This Week in Art! January 27-31

It's kind of misleading to call this a "week." We were off of school on Monday and Tuesday due to dangerous cold temperatures... and then Friday was a teacher institute day!  So we've had a whopping two days of school this week!  Here's what we accomplished in two day's time:

6th Grade Art:


This week, we started our second sketchbook assignment, which is a drawing of a room that students get to design themselves.  This drawing will be due next Friday, February 7th.

More excitingly, we started applying paper mache to our cardboard letter sculptures!  Check out the photos above of our messy experience!  We'll finish our layers of paper mache next week, and begin the painting process right after that.

7th Grade Art:


This week, we continued our painting unit by finishing our value scale worksheets for practice mixing paint colors in tints and shades.  Then, we began painting our final self-portraits.  We will continue these paintings into next week.

8th Grade Art:


This week was all about clay!  We began practice for our mug project by making miniature mugs, which will be glazed and added to our year-long mini mug sale/project to benefit UCCA food pantry.

Once students finished their mini mugs, they began basic construction on their large final mugs.  We will continue building with clay into next week!

In other art news...
I was asked to be a part of an interview series by Tim Bogatz, an art teacher from Bellevue East High School in Nebraska, called "14 for 2014." I was really honored to be asked to be a part of this! You can read my interview in the series here.

At today's teacher institute day, I got to lead two different sessions for teachers!  In the morning, I taught art teachers all about Artsonia and helped them to start their own school accounts.  Hopefully we'll have more Elmhurst schools participating real soon!  In the afternoon, I worked with Mr. Philipp to teach other Sandburg teachers about using Google Apps in the classroom.  It was really fun to get to help other teachers (who are also my friends!) to use computer tools, which is something that I enjoy doing anyways!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: January 20-24

6th Grade Art:


This week, 6th grade art students turned in their first sketchbook drawing!  Grades have already been posted in PowerSchool, so be sure to go and view your grade online!  Drawings will be handed back after they have been photographed and uploaded to Artsonia, which will hopefully be by the end of next week.

Also this week, we began our first major project: a block letter sculpture!  We are using cereal box cardboard to construct big letter shapes, which will be covered in paper mache and then painted.  This week we focused on the cardboard construction stage.  Students could choose to make any letter of the alphabet!

7th Grade Art:


On Tuesday, seventh graders also turned in their first sketchbook project - their surreal landscapes - which have been graded and entered into PowerSchool.  Images will be uploaded to Artsonia soon.

On Wednesday, we began painting practice for our first major project, which is a self-portrait painting in a monochromatic color scheme.  We practiced mixing paint and creating value scales.  On Thursday and Friday, we took digital portraits and altered them using Adobe Photoshop.  These photos were printed out and transferred onto paper for painting, which will be started next week.

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade students have begun planning their first major project, a glazed clay mug.  This project is really awesome, because not only is it beautiful - it is functional!  On the last day of art, we will get to drink hot chocolate from our mugs.  What a fun way to celebrate the end of a successful art project!

We also turned in our first sketchbook assignment on Tuesday - our zentangle drawings with a tracing of our profile - you know, the "what's in my head?" assignment.  Drawings have been graded already and are posted on PowerSchool, so be sure to check your grade.  Artwork will be photographed and uploaded to Artsonia soon - hopefully by the end of next week.

In other art news...
I'm roller skating with the PE classes today!  I used one of my personal days to have a sub (Mrs. Miller, a former elementary art teacher from right here in Elmhurst, now retired) come in and cover art classes today while I roller skated in the gym with students as part of their PE unit on rollerskating.  It was so much fun!  And boy I am tired!



...also, here's a photo of Mrs. Sands (of the Elmhurst UCCA) and I from last week when I gave her the money that we raised from the sale of our mini mugs!  Hooray!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art: January 13-17

I have to be honest.  This was not my favorite week of art, because we lost half of our week due to MAP computerized standardized testing for reading and math.  Taking students out of art and PE (and other "specials"/UA classes) is, as an art teacher, a decision that I wholeheartedly disagree with.  But you could've guessed that.  I've posted the actual schedule above so that you can see how often we did (or did not) meet this week - if you can decipher the schedule, that is! Ha!

6th Grade Art:


This week, we began our first sketchbook assignment.  We are drawing our names in block letters, and then using one-point perspective lines (diagonal lines that converge at one vanishing point) to make our names look three-dimensional.  Students are encouraged to add lots of pictures, symbols, and patterns to make the designs super creative, colorful, and expressive.

