Art Summary 4/16/24

 

So thankful for the beautiful day we had and that we were finally able to go out for recess again! Everyone seemed very excited today - spring is definitely in the air! 

 

We finished our cute spring collages today and those will go home next week. We will also send all of their school supplies and watercolors home in a ziploc bag. Some things may be reused for next year so make sure to check in their backpack before purchasing supplies. : ) For those absent today, we’ll finish up their artwork in class next week. On that note, I can’t believe we just have one more week of classes before field day! It’s been an honor to teach your children this year - every one of them is so precious and unique! 

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 4/9/2024

 

The pinch pots went home today in ziploc bags in backpacks, so be sure to look for them! Also, for students absent last week their package of Model Magic went home in their backpacks as well. If they would like to create a pinch pot at home similar to the ones we made, have them watch this video (with parental guidance). 

 

Model Magic Pinch Pots: Kindergarten

 

Today we started our last big art project for the year after reading a sweet Kevin Henkes book with lovely illustrations, Spring Is Coming. The students used Kwik Stix and tempera paint to create a background for the next step of collage that we will continue next week. We had a few absences and we’ll work on getting those students caught up next week. 

 

We’re trying to pack a lot into the last few weeks of art class! 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 4/2/2024

 

It was a little bit of a wild day with the weather but thankfully it was not as severe as was forecasted. You just never know about TN spring weather! Today we sculpted and made pinch pots, using Model Magic and washable markers (to tint the white and create colors) and made fun little spring pinch pots. They are drying at SHARE and will be sent home next week. Since there were many absences, I will be sending home a pack of Model Magic for all the absent students next week and will post a video tutorial so they can make their pinch pots that we made today at home. So,  if your student missed art class today make sure to check in their backpack next week for their Model Magic and check the website for the video tutorial link. It’s a pretty fun project and actually easy to do at home because it’s not messy!

 

Big disclaimer: the pinch pots are not to hold water or to be used for eating and drinking! I made sure to tell all the classes this and emphasized that these pinch pots are perfect for holding trinkets, rocks, etc. but wanted to make sure to tell you all this as well. : )

Model Magic is a great medium for this age because it is easy moldable and more durable than clay. I think the pots are really cute. There is so much you can do with Model Magic but pinch pots are a great beginner project. 

 

I can’t believe we just have three regular SHARE weeks left before field day! 

 

Art Summary 3/26/2024

 

Today we created palm crosses in honor of holy week. I read the story of Jesus’ triumphant entry and I brought in palm branches as a visual example. We had some discussion about how the people were praising Jesus and shouting “Hosanna” because they thought he was coming as an earthly king to save them from the Romans who were oppressing them, and how later in the week many of the same people turned against Jesus. I like the idea of the palm cross paintings as a reminder that Jesus is our true king and deserves all our honor and praise. I’m praying you all have a great Easter weekend celebrating our risen Savior!

 

Art Summary 3/19/2024

 

First day of spring! Ms. Sonya in the upper hall brought in a beautiful vase of colorful tulips for a still life example for my lesson, and I was so grateful the students could observe them as we drew our tulip bouquets. The students used pencils to sketch first, then sharpie and lastly tempera paint pucks. They chose which colors to use for the flowers, vase and table and seemed to really enjoy the combination of still life example and guided drawing to complete this lesson. I hope their artwork adds a little pop of spring to your homes!

 

Art Summary 2/20/24

 

In the excitement of Valentine’s celebrations I forgot to post last week! We had fun week last week and created cute hearts inspired by artist Chris Uphues. I liked how in 1st and 2nd grade some students made “heart families” based off their family and even their pets. : ) One student in 2nd grade said this was her favorite art lesson so far this year! I love when I get feedback that students are enjoying what we create in art and this one seemed to be a hit overall!

 

Another fan favorite was the lesson we did today which was a completely experiential, messy, fun lesson. The students made “squish art” paintings. These were way too wet to come home today, except for some of Kindergarten’s since they are my first class. I know they will be eager to bring them home and show them to you next week!

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 2/6/24

 

We were only missing a few students in K-2nd today, which was a big change in the right direction from last week. Since we had so many absences last week I decided to spend just a little time on the project we started last week and to start something new today. The students who were here last week and created heart prints cut them out and glued them onto colorful paper. I think it really makes their prints stand out and they are all so pretty and different!

