Yarn Paintings

The Huichol Indians are among the last of the world indigenious cultures that have been able to maintain their way of life and spiritual traditions.  Third graders were introduced to this special group of people through the modern version of a traditional story titled The Journey of Tunuri's and the Blue Deer.  Nature is very imortant to the Huichol and through the story we learned about their belief which included sacred spirits that nourish the world- like the sun, earth, water, air and fire.  After reading the story student also watched a video about the Huichol, their lives and their art.  All the illustrations in the book are actually yarn paintings .  Yarn paintings are created by covering wooden boards with wax.  Designs are scratched into the boards and then the yarn is pressed into the wax covering the entire surface.  The Huichol create yarn paintings that include symbols of the things that are most important to them )like the sun)
After learning about this native group students set out to design their own yarn paintings.  Each child thought about the things that are most important to them and created symbols to describe those ideas. Students created their yarn painting on boards of recycled cardboard covered with contact paper to help them attach their yarn.

Rock the PARCC!!

1st graders colored some guitars to encourage our older students to Rock the PARCC!!

Giraffes Can't Dance

Second Graders were inspired by the story Giraffes Can’t Dance.  After reading the book students learned how to use shapes to help them create the image of their own dancing giraffe!

Dubuffet Sculptures

First Graders studied the art of Jean Dubuffet.  We discussed his use of organic shapes and his approach to creating his art.  Students designed their own organic shapes and decorated them with patterns of blue and red lines -similar to Dubuffet.  Next we looked at how Dubuffet took some of the ideas from his paintings and created large scale sculptures.  Some classes created their own individual sculptures while others combined their shapes to create one large class sculpture.

Stop and shop Fighting Hunger

Our school entered the contest for Stop and Shop to fight Hunger.  We collected canned goods for donation to a local food bank.  Using the cans we collected the specialists teachers worked together to create an artwork that represented the Garfield Gators fighting hunger.  Here's what we created!  We didn't win but I think we had a great design!!

Hot Air Balloons!

Kindergarten students read the story Altoona Baboona, about a baboon who travels in her hot air balloon.  Each student then created their own hot air balloon art that combined drawing with the use of paper to create a 3D balloon effect!

Jasper Johns Numbers

Kindergarten students looked at how math and numbers have inspired many artists.  Numbers became popular as an art subject because of all the things we associate with them- time, money, music, math.  Artists like Charles Demuth, Albert Jensen, and On Kawara are all known for their work with numbers.   
We focused our attention on artist Jasper Johns who is recognized for his series of paintings featuring the numbers 0-9.  Students each created their own number artworks using primary colors.  Their works were then combined together to create one large piece!