Week of 5/8/2022 - Celebration of art!!

 Zamorano Fine Arts Academy's Celebration of art returned after 3 years! This event gave families a chance to step into our campus for the first time since the pandemic started!!

We are 3 full time art teachers and 1 teacher that works every Friday and we had an amazing collection of works to display in our auditorium! Here are some photos from the event - we worked hard and put on an amazing show!!

 I created QR codes that linked to my blog, presented a variety of multicultural themed works,  displayed examples of how I use literacy in my class via compare and contrast, poems and adjectives to describe ourselves and sculptures in clay, foil and paper!

 There was also the Kolam display from kinder, 1st and 2nd grade - it was windy that day and I spent a lot of time fixing th plates the wind constantly blew away in spite of adding weights on them! 

The classroom teachers created artwork with all students in their class and displayed them in the south side of campus so every student was represented.

Our area superintendent, staff from VAPA, members from the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education, members from VAPA foundation and teachers from other schools also stopped by to see our exhibit!

Teachers walked their classes to see the exhibit on Thursday and Friday so they could write fan letters to a student artist whose work they admired - I differentiated and sent teachers a template to suit the needs of K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. It was awesome to see students use the word bank I provided  and use academic vocabulary in their letters!

2nd grade collaborative Kolam artwork

Collaborative kinder work incorporating textures and shapes

Collaborative 2nd grade weaving and 5th   grade looping

 

3d display

 

4th and 5th grade weaving

Digital art, cityscape collage, 

Students writing fan letters

 

Week of 5/1/2022 - 4th grade underwater art, 5th grade tessellations

This week 4th grade students created underwater artworks inspired by the works of artist Yelena James. After observing her painting as a "hook" via class discussion, students responded that she uses organic shapes, overlapping, textures, value and a multitude of colors.

We practiced created ten different textures after which students created 6 different organic shape of different sizes using overlapping.

They outlined shapes with black Sharpie markers, filled each shape with a different texture, colored them in with oil pastel and finally used water colors for the background. 

5th graders created tessellations inspired by Islamic architecture - we looked at an example from Alhambra palace in Spain and students observed that the shape were tightly packed and repeated over and over again.

I showed students how to fold a black 12"x18" pieces of paper twice in hotdog style and twice in taco style to create 16 rectangles. After numbering rectangles 1-16, students created arrows going in the same direction and realized this process created arrows going in the opposite direction as well! They use rulers to create their lines and used metallic markers to create line patterns inside their arrows. Why metallic markers you ask? They just look so great on black paper and look dramatic!!

 

 

Week of 4/24/2022 - Oaxaca art and painting clay tiles

2nd grade students created art inspired by the animals in Oaxaca art from Mexico this week. They first responded to a photograph of a Oaxaca animal and we had a class discussion about how this animals looks like a combination of different animals - what parts it has from other animals? Is this animal real or imaginary and why?

We started by creating an oval for a turtle's body and I showed students options to add face, tail and patterns from other animals. They also added horns, legs and wings as they wished to.

It was interesting to see how we all started with an oval and branched out to creating a Oaxaca animal of our own. 

3rd grade students painted their bisque fired clay tiles with metallic paints.  I gave them an hour to make sure they covered every white spot on their tile. A new strategy I used here was for each student to get feedback from their peer and work on the suggestions before coming to me! This way I knew 2 people had already looked at a tile before it was brought to me. It gave students giving feedback a chance to understand the expectations and requirements. I love how each tile looks like it is made of metal even though the actual material is clay!

 

Week of 4/17/2022 - Color mixing and cityscapes

2nd grade students learned about color mixing this week. I first distributed plastic shapes in primary colors. We overlapped two colors at a time and held them against light. Students observed that twp primary colors change into a secondary color. 

They then created a variety of vases using overlapping by looking at the examples I brought from home. Students drew the vase with pencil first and traced them with black Sharpie markers. 

They used primary colors in watercolors to paint them and mixed two primary colors to create secondary colors where the vases overlapped. Students enjoyed seeing how the secondary colors emerged and described the process as "satisfying" :)

3rd grade students created cityscapes inspired b the works of artist Andy Burgess. We looked at his works and students engaged in a class discussion about what they observed - use of geometric shapes, variety of colors and tall buildings. 

They then proceeded to create water in the foreground, buildings in the middle ground and the sky in the background. Students had the option to rip paper with their finger or cut paper using scissors. They glued their paper to complete their works and added details like windows, doors and names for their buildings inspired by what they have seen in San Diego.