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: 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! December 16-20

6th Grade Art:


This was our last week of art class!  We spent the week working on our comic book project, where each student designed a 1-page story in the theme of "When I Grow Up..."

On our last day, each student stapled together their very own copy of the final comic book!  We read our books in class and had our classmates autograph the back pages!

After break, a digital version of our comic will be available on the 6th grade webpage.  If you open it using iBooks on your iPad/iPod/iPhone, you can flip through the pages just like a real comic book!  View our past comic books here.

Also after break, copies of our comic books from terms A-C will be made available at Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst for you to read as you relax and sip your coffee!  How cool!

7th Grade Art:


For our final week of art in 7th grade, students worked on creating oil pastel drawings of pop cans from observation.  We really tried to concentrate on adding shading, shadows, and highlights/reflected light to our final drawings.

Oil pastels make it really easy to blend colors because they are so soft - you can draw right on top of other colors, and use your hands to blend the colors together!  So messy, but so fun!  The final drawings will be made available for viewing on Artsonia after break.

P.S. Have you checked out our monochromatic portraits and op-art drawings on Artsonia yet?  They're up now, and they're awesome!  Via Artsonia, you can have your artwork printed onto all kinds of fun things - even a phone case!

8th Grade Art:


This was the last week of art for 8th grade students, too!  Time has flown by so fast, I can't even believe we are half-way through the school year!  Whoa!

To celebrate our last day of class, we enjoyed some hot chocolate in our ceramic mugs, and watched my favorite episode of the Simpsons, where Homer becomes an artist!



Students who completed all of their artwork before the end of the quarter spent some fun time creating art using perler beads.  It was a natural extension of our pixel portraits unit, since it involves designing an image using a grid!  By the way, have you checked out our pixel portraits on Artsonia?  They turned out really great, and I've already had a bunch put up onto a bulletin board outside the main office!

In other art news...

There are a few weeks left to buy a mini mug at Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst to support the UCCA food pantry, so be sure to stop by!  I just dropped off a new batch from Quarter 2 students earlier this week!

...and, of course...


...because it's the last day of art!  Grades will be finalized during winter break.  When we return, all students will report to their new UA class for Quarter 3/Term D!

Thanks for another great week, and have a great winter break!  See you next year!
- Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! December 2-6

6th Grade Art:


This was a big exciting week for us!  We began covering our letter sculptures with paper mache.  It was messy and fun!  Students who finished early had time to work on the sketchbook assignment, which is due next Friday (December 13th) - it's a drawing of a room, using 1-point perspective.

Today, we applied puffy paint to create texture on the front of our letter sculptures.  Next week, we'll finish up our sculptures by painting them!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students began painting this week!  On Monday, we completed a practice worksheet where students painted value scales in four different color choices.  We then chose one of the monochromatic value scales to use for our final monochromatic portrait paintings.  Tuesday through Thursday were spent painting out final portraits, and Friday we worked on our sketchbook assignment, which is due next week on Wednesday.  (It's the Op-Art inspired black and white drawing!)

8th Grade Art:


Eighth grade students had a pretty fun week because it was glaze week in the art room!  We are applying the colored glazes to our bisque-fired clay mugs.  Hopefully we'll even have them all fired by the end of next week!

I'm going to give eighth grade students the opportunity to purchase their mini mug before I make them available to the public when they're sent off to Elijah's to join the rest of the artwork for sale.  More details next week.

On Friday, we continued work on our sketchbook assignment: a master copy.  This drawing will be due next week, December 11th.

In other art news...


Don't forget to stop by Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst to buy your mini mugs to help support the UCCA Food Pantry - now and all through the holiday season - only $5 per mini mug!

ART CONTEST! - Want to win an iPad?  Then enter the 8th Annual Metra Safety Poster and Essay Contest.  One poster winner will be chosen from each grade!  Full details and contest entry information is available at www.metracontest.com

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.

This Week In Art! Oct. 28th - Nov. 1st

6th Grade Art:


We started off this week by turning in our second sketchbook drawing assignment: a 1-point perspective room design. We then finished up our paper mache letter sculptures, and then photographed them for Artsonia! Thanks to the new classroom mode on Artsonia, students were able to use the iPads to take their photos and upload/title their work, all from one device! Be sure to check out our Artsonia exhibits for both assignments to see how the final products turned out!

Tuesday through Friday was spent learning and practicing drawing techniques, such as hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, and doodle to show value on a form. Next week, we’ll be utilizing these new skills to create our own class comic book!

Today, paper mache letter sculptures were sent home with students – so be on the lookout for the real deal to arrive!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade art classes also started out their week by turning in a sketchbook assignment: an Op-Art-inspired black and white drawing. The rest of the week was used to work on two additional projects: our monochromatic painting, and our third sketchbook assignment. The third sketchbook assignment is a comic panel enlargement using the “grid method” to reproduce an image. This drawing will be due next Thursday, November 7th.

Next week, we will finish up our paintings, and make one more drawing before the last day of art class (next Friday! Eek!).

