th Grade Art:

Samantha's mug is looking so cute!

"This week in art class we have been working on glazing our clay projects. For my clay project I chose to do a mug. I'm still working on my mug, but I'm making good progress. My mug's theme is under the sea."

-Samantha H, Period 2

You can view the ceramics projects from Quarter 1 at our Artsonia gallery here. 

In other art news...
Our food pantry/UCCA fundraiser is now going on at Elijah's Coffee Shop in downtown Elmhurst! This year, we're selling crocheted coffee cup sleeves made by members of the Sandburg Crochet Club. For $5, you can own your own handmade sleeve (or buy them as gifts for others!) and all of the profits will go directly to the local food pantry via United Community Concerns Association. This sale will be going on from now through winter break (early January).

You can read about last year's UCCA fundraiser on their news page here.


Education Week has published a whole series of articles and commentaries on the importance of arts education - read them here.

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! Nov 17-21

6th Grade Art:

Ivan's paper mache letter "I" and his drawing plan for how to paint it!

"On Thursday we finished covering our cardboard sculptures with paper mache. Today we are going to start drawing... Woo! I waited all day for this. We are learning how to do it now. pretty interesting stuff."

- Ivan H, Period 8

7th Grade Art:

Sam's portrait outline and value scale are all ready to start painting!

"This week in art we started drawing and painting our self portraits. We first trace our faces with graphite paper. Then you label the different shades of color, and then you paint!"

- Sam R, Period 5

8th Grade Art:

Jessica's Pixel Portrait is off to a great start!

"This week in art class, we were introduced to pixel portraits. We worked with adobe photo shop to edit our picture for this project. We placed a grid over our picture and then made a bigger grid with sharpie over the top. Then we took grid paper and colored in half or full squares to make it look pixely. I mixed colors to make look more like the picture."

-Jessica D, Period 2

In other art news...


Special thanks to Mrs. Stezowski, our PTA President, for helping to hang yet another batch of 6th grade Dale Chihuly-inspired works in the cafeteria! Each installment fills the ceiling space even more - the pictures don't do it justice. So cool!





This is amazing and hilarious: Nerdy photo series turns superheroes into 16th century works of art.

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: Nov 10-14

6th Grade Art:

Sam is building his letter "S" sculpture from recycled cereal boxes!

"In art this week we did a lot of stuff. One thing we learned was how to function and how art class works. We are currently working on our 3D letter sculptures. Thanks for reading our weekly post and see ya next week."

- Sam S, Period 9

7th Grade Art:

Our giant poster prints! These will be painted soon.

"This week was our first week in art. Everyday we do the drawing challenge of the day. My favorite challenge was day five which was a superhero. We also took a selfie to start our big project that we will be doing. It is really fun!"

- Ian M, Period 4

8th Grade Art:

Kyle's awesome face mug has been fired, and is awaiting glaze soon!

"This week, in Art class, from Monday to Wednesday we worked on our ceramics projects. We had the choice of making a monster pot, a mug, a box with words on it, or a human sculpture. Once we were finished we got to make a project of our choice. On Thursday and Friday we started learning about our pixel portrait project, in which we draw our face on a piece of graph paper coloring each square one color. So far we have printed our face from Photoshop with a grid on top of it. We'll use the picture to decide which color to color each square."

- Kyle J, Period 2

In other art news...

Part of the reception is going up to receive your award and getting your picture taken with the IAEA president, and your art teacher, of course. And don't forget your awesome ribbon!

Last weekend was our annual IAEA (Illinois Art Education Association) conference, and I had a great time! Saturday morning was a reception for the Student Art Show, of which Sandburg had a representative! Congratulations Jack, on your awesome colored pencil drawing!

On Friday morning, Mr. Leban and I presented a session to art teachers all about Special Education in the art room. Are you interested in learning more? You can view our slideshow presentation here.



We are happy and smiley in this photo because we had just finished presenting and we're relieved! It was my first presentation at a conference ever!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: November 3-7

Please note: There are no student bloggers this week due to my absence on Friday for the IAEA convention.

6th Grade Art:

Andrew adds pattern to his classical posed photo.

Today was the last day of art class for sixth grade "B" term classes! We spent our last week of class studying a new artist, Kehinde Wiley. We watched a short clip from the Today show to learn about the artist, and then read some articles in Scholastic Art magazine.

We learned that Kehinde Wiley poses his models in classical poses after Baroque-style portraiture. We chose poses from classic paintings to be photographed in, and then used colored pencil to add detailed patterns to the background of the printed photos, a la Kehinde Wiley. The results were so cool!




7th Grade Art:

This is my work-in-progress... sorry, I forgot to take a pic of 7th graders in action before they left!

Seventh grade students continued to work on their pop can evolution drawings this week, and today (the last day of art for "B" term classes), they were turned in at the end of class. It was fun to get to drink soda in art class on the first day of the project, but even more exciting for me to get to see these observational drawings come to life! I think the seventh graders always surprise themselves with how good these images turn out!