 

Today the project was drawing Valentine’s animals, based on an art lesson by Cassie Stephens, one of my favorite art teachers.  In Kindergarten and 1st grades the students drew bunnies and in 2nd grade the students drew pandas. We only used oil pastels for this project, with the exception of 2nd grade using pencil first to draw the eyes. In 2nd grade the students were given more choice about the kind of eyes, nose, mouth, etc. that they wanted to draw so they could make their pandas more unique. Drawing with oil pastels can be tricky because of how smudgy they are but I also really like the softer look they give and how well they blend. One new technique we practiced was blending white oil pastel over red to create a pink tint. “To make it light, just add white” was our new phrase of the day. This lesson was also a great reminder of all our lines and shapes we’ve been using in art all year. 

 

Hope you all are enjoying this beautiful weather we are having! Looking forward to our Valentine’s exchange next week! 

 

Art Summary 1/30/24

 

Today we started our heart art with a printmaking activity using foam printing plates and markers. The students etched designs into their foam plates before coloring them with markers and then wetting cardstock with a damp paper towel and printing the plate on the cardstock. It was a fun printmaking lesson and we will build on that next week as we turn the prints into a collage. We missed those who were absent! We had quite a few out on our hall and combined Kind. and 1st grade. Praying everyone is getting healthy if there has been sickness in your family!

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 1/23/24

 

Today we finished our snowman paintings with a light purple watercolor background. I love the purplish winter sunset skies that I often see this time of year! Even though the snow is melting we still have a good bit of winter left so hopefully these snowman friends will make for some cheery winter art in your homes. I love that the students did all the drawing themselves, and they did a great job! We will be starting some Valentine’s art next week, and I always look forward to creating “heart work”!

 

I also read “Snowflake Bentley” today and before I read it I asked for the students to think of where they saw God working in the story. God is never mentioned by name (like in the book of Esther!) but you can see His handiwork all throughout the story of Wilson Bentley. The students had some great responses: seeing God as Creator of all, no two snowflakes being the same and the amazing detail of each snowflake, helping Wilson to persevere and be patient to capture the pictures of snowflakes, providing a camera for him, etc. At the end of the book there were a few of Wilson Bentley’s real life snowflake pictures and they are pretty amazing, especially for the time period in which they were taken. So, if we get another snow, your children may ask you to try to take a picture of a snowflake before it melts! : )

 

Art Summary 1/9/24

 

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas break! The students were excited to be back and we missed those who were absent. We started a snowman drawing today! The students did great jumping back into art with a guided drawing lesson. Next week we will finish our project with painting the background. I always like to do some winter art first thing in January because the next month is usually when we have our greatest chances of cold weather and possibly snow. Hopefully we’ll get one good snow that will be fun to play in…and then I’ll be ready for spring! : )

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 11/28/23

 

It was good to be back together after Thanksgiving break! I can’t believe today was our last official day of the semester though!

We were busy finishing up some projects and one of them you will receive next week at the Christmas village walk-through. The cute Christmas reindeer went home today. The googly eyes may need to be hot glued on at home to stay more permanently. I also had time to read a Christmas story to each class. There are so many wonderful Christmas books that I love, with beautiful illustrations! In Kindergarten we read “Song of the Stars” by Sally Lloyd-Jones because we have been reading “The Jesus Storybook Bible” for our devotional, which is also by the same author. They fit together beautifully. In 1st and 2nd grades at the end of class we read “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree”. The students loved the illustrations and many were excited that it’s a rhyming book. This is a fun story and a great one to check out from the library!

 

I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the walk-through next week! We missed several who were absent today and prayed for you.Praying for you and your families as we enter this Advent season - I pray it is a sweet time of making memories with your families while anticipating the birth of our Savior. 

 

Art Summary 11/14/23

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the Thanksgiving turkeys last week - I’m sorry that I didn’t post about them! In class last week we talked about using the feathers as a way to count the things we are thankful for everyday. Some of your students may have been doing this at home already but I know having a visual can be helpful!