8th Grade Art:


This week was clay-crazy! On Monday and Tuesday, we made mini mugs as a practice for our larger mug project. Wednesday was spent perfecting our sketchbook drawings (a black and white profile zentangle), which was due in class today. The remaining two days was spent on starting our final large-sized mugs, which will be decorated, fired, glazed, and fired again to make them functional! So cool!

Next week, we’ll be starting our next sketchbook assignment: a drawing of a favorite book scene. Can you tell we’ve got a whole literature-theme going?

In Other Art-Related News…

Tonight is the big “Arte at Nite” event in downtown Elmhurst! You can stop by Elijah’s Coffee and pick up a mini mug made by 8th grade art students for $5 – and all of the money will go to the UCCA Food Pantry! It’s a “win” all-around!

Can't make it to Elijah's tonight?  No worries - our mini mugs will be on sale throughout the holiday season, and you can purchase them at the downtown Elijah's location through January.  All proceeds will continue to benefit the UCCA Food Pantry.



Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp representatives will be visiting Sandburg and holding auditions/tryouts for summer camp scholarships. Any student who auditions will be considered for scholarship aid toward tuition to attend the camp. This visit will take place at Sandburg on November 18th and 19th. You are encouraged to visit Blue Lake’s website at: http://www.bluelake.org to learn more about the camp.

Art students will have the opportunity to audition during mornings and/or during the day by appointment. These appointments will be coordinated at Sandburg by Rico Vazquez, one of our band directors. For further info/appointments, he can be reached via email at rvazquez@elmhurst205.org



A new Art Institute of Chicago exhibit opens November 12! Art + Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine is the theme of this exhibit. Feast your eyes on the rich tradition of food and drink in American art with over 100 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts from the 18th through the 20th century and discover how American artists have used depictions of food to both celebrate and critique everything from the national diet to society and politics.

Thanks for another great week!

-Mrs. L.

This Week in Art! October 21-25

Today (Friday 10/25/13) - I will be out of the building so that I can attend the IAEA conference in Lisle.  I'm pretty excited to get to meet up with my fellow art teachers and talk "shop."  I always come up with a bunch of really cool ideas to use in the classroom!

6th Grade Art:


Our letter sculptures are really looking good!  This week, we applied textural designs to the front of our letter sculptures using puffy paint!  Then, we began the first layer of acrylic paint, which will serve as a base coat for our tempera paint "wash," which gives our final sculpture an aged/antique look that really brings out the textures we drew on the front.

Today, students worked on their Sketchbook #2 assignment - the interior room drawing - which will be due this Monday.  If it didn't get finished in class, it's homework over the weekend!

7th Grade Art:


Seventh grade students finally began painting this week (it kinda feels like we've been waiting forever)!  First, we practiced painting value scales in different colors.  This gives us the opportunity to choose from several different color schemes by seeing a "preview" first.  Then, we started painting our final portraits, which could be finished as early as next week!

We are also working on our second Sketchbook assignment (the Op-Art inspired black and white design), which is due this upcoming Monday - so again, if you did not finish it in class, it is HOMEWORK this weekend!  If you do not have Sharpie markers at home, you may use any kind of black markers that you have available (like Crayola, etc).

8th Grade Art:


This was the very first week of quarter 2 8th grade art!  We spent the first part of the week (after introductions and such) starting our first sketchbook assignment, which is a black and white zentangle profile drawing of our faces. Students are filling the space (inside and outside of our heads) with words, symbols, pictures, and patterns that all represent themselves.  These drawings will be due next Friday, November 1st.

We also started planning for our first ceramics project this week!  Students planned out and colored in a sketch of what they would like their glazed clay mug to look like.  These students will also make "mini mugs" as a practice before beginning the larger final mug... but that's next week!

Artsonia permission slips are also due from 8th graders today - even if you turned one in last year - because I will update email/contact information each year.

I still have the un-glazed clay mugs from quarter one students, in case you've been wondering where yours was... the kiln ventilation has still not been fixed, so if I try to use the kiln, it lets hazardous fumes into the classroom (which gives the students and I headaches... not so good!).  Therefore, for the safety of all, I will not glaze fire in the classroom until this matter has been resolved.  Unfortunately, it means we're playing the waiting game until then, so quarter one students will just have to hang on a little bit longer until their projects are ready.  I feel really bad about it, but the matter is now out of my hands - I've done all that I can at my level.

In other news...

Eighth grade Sandburg students from quarter one art classes will have artwork for sale at Elijah's Coffee in downtown Elmhurst!  Our "mini mugs" will be available for $5 each, with all of the proceeds from this sale going to UCCA Elmhurst to support their food pantry.

The sale begins on November 1st, as part of the Elmhurst City Centre "Arte at Night" event, but we will be selling our mugs throughout the holiday season, too!  You can see the full list of participating merchants and their hours on the UCCA site here.

Also this week, the multi-needs class stopped by to make some fun and festive Halloween glitter spiderwebs and spiders made from pipe cleaners and pom poms.  A couple weeks back, we made skeletons out of air dry clay.  I wonder what fun holiday projects we'll be dreaming up next?

Thanks for another great week!
-Mrs. L.