8th Grade Art:

Dylan makes a clay pizza slice, and demonstrates how to securely attach pieces of clay together.

This week, 8th grade students continued to work on their ceramics choice unit. Students had the option to make:

• A monster "pot," with real grass hair planted inside
• A functional glazed mug - dishwasher safe!
• A sculptural or functional box in the style of Robert Indiana
• A figurative sculpture

We've been hard at work on these projects all week. If students finish early, they have the option of creating a second clay project of their choosing - I've been collecting clay inspiration via Pinterest and such, and put all the photos into a clay binder of ideas for students to flip through. Above, you can see Dylan's pizza slice sculpture. This will look really cool when it's fired and glazed!

Next week, we'll finish up our clay construction and get thinking about our next major project, which will involve colored pencils.

In other art news...
Did you know that the Mona Lisa has an Instagram account? It's pretty cool.

I'm out of the building today at the IAEA state conference, where I'm presenting to other art teachers with my husband. Fingers crossed that all goes well!

On Saturday morning, there will be a reception for the IAEA Student Art Show, where 8th grader Jack R. has an artwork in the exhibit! Congrats Jack!

You can follow my IAEA adventures this weekend via Twitter! #iaea14

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in ART: October 27-31, 2014

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Sixth grade students earned the right to wear Halloween costumes today, and that made me really excited since it was the first time in my 13 years of teaching that costumes were actually ENCOURAGED (even if it was only 1/3 of the student population). Hooray for fun times!

6th Grade Art:

(identities have been protected via cute photo stickers...)

"On Monday we watched videos of Dale Chihuly's artwork. On Tuesday we started our very own Chihuly flower design. On Wednesday we finished painting our flowers, and on Thursday and Friday we melted, and took pictures of our finished flowers."

-Maddie J, Period 9

6th Grade Letter Sculptures are on Artsonia for viewing, as well as our final Chihuly Flower Sculptures!

7th Grade Art:

Lorena's pop can drawing

"Hi, in this week of art we have been finishing our epic soup cans! Then on the start of Wednesday we started making soda pop can drawing. (Which I think are incredible.) Hope you enjoy the next post! Bye!!"

-Lorena, Period 5

7th Grade Monochromatic Self-Portraits are now on Artsonia for viewing, as well as our Campbell's Soup Cans in the style of Andy Warhol.

8th Grade Art:


"This week has been the second week of art. Everyday in art we have accomplished the very best we could with the resources we had. The first thing we did everyday was the drawing challenge. This is a challenge to draw a drawing everyday for 40 days. We then started to mold are clay together. This was for the ceramics project. I am making a mug."

- Tyler and Dylan, Period 1

In other art news...

You may be wondering who I am for Halloween this year.



Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

No update this week...

There won't be a blog post for this week in art, due to my flying out to New York this weekend for a friend's wedding. I'll be out of the building on Friday and unable to assemble the blog post (or bug students to write them!).

I plan on an awesome blog post next week to make up for it! See you then!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: October 13-17

6th Grade Art:

Audrey's block letter sculpture and plan for the rest of her painting design

"Our class had fun this week because on Monday we had no school and on Tuesday and Wednesday we finished up our cereal boxes painting them, and on Thursday and Friday we worked on 3-D letters and how to draw then also we made a little version of our cereal boxes on a piece of paper and drew our design on it."

-Audrey S, Period 8

7th Grade Art:


"Tuesday, we continued to paint our self portraits. Every ones project looks great! So many different colors like: blue, pink, purple, orange, and many more. It took a lot of effort from us to create these portraits. Yesterday (Thursday), I finished my portrait, it looks really cool. For my portrait I used the color magenta."

-Gabi K, Period 5

8th Grade Art:

V.J.'s drawing challenge sketch and ceramics project

"Today is the last of art for eighth grade, and for the eighth graders, our last day in art at Sandburg. This week we worked on finishing up all of our projects. My favorite project was the paper circuit project. I used construction paper and cut out yellow stars, a moon, a dark sky, and a firefly. The firefly lit up just like you would see it on a warm, summer night. Jamie's favorite project was the ceramics project where she made a monster pot. The monster pot looks like a tiki mask and then she put gravel and dirt in the pot to grow grass. It looks very cool! Overall, we had a great time in art this year and hopefully some of us can take art in high school!"

- Jamie and V.J, Period 1

Jamie's tiki ceramics project, before and after firing!

Monster pots, planted with grass seed!

In other art news...


Our Chihuly abstract flower sculptures from Term A art classes are now hanging in the cafeteria! Special thank you to Mrs. Stezowski, PTA president, for coming in and hanging these up for us. As the school year progresses, new 6th grade classes will be adding abstract flowers of their own to this art installation. How cool!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! October 6-10

6th Grade Art:

a sneak preview of Mia's projects!