On Thursday or Friday, students had a double period of art class.  We worked on our name designs for both class periods!  Any work not finished by the end of class should have been taken home for homework, as this drawing is due when we return from our three-day weekend on Tuesday, January 21st!

7th Grade Art:

These are sample surreal landscape drawings from last term.  Ours will go up on Artsonia, too!

This week, students worked on their first sketchbook assignment, which is a surreal landscape that incorporates boxes drawn using two-point perspective technique.  It's a natural extension from the one-point perspective lesson we drew in sixth grade.  We spent time in class looking at some really crazy weird surreal artworks, and dreaming up some strange scenes for our drawings!

On Thursday or Friday, students had a double period of art class.  We spent the whole time working our our drawings!  If students did not finish this drawing in class, it should have been taken home for homework.  This drawing is due when we return from our three-day weekend, on Tuesday, January 21st.

8th Grade Art:


On Monday, eighth grade students met in the auditorium to hear presentations from the elective teachers at York high school.  These departments included art, music, family & consumer sciences, industrial technology, and business.  Counselors from York will be coming to Sandburg in early February to help eighth grade students choose classes for next year, so it's really great for students to know about what is available to them at the high school level.  I wish I could take art classes at the high school!

On Thursday or Friday, students had a double period of art class.  We spent the entire chunk of time working on our sketchbook #1 assignment, which will be due on Tuesday when we return from our 3-day break!  This drawing is the profile tracing "zentangle" that we started last week.  This drawing will be our first work of art as eighth graders to go up on our Artsonia gallery!

In other art news...
I have THREE awesome things to share:

1. We raised $205 for UCCA through our mini-mugs sale this holiday season!  I'm in the process of getting the money to them right now.  Way to go, 8th grade!  And an extra-special thank you to Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst for hosting our mini mug sale during the holiday season!  Today I met with Mrs. Sands to give her the money that we raised!

2. According to this article from io9, people who doodle learn faster! Yayy art!




3. Have you heard of Art Snacks?  It's a subscription box ($20/month) where you receive 4-5 full sized art supplies.  Basically, in their words, "We send you cool stuff to draw with."  It's so popular right now that there's a waiting list!  I just got my invite on Wednesday night, and I signed up right away.  I'm so excited for my first box of art supplies!  What a great idea!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! January 8-10

Oh man, what a week!  School was cancelled due to record cold/freezing temperatures for both Monday AND Tuesday, so we've only been back to school for three days!

This was the first week of art for all grades, and the beginning of "Term D" for 6th and 7th grades, and quarter 3 for 8th grade.

6th Grade Art:
This term's classes are part of a chromebook pilot within the district - we are sharing a classroom set of chromebooks (approximately 28) with Sra. Nall's Spanish classes.  Our class had access for the entire first week, so on first day of art, each student was able to log in and view the introduction to art prezi via their own individual chromebook (as opposed to the whole-class presentation that I usually give).  This is helpful because each student was able to move at their own pace to read and learn all about art.  Want to view the prezi? Check it out here.



Thursday was spent doing some practice block letter drawings, which we'll being going into more detail with next week.

On Friday, we went back to the chromebooks and practiced using a fun photo app, called Pixlr-O-Matic.  We took self-portraits and posted them to a shared Google Doc where we could see everyone's results!

7th Grade Art:
Seventh grade students also had access to the chromebooks, and utilized them all three days.  Wednesday was prezi viewing, and taking a "Welcome to Art" survey using Google forms.



Thursday was an activity where we researched Surrealism in preparation for our first sketchbook drawing assignment, which we'll begin next week.

Friday was fun with the Pixlr-O-Matic app, just like 6th grade!  Students who finished early were encouraged to try creating an artwork using Google Drawing.  It's amazing how much art you can make using the computer!

8th Grade Art:
Eighth grade, like the other grades, used the first day of art to view the introduction to art prezi, and also took the art survey.

On Thursday, students used Pixlr-O-Matic to create and also write about their self-portrait ("selfies") and talk about how filters and effects can change the feelings or mood of a photo.



Friday, we began our first sketchbook drawing, which is a tracing of each student's profile, and filled with a zentangle-like image in the theme of "what's in my head?" - we'll continue these drawings next week when we have a double-class.  There will be very little art class going on next week due to MAP testing. :(



In other art news...
I picked up our leftover mini mugs at Elijah's coffee in downtown Elmhurst on Wednesday.  I also dropped off 6th grade comic books from Terms A-C for customers to read while visiting an enjoying a cup of coffee!  If you get a chance, stop by and check it out!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.