 

Today we worked on a cute Christmas reindeer, using sponges and shapes,that will come home in two weeks. 

 

I’m praying you all have a healthy and wonderful Thanksgiving next week!

 

Art Summary 10/31/23

 

We had fun creating a little “magic” trick today called watercolor resist. The students practiced drawing a spider web on a scratch sheet of paper. Then they used a white oil pastel on watercolor paper to draw a spider web. This part can be tricky because it’s white oil pastel on white paper! But the waxiness of the oil pastel makes it possible to see the lines being drawn. Also, practicing first was essential so that the students already felt confident drawing on the watercolor paper. The next step was painting with cool watercolor paints over their drawing. It can be a little hard to not get the paint too dark so that the spider web shows through well, but for the first time using this technique it turned out well! I hot glued a little spider onto their paper at the end. Spiders and spider webs are less spooky to me than they are a really neat part of God’s creation and I actually love seeing them in the fall, just outside of course! : )

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 10/24/23

 

Today we used real leaves to make prints and that is always a hit! The students painted the vein side of leaves with a sponge brush and printed them on their papers, and repeated this five or six times or until their paper was full of leaves. Then they used a small sponge and sponge painted the background around the leaves in a complementary color. Only Kindergarten’s paintings were dry enough to come home - the rest will be ready to go home next week! If students want to try this at home and do some more, I would recommend using tempera paint rather than acrylic and choosing leaves that are still on the trees. Crunchy, dry leaves are fun to jump in but do not work well for this project. : )

 

The fall colors seem to really be peaking this week and I hope you are able to get outside and enjoy God’s creation with your family this week. 

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 10/17/23

 

It was so nice to have everyone (we missed a few) back after fall break. It certainly is feeling like fall now. : ) I could tell everyone was very excited to be back at SHARE and to see their friends! 

 

Today we learned a new term: symmetry! The students folded a brown paper in half and traced half of an acorn. When they cut it out it revealed a full acorn, to most of their amazement! It is tricky to make sure the folded paper is “like a book” and the open side is facing the right. Symmetry is something we will revisit throughout this year but this cute little acorn was a nice way to introduce the concept. They painted the cap with a brown tempera paint marker, drew the mouth and eyes, used oil pastels for the eyes and cheeks, and stem. The part that really made the acorns pop was the lines on the cap, using metallic markers. The students observed an acorn and felt the texture of the cap and we used the lines on the caps to create “implied texture”. I think these happy little fall acorns turned out pretty cute!

 

Hope you all have a great week! Thank you for entrusting your children to us on Tuesdays! 

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 10/3/23

 

Today we finished our mixed media “pumpkin at night” using Kwik Stix to paint the leaves and stems and oil pastels for the vines, tendrils and moon. In Kindergarten we used chalk pastels for the vines and moon but in 1st and 2nd we used oil pastels. The students drew the leaves and stem themselves and traced the moon. They were proud of their artwork and excited to bring it home to show you! : ) 

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful fall break! 

 

Art Summary 9/26/23

 

It may not feel quite like fall yet, but we’re forging on with our fall art projects and hopefully the weather will follow soon. : ) Today the students drew a pumpkin by observing my drawing, and then they had their own palette of red and yellow tempera paints to mix together to create a yellowish orange for their pumpkin. We talked about trying to use smooth brush strokes in one direction for a more realistic look. I think they really enjoyed the color mixing and painting. The pumpkins stayed at SHARE to dry, and next week they will cut them out and they will become part of a bigger mixed media collage. In 1st and 2nd grades we had time to read a book about pumpkins and how they are grown, so it kind of turned into a “STEAM” lesson with some fun facts that we learned about pumpkins. Ask your 1st and 2nd graders if they remember what the vertical lines are on pumpkins? Hopefully in Kindergarten I’ll be able to read the same book to them next week. Can’t believe that after next week it will be fall break!

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 9/19/23

 

In art class we created an autumn leaf painting to celebrate that the first day of fall is this week! 

 

The students used several art mediums to create their artwork: sharpie, oil pastels and watercolors. In 1st and 2nd we talked about composition (placement) of the leaves on their paper before they began tracing their leaves. I wanted them to trace several types of leaves but they had the freedom to place them wherever they chose. After tracing the leaves, the students used oil pastels to create the stems and to draw the veins. Then with watercolors they painted in warm colors for the leaves and cool colors for the background. 

