I hope that everyone has a great holiday break and a Happy New Year!

I will see you back in the art room in 2010!

Fifth Grade inspired "DOGS" are coming soon!

Many color schemes were used in the painting process!

Monochromatic colors, analagous colors and complementary colors!

I will be posting photos this Friday!

Second Graders just got finished glazing their coil clay pots a multiple of wonderful colors!

Kindergarten just finished learning about Louise Nevelson!

They created artwork using all found materials; paper tubes, wood, egg cartons and cardboard! Each class voted on a class color to paint all their inspired works of art!

Second graders are creating hand built coil pots from clay! This week their pots will be fired in our classroom kiln. Next week, students will learn about glaze and be able to paint their pots using fabulous colors!

Our classroom sink at the end of the day!

Fifth graders have been learning about the following color schemes; monochromatic, analogous and complementary colors and using each color scheme within their artwork! I can't wait to post their finished work inspired by Andy Warhol and Georges Rodriques!

First grade has been working with clay to create beads formed like spheres and cubes! They have been working so hard. Their beads will be fired in the kiln for the following week and stained with paint. First graders also created a circular slab for the main focus of their necklace. Students were able to use different objects to create patterns and textures in their clay. Students will then string their clay spheres and cubes in a pattern on a colored wire along with cylinder shaped straws for spacing.

Be sure to slow down and take a look at all the Fall colors around you. Many of the colors that you see outside are WARM colors; red, yellow and orange. Leaves are starting to change colors and fall from the trees. If you see a unique leaf, pick it up and bring it to the art room to share with others!

First graders have been mixing primary colors to create secondary colors this week! As you can see they definately worked hard using their paint palettes!

Fourth Grade has just completed their monochromatic Picasso inspired still life! A monochromatic color scheme means only using one color along with the values of that color only. Fourth graders used watercolors to paint their still life, using more water to create a lighter value and less water to create a darker value. Many of these beautiful pieces of art are displayed within our school lobby. We hope you get a chance to take a look!

Kindergarten has been learning about lines. There are many different kinds of lines, zig zag, straight, wavy, curvy, blocked, broken, dotted and scalloped . Make sure to ask your kindergartener about ALL the lines they have drawn and painted!

Photo of the Day:
Check out these awesome shoes that create zig zag lines! Thanks Erykah for showing off your artistic flair!

Newspaper needed!

The art room is in need of newspaper! If you have newspaper that you would like to donate, please let Ms. Krass know.

Sketchbook Mania

We have had a wonderful two weeks of school at Lake Forest Elementary! The art room has been a busy place this week. All students have created a personal sketchbook to keep inside the art room all year long. A sketchbook is a book or pad of paper using for drawing! All artists keep sketchbooks.

Did you know: Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance artist who lived from 1452 to 1519. Da Vinci is probably best known for his painting, "Mona Lisa" or "La Gioconda" which was a portrait of the wife of a Florentine official. Da Vinci always kept a sketchbook handy, so he could write down his good ideas or draw things that caught his eye. In fact, when he died, he left more than 8,000 pages of sketchbooks containing scientific projects, inventions, architectural designs and sketches. Many of the notes Da Vinci made in his sketchbooks were written backwards, so they could only be read if held up to a mirror.

August 10th is just around the corner!

August 10th is just around the corner! I am busy preparing the art room this week.
I can't wait to begin a new school year at Lake Forest and see all my "little artists"!

Artwork is coming home!

I am sending tons of artwork home this week with my students! We are slowly coming to the end of our first year at Lake Forest Elementary and all the beautiful artwork that has been displayed is coming down! Oh, how sad.......... just think about what next year will bring!

SNAILS, SNAILS and more SNAILS!

First graders have been waiting the arrival of snails in the art room! Students have been learning all about snails, their habitat and what makes these little creatures so special, those COOL spiral lines found on their shells! To be able to draw snails, students were able to view actual snails at their tables while working! It was a snail FRENZY! First graders were excited and able to put real life within their drawings using patterns, shape and line!

Fifth Grade Atmospheric Landscapes

Fifth Grade has just completed their "Atmospheric Perspective" landscapes! Students learned how to create value by creating various value scales before painting their landscapes with watercolors. Silhouettes within their landscapes were created in the foreground, middleground and background by using black construction paper!

What is going on in the ART ROOM?

Kindergarten will be viewing many famous artists self portraits and drawing their own self portrait! We will discuss facial features, and shapes that make up our face. Students will be use black glue, tissue paper and paint to complete their masterpieces.

First grade is learning about all about snails and how spiral lines and patterns are found on many of their shells. Students are creating drawings of snails using many patterns and lines,especially SPIRAL lines. They will finish up their drawings with a crayon resist method! I even have real snails in a terrarium for students to look at in the art room. WOW!

Second grade is learning all about Leonardo daVinci and creating their own "Modern Mona" with a twist! Stop and ask one of my students about Leonardo and what they know about the Mona Lisa!! A Mona Lisa powerpoint is continuously showing different Mona Lisa's in the art room. Ms. Krass downloaded many musicians who sing about Mona Lisa in various songs, these songs are playing during the revolving powerpoint!

Third grade is working on their own radial weaving using various color schemes. Warm and cool colors, complementary colors and analogous colors. A radial weaving is a weaving in the shape of a circle. My students hands are furiously working in their craftsmanship while weaving.

Fourth grade was introduced to the artwork of Keith Haring and is gestural figures that make him so famous. Students learned how to create gestural drawings using each other as models. Students are using their gestural sketches to create their own Keith Haring inspired drawing, spray paint and all!

Fifth grade is learning about value and creating different value scales using pencils and paint. Students are using their value scales to help them create atmospheric perspective within an landscape.

Go GREEN, Make ART!

Create instant art projects! Before tossing scrap paper or food boxes in to the recycle bin, take a quick minute to cut some odd shapes out of them. Think tissue boxes, cracker, and cereal boxes, colored office paper, and tissue and wrapping paper. Stash the pieces in an envelope and pull them out when you are ready to get creative with your children. Use them for a wide assortment of art projects, including: posters, murals or mosaics; or shape and color identification! Have fun and pull out all your art materials! Get CREATIVE and go GREEN!

Please donate yarn to the art room!

The art room is in need of yarn for a Third Grade weaving lesson! If you have any yarn that you would like to donate to the art room, we would appreciate it. It doesn't matter what color or thickness. Third graders are creating a radial weaving and using a paper plate as their loom. Each third grader has chosen a color scheme for their unique weaving.

Gummy Bears as Art Media

I love this artist, Yaya Chou! She created this awesome chandelier (light fixture) out of GUMMY BEARS! It looks like it is glowing inside and out! I would love to have this hanging in my classroom!

We recycle in front of the art room at Lake Forest!

I bet you didn't know that we recycle right in front of the art room at Lake Forest! Students bring items from home and place and in the appropriate recycling bins outside the art room. Students can recycle plastic tops, cans, plastic bottles and newspaper! The arts are going GREEN!!

Pablo Picasso once said........

Pablo Picasso once said,

"All children are artists, the problem is how

to remain an artist once he grows up."

Dogwood Festival this weekend at Piedmont Park!

Spring is here and that can only mean one thing in Atlanta: the Atlanta Dogwood Festival is back! The Dogwoods are in bloom, and hundreds of artists from around the country will set up their tents for the 73rd Annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival.
www.dogwood.org

This is my first blog post! I am very excited to have gotten this far. I can't wait to be able to blog and post photos! I have such inspiring students, a wonderful classroom and school.