Week of 5/8/2023 - Last rotation with UTK, K and 1st grade

 This week I saw UTK, Kinder and 1st grade students for the last rotation for the year!

UTK students created works inspired by the book "The Mixed Up Alphabet" by Steve Metzger. We read the book and discussed what would happen if the alphabets got mixed up and not in order. How would we sing the alphabet song? Students picked 8 foam letters in uppercase,  and glued them on their paper as they wished to, added a face, arms, legs and hats to each and used color pencils to color the background in different colors. They also added letters in lowercase using a chisel tip black Sharpie marker - oh the joy of introducing a "thick" Sharpie to 4 year olds!!!

Kindergarten students created a mixed media ice cream cone using how many ever scoops they wanted! Triangle for the cone with several organic shapes and colors for the scoops!!

 

1st Grade students created a color monster inspired by the book " Color Monsters" by Anna Llenas. We looked at what colors are used for what emotions. Students picked an emotion, created their own monster using a color they felt best suited their monster. 

 

Week of 5/1/2023 - Cyanotypes with visiting artist, cake sculpture and sunflowers!

 UTK students created a sunflower art on 8x10 canvases using paint sticks and tempera paint. We looked at Vincent Van Gogh's painting of a sunflower and a real sunflower to observe the colors, patterns and shapes. Students drew the flower, colored the background using blue or purple, added orange lines inside the petals and painted the petals yellow using tempera paint. They completed their works by painting the stem and leaves using green tempera paint and adding black or brown to the center of their flower.

Kinders used line, and shape patterns to create relief sculptures of birthday cakes inspired by San Diego cake artist Tara Heather. We used cardstock with construction paper strips of 3 different lengths. Students used metallic markers and color sticks to create line and shape patterns and customize their cake. We then folded the sides, glued them down and added a table and candles to complete works. 

 1st grade students had a visit from artist Lorena Mostajo via a generous grant from Space4Art. Lorena talked to students about how photos are created and explained how they were going to make photos using the sun. Students worked in small groups with her arranging, composing and overlapping objects on a special blue paper in the sun and using water to wash the chemicals off to reveal "photos" of their objects.

Our principal participated in the lesson to create his own cyanotype!

 

The other students in the classroom collaborated to create a weaving project on plastic fence. We used wide, colorful yarn to go over and under the openings to create our work!

 

 

Week of 4/24/2023 - More digital art with 4ths and 5ths

 5ths continued working on their mural design and submitted their works from Sketchpad in my Google Classroom. I am so proud of these students for embracing a new software and creating these amazing designs. There is so much variety in the quotes, colors and the way in which each students changed the letters to make them more interesting!

4ths worked on creating a double exposure lesson. Based on the theme of "Exploration" for an upcoming juried exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts at Balboa Park, students picked a hobby, place or something they wanted to explore. We used a photo from Google using the Creative Commons collection. Each student then photographed themselves in poses that would be meaningful in the photo they chose. We used removed.bg website to get rid of the background in their photos and superimposed their photo to the Google photo using Google slides.

Week of 4/17/2023 - Going digital with 4ths and 5ths

 4th graders created flyers for our upcoming Celebration of Art event. We looked at examples of different flyers and discussed which worked better and why. We talked about the need for images being sharp, without shadows, text being in a font that was easy to read and the information a flyer needed to have - title, address, day, date, time and possibly an additional sentence. 

We used Google slides to create the flyer using text boxes, changing font type, size, color and alignment. I showed students how to insert images and move them around and use colors that were appealing. There is so much variety in how each student approached this lesson. One flyer will be picked to be sent to families, teachers and our community partners.

 

5th graders started designing the legacy mural.This year we are using artist Lynn Giunta as our inspiration.

The prompt was to create a positive quote and combine it with bold, vibrant images that spark joy! We looked at how Lynn added components to her letters to make them interesting. I gave each student a planning sheet where we drew 12 images together for students to use in their work. They created 4 more individual ones by looking at Lynn's works. We used Sketchpad on Chromebook to first explore the different tools and features. Students then created their quote, adding patterns to letters and varying line width to create interest.

We will continue working on this next class.

 

 

 

 

Week of 4/10/2023 - Completing fantasy Fish and cacti

 3rd graders continued work on their fantasy fish!

After picking a habitat photo responsibly from the internet, each student superimposed their art work onto their photo after removing the background to complete their work.

I am thrilled at how these turned out!!

 2nd graders completed their cacti artwork. After coloring their cacti with cool colors using paint sticks, students used a variety of materials such as tin foil (smooth texture), yarn (furry texture), legos dipped in paint (bumpy texture), paper pieces (rough texture) and black Sharpie markers to create dots (sandy texture) and lines to create a prickly texture. They used watercolors in warm colors to paint their background and complete their works.

 

 

Week of 4/3/2023 - 3rd grade Fantasy Fish and 2nd grade cacti textures

Following a visit from Birch Aquarium in December 2022 to all 6 3rd grade classes where students were given hands on experience with a variety of fish, I followed up by having students create a "Fantasy fish".

I gave each student a planning sheet where they planned what habitat, body type, teeth type and coloration their fish would have. They exaggerated the features and drew their fish on poster board. I gave students the option to pick a medium of their choice to color their fish.

Here is an example - I realized I didn't take many photos! We continued work next class to complete the lesson.

2nd grade students created cacti using a variety of textures. We looked at different paintings and discussed what different parts may feel like if we could touch. We discussed different words to describe those textures - soft, rough, prickly, furry, sandy and bumpy.

I gave each student a long piece of poster board to challenge them so they would figure out how to create art on a different size base and not just the regular 9x12 size. We created a planter and added different cacti after looking at examples. - pencil first and tracing with a black Sharpie! Some students started coloring with paint sticks to finish next class. 

 

Student art exhibits and awards - March 2023

The SDUSD VAPA Spotlight awards ceremony was held this week and I was honored to receive and Artistic Innovation award while my 5th grade student Keith Baham received the Rising Star award.  

Thank you to SDUSD VAPA and VAPA Foundation for putting together a spectacular event! Special thanks to my principal Mr.Murchison who came directly from the airport after his trip and to my Associate principal Mr.Vera for showing their support.

The SDUSD art exhibit opening reception was also held this week and Zamorano students were well represented! A total of 30 Zamo student art pieces from the school were on display out the total 500+ pieces. It was so great to see students and their families come to see their works!!

Below are some student works!

15 of my Zamorano 4th grade student works were exhibited with other artists from San Diego. These were digital works we created a few weeks back inspired by public art and Yayoi Kusama and it was a powerful and validating experience for students to see their works in an art gallery!