 

I hope you are enjoying this cooler mornings and evenings with your family - autumn weather is on the way!

​

Mrs. Kathleen

 

Art Summary 9/12/23

 

To celebrate “Dot Day” coming up, art classes around the country read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and create their own dot art inspired by the book. I’ve incorporated the book into an art lesson for years because there are lots of fun ideas out there for dot art.

We used cardboard circles as a fun backdrop for our dot art this year. Before we began we reviewed the color wheel we created last week and our primary and secondary colors. Then we learned about the warm and cool colors on the color wheel. In 1st and 2nd grade we also talked about complementary colors on the color wheel. We also talked about vertical lines and then the students tried to alternate painting cool and warm colors in vertical lines on their dot. They used Kwik Stix tempera paint sticks so that the paint would dry quickly. Next they used tempera paint with dot sponges and qtips to create dots on their dots. It was a busy, and fun project and the students really seemed to enjoy using some new art mediums like the Kwik Stix and sponge painting.

 

 Some 1st graders decided to wait for their dots to dry at SHARE and will bring them back next week. 1st grade is my class after recess so sometimes things may go home a little wet but I try to have them wait to bring them home if possible - many of the 1st grade students really were eager to bring them home yesterday to show you and I told them to please please hand them to you very carefully when they got to the car! Hopefully that was the case! : )

 

Thank you for entrusting your sweet children to our care every week. I am really enjoying getting to know them all! 

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

 

Art Summary 9/5/23

 

Today we added another element of art: color! We watched a short video that I’ll post below about the primary and secondary colors, and made a fun color wheel out of playdoh. Mixing the primary colors to create the secondary colors was the highlight for sure. I know for some students this may be review but color theory is foundational to art so the color wheel is something I always cover every year. In the coming weeks we’ll add to this with warm and cool color art lessons. 

 

I decided to keep the color wheels at school for one week so they will dry out more. The play doh should stick to their color wheel but I didn’t want it to be a temptation for them to take it off the color wheel before it had dried. I know Play Doh can be messy! So, if your student was looking for their color wheel please assure them it will be in their yellow folder next week!

 

I also read the book “ART” by Patrick McDonnell. This is a fun book that goes over the element of line very well and also uses the primary colors in the artwork. 

 

I hope you have a great rest of your week! 

 

Sesame Street: OK Go - Three Primary Colors

 

 

Art Summary 8/29/23

 

This week in art class we used the line drawings from last week to create something new: cute owls! This was a great second week activity because we practiced skills like tracing, cutting, gluing and following directions that we will be using all year. The owls were so fun and were all unique since the “bodies” of the owls were from their line drawings. All classes did really well with this! If you know your child could use some extra practice with cutting, please have them practice at home. This will make them feel more confident at SHARE when we are using our scissors. In kindergarten and 1st grade especially a little extra practice in this area is always helpful! 

 

We missed those who were absent due to trips or other reasons and hope to see everyone next week! I’m excited to get started on some fall art lessons soon! 

 

Mrs. Kathleen 

​

Art Summary 8/22/23

 

It was a great first day at SHARE! I loved seeing our familiar faces from last year, and welcoming our new students. I know it is going to be a great year of creating art together! 

 

After going over some basic class rules, we started by learning about one of the elements of art: line. I read “Lines That Wiggle”, a cute story exploring different types of line and then we looked for all the kinds of lines we could find in our classrooms. The students named different lines and I drew them on the whiteboard. Then they were given a white piece of paper and markers and were able to fill their page with the different lines we talked about, and some new ones that they thought of including shapes and patterns. These line drawings are going to be the basis of a whimsical art project that we’ll work on next week. 

 

I hope your children came home excited about their first day of SHARE! I’m sure they were tired, and hot too! Praying for cooler temperatures next week, but we were grateful for a breeze today and some clouds when we went out on the playground. We make sure the students bring their water outside and drink plenty of water when we get back from recess on hot days. Thank you for sending them with good sized water bottles! 

 

Looking forward to seeing your children next week!

Mrs. Kathleen 

​

​