"On Monday, we finished building our letters, by using some leftover cereal boxes. Tuesday, we started to paper mache on our letters with, paper towels and this cool/ weird gooey thing! It was fun! On Wednesday, we finished putting paper mache on our letters. On Thursday, we created our own LEGO mini figure! We had an empty LEGO person and personalized them ourselves. On Friday, we finished up our LEGO mini figure. Some people didn't finish paper mache, so they finished them up! This week was full of exciting, and fun projects."

-Mia G, Period 8

7th Grade Art:


"This week in art we did the daily art challenge for one whole day [Thursday]. They were fun, but not as fun as when we transferred our pictures [to get] ready to be painted. The colors are endless for our paintings!"

-Nikki S, Period 4

8th Grade Art:

Will's light up paper circuit artwork

"Hello fellow art people! This week in art was mainly spent building our collages for our light art! I'm making a cat that will have its nose lit up. Other students are making awesome ideas such as a light bulb light up, a motorcycle with its headlight light up, and a fairy with its magical wand light up. This our second to last week in art for this year, so we will be finishing up our art projects next week :( Hopefully the next art group will do as well as we did!"

-Willem C, Period 1

In other art news...

A caricature artist inserted images of Mr. Bean into historic art paintings, and the results are hilarious.

On Thursday, Sandburg art classes had a substitute art teacher when I volunteered as a chaperone at Mr. Leban's school for a field trip in Chicago. We went on an architectural walking tour, and then traveled to Millennium Park to check out the sculpture! It was the best weather ever for walking around in the city. Above are some photos I managed to take during the excursion. It was fun to meet a new group of students and to talk about art with them!

Thanks for another great week!

- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: September 29 - October 3

Welcome to art! This was the first week of art for 6th and 7th grade students in term B art classes!

6th Grade Art:

Zoe assembles her letter sculpture...

"On Monday we all went to our new UA classes. On the first day of art we went over the rules and started binder covers. On Tuesday we had an all day art challenges period. On Wednesday we started cutting out our cardboard letters. On Thursday we started putting together our cardboard sculptures. On Friday we continued putting our sculptures together. I think that art is so much fun. Bye!"

- Zoe D, period 9

7th Grade Art:


"This week was our first class week in art. We learned about about our daily challenges and started our binder cover on Monday. We also started our paintings by taking our photos, putting on all of the filters, printing it out, and started transferring it over using graphite paper."

- Emma M, period 4

8th Grade Art:


We've started a brand-new art unit in class! We're making paper circuits! The tiny LED will be placed behind a construction paper collage piece of art, to strategically illuminate a part of the art (think: a candle, a laser pointer, a light bulb, a reflection... anything that could glow or light up!).

Zaara's drawings and paper circuit.

This week, I talked with Zaara, an 8th grade student in 2nd period art, to find out what she thought of class.

Zaara: "We made drawings. I made a light. I want to make hearts and flowers light up."

In other art news...
I love how social media has made talking to successful working artists today so much more accessible! Check out this interview by Ms. Beckett with artist William Wegman!

Want more? Here's Mr. E. Talks to Dale Chihuly, and Wayne Thiebaud!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! Sept 22 - 26

6th Grade Art:

Some of our Chihuly-inspired flowers, waiting to go up in the cafeteria!

Eek! We were so busy in art class today that we didn't get a student blogger in 6th grade! Today was our last day of art for 6th grade students in Term A. Monday through Wednesday was spent finishing up our Chihuly-inspired abstract flower sculptures, which will be strung up and hung in the cafeteria at school! You can view our Chihuly flowers on Artsonia here.

We spent Thursday and Friday uploading our final letter sculptures up to Artsonia here, and having one-on-one conferences with Mrs. Leban about our drawing challenge assignment. Students chose their favorite drawing challenge drawing to upload to our highlights gallery here on Artsonia.

7th Grade Art:
Today was the last day of art for 7th grade students in Term A. Students that completed their work early had the chance to make their artwork TALK using the Chatterpix Kids app on the art room iPads! Here's a little preview below:



"[This week,] We worked on our painting. Towards the end of the week, we did our drawing challenge conferences. Also, anyone that didn't finish their portrait had to turn it in the no matter how far they were on it."

-Kyle S, Period 5

8th Grade Art:

Max is making a minion-inspired glazed ceramic mug.

"In art class this week we began doing our pixel portraits. We then moved onto glazing our mugs/monster pots. Lots of kids thought that the glaze went on after you painted but then learned that the glaze is the paint! LOL"

-Max B, period 2

In other art news...
After-school crochet club started this week! If you haven't heard of crochet club here at Sandburg, now's the time to check it out! Mrs. Bensfield is the club sponsor, and they have all kinds of really awesome plans for this year!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.