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.

This week in art: August 26 - 30

6th Grade:


In sixth grade, we've been working hard, constructing 3-dimensional cardboard letters.  It was really fun to see how our knowledge of drawing 2-dimensional block letters (from sketchbook drawing #1) could be useful in another art project.  Today (Friday), we began applying paper mache to our cardboard forms.  We'll finish that step next week, and start the decorating process, too!  This week, we also turned in our first sketchbook assignment (it was due Thursday) - so be on the lookout for our first Artsonia gallery uploads coming very soon!

7th Grade:


Seventh grade is well into their first painting project.  On Monday and Tuesday, we used Adobe Photoshop to alter digital portraits that will be used for our paintings.  By Thursday, we began mixing paint colors and practicing painting in value scales.  We explored tints and shades, and saw the sometimes surprising results when colors mix!  By Friday, most students had begun painting their final self-portraits.  Want a preview?  You can check out last year's paintings here.

We also turned in our first sketchbook assignment on Thursday, so be on the lookout for grades to be posted and artwork to be uploaded on Artsonia real soon!

8th Grade:


Look how far we've come on our clay mug projects!  These clay pieces will be fully functional by the end of the quarter!  After the bisque firing, we'll paint our mugs with food-safe glaze, so we can actually enjoy beverages out of them.  Pretty neat.

Today (Friday), our first sketchbook assignments were due.  Stay up-to-date on your art grades via Powerschool, and watch out for our first 8th grade Artsonia uploads very soon!

In other news...


Have you seen our Sandburg student artwork on the "blocks" sculpture in downtown Elmhurst City Centre? It's right in front of Brainfreeze, on the south side of the train tracks!



All of the artwork is from last year's 6th and 7th graders (aka this year's 7th and 8th graders!).  It's a project that's been in the making since last spring!  I was so excited when I finally got to see it in person!

Thanks for another great week!
- Mrs. L.