Square One and Spring Learning!!

First off, I'd like to thank all everyone who had a part in Square One Art! The artists did a GREAT job with their hard work, dedication and lots of markers!!!! They were all very beautiful and all did a wonderful job!! Also, to the PCC who helped distribute materials and send home notices, it was a real team effort!!! Thanks so much for all the help and participation! Square One will totally be happening again next year, so keep your eyes and ears peeled!!!

So much has been happening this spring. The students have been working REALLY dilligently on their "Character Portraits" for the reading celebration. This year, Ms. Klim and I got together and thought it would be a great idea to make some drawings of favorite book characters for the Reading Celebration. Not only are the words important to story telling, but the illustrations tell their own story. Writing, reading and illustration are all go together so perfectly. It was a great collaboration and learning exercise for the students. Students brought a book to Art class and drew a character from that book. All of the drawings were amazing. No tracing going on here! Just observational drawing. Sitting, studying the drawing and then trying to draw somthing similar on your own page. I really couldn't believe how amazing they all turned out. I think the Jefferson Elementary students could all be illustrators!! They were just so fantastic. When you come to the school for the Reading Celebration, please stop by your child's room. All the drawings will be hanging outside the rooms. A very exciting project!!!!

Just a few more weeks left of school, so keep your eye out for a few more projects coming home, lots of 3-dimensional and clay pieces will be making their way home as well.

Until next time, have an Artistic Day!!!!

STAR Program!

Make sure you check out all the awesome STAR summer programs happening at Jefferson this year. Yours truly will be making some awesome art with great students during weeks 3 &4. I'm teaching Book Arts which includes obviously: books! But don't let that name fool you, there is much more under the category of book arts like, printmaking, stamping, sun prints, paste paper, assemblage, altered books, the list goes on!!! It is amazing the endless possibilities and the creativity you can use in book arts!

  Altered Books

        sun printsprint making


I will also be teaching Arts & Cultures. Ever wanted to learn how to paint with sand?? Well, you can now!!! How about the ancient art of Japanese tie dying called Shibori?? Stained glass...Want to do a little drip painting a la Jackson Pollock?? Everyone thinks his work is totally cool!!! He's part of our "American Culture"!  This class will span the globe learning about all the different types of art there is in the world! Amazing!!!
Jackson Pollock at work!!Tibetan sand mandalashibori
Australian Dot Painting (we'll be painting on rocks!)

A Special Guest & More!!!

Exciting happenings in the art room at Jefferson.
After spring break we will be having a senior high school student joining us. She is a student at Franklin High School and she is completing her Senior Project with an internship at Jefferson Elementary. We are very excited to have her come in and help out. She is a great artist, very friendly and will be a welcome addition, if only for a few weeks!

Also, we have many projects lined up for the last few weeks of school. The entire school will be participating in making "Character Portraits". This was done last year but not school wide. This year, the entire school will be creating portraits of their favorite character from a book. With this project children and families will be reminded just how important illustrations are to a story. Visual artists tell stories through the pictures and writers through words and when they work together, the message is even stronger!

Spring is always such a great time in the art room! Great things always seem to happen.

Also, if you are feeling a little "spring fever" a great day trip to the MFA in Boston could cure it! A special exhibit of glass artist, Dale Chihuly is now on display. Chihuly worked locally for years at RISD. He taught and worked on his craft and changed the world of glass art. I had the pleasure of going to the show a few weeks ago. It is so amazing!!!! Magical is the perfect word for his work.

http://www.chihuly.com/

Enjoy!
Ms. McCarthy

A Great Night of the Arts

This year's Night of the Arts was by far the BEST YET! The art work was so fabulous. Each student K-5 had their recycled art work shown. It was so wonderful to see each student's work all together. It was so great.
I would really like to thank all the family and friends that came out to see the work, who helped in preparing for the night and especially helping within the classroom. It would not be possible to complete that night without supportive parents and community. Thank you so much!!!

Please take a gander at some pictures of student work!

the front hallway

Flamingo by a 5th grade student

 Sea weed by Fifth grade student

Barn Owl by 5th grade student

 Cat by a kindergarten student

Turtle by 2nd grade student

 Crab caught in a net: 2nd grade

                                                                                     Duck by 2nd grade student

 Rocket ship! 3rd grade

 

Each student 1st-5th had to write about their art. Students discussed inspiration, materials, process, obstacles and achievements. It gave a great insight to the students work and creative process.

 Martian by 3rd grade student

                           Rocket Ship by 3rd grade student

 Outerspace! 3rd grade

Board in the front hallway! Filled with lots of planets and outer space ideas!

  Library with lots of art work!

Kindergarten land animal!

 Jamie La Perle: Artist in Residence

                                   Earth and space collage, mural

Collaborative student art work.

 Earth collage up close.

  Kindergarten land animal                                    

                                              Fifth Grader Fish

Giraffe by 1st Grader

 Pond turtle by second grader

 Thanks for a great night!!!!

Night of the Arts!

Night of the Arts

   Jefferson Elementary School

  Thursday, March 17, 2011

 6:00pm-7:30pm

                                   

     •Showing works of Found Object Art created by students K-5

 

•Featuring our artist in residence: Jamie Laperle
•Come see the student's individual art work and the collaborative work from all the students in the school.
•Students used all found & discarded materials to create their work.
•Students learned the value of Upcycling-creating something useful and interesting out of trash.

New Google Site

http://www.googleartproject.com/

This is the most amazing site!! Not only can you navigate through famous art museums, you can get and up close look at some of the most wonderful works our world has to offer. This is the best new website! I love it and I hope you and your children get to wander through these wonderful museums. If only from your couch!

http://www.googleartproject.com/

Just keeps getting better....more Recycled Art

Here are some more recycled art works from the 5th graders. 

Their assignment was to create sea life or birds including owls!

did you guess it was sea weed???