Grade 1: Monet Bridge

Monet's Japanese Bridge  and Water Lilies one of my favorite Monet paintings and my first graders put an awesome spin on the famous painting picking a bridge color of their own and swirling their paint colors to make mesmerizing backgrounds.

Grade 3: Toucans

Way to Go!!! Each of my third graders created one of their most amazing art pieces of the year in this project. We learned SO much about toucans, their habitat and what they eat. They also did an incredible job of using oil pastels and paint. The angles on some of these pictures are a bit off because I photographed them while hanging in the display case. Each toucan has so much personality. I love how creative the third graders got in designing the beaks and backgrounds. I can't wait for you to see the rest of the toucans when they are sent home!

Grade 1: Finished Cats

Back in early March I blogged about the start of a cat portrait project that I started with 1st graders. They have been hanging in the hallway for quite some time...here are the finished portraits.
We talked about Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" painting and had a few giggles discussing the cat sitting there with a bird on top of it's head. My first graders are quite silly so we are matched well.

"Cat and Bird" by Paul Klee

From the original 3/11/2013 post

Grade 2: Pastel Castles

If only they were life sized.... I would love to travel and visit some of these castles that my second graders in Mrs. Lopez's class created. They combined simple shapes after examining pictures of castles. 

They became expect pastel blenders to create these beautiful compositions. 

Making Mosaic Murals with Isaiah Zagar

Zagar using up leftover grout

This past weekend I spent two full days in Philadelphia creating a mosaic mural on Montrose St. with mosaic master Isaiah Zagar and roughly a dozen others. The experience was incredible. We started a mural from scratch in a parking lot that needed beautification. By 4pm on Sunday afternoon, we had completed our mural and were back at his warehouse saying goodbyes. Zagar is such a kind and inspiring artist. His two studios are incredible and he is one of the most prolific artists I've met. I will post again about my experience once I've had more time to reflect. Here are some pictures:

Such a great team

grouting the lower portion...my back hurts

my shoes and grout bucket :-)

Arbor Day Mosaic

Here is a picture of a mosaic that was made by a group of students who wanted to stay in at recess. We submitted it for the Township Arbor Day contest and received special recognition and a PIZZA PARTY! 

We are very excited because when we completed this mosaic, we knew that we created something beautiful for our school...so a pizza party is icing on the cake!

A Bear Tavern 5th grader named Shea won 1st Place in the Arbor Day art contest. What awesome kids I teach.

I am looking forward to getting this mosaic back to Bear Tavern. (It is at the municipal building right now). It is definitely one of my very favorite pieces that we created.

Bear Tavern Earth Day 2013

What a chilly, windy Earth Day! We stayed mostly inside to create art for Earth Day with the exception of some classes drawing on the pavement with sidewalk chalk.

I am a huge fan of green art and using everyday materials to create installations. Our bottlecap mural a few years ago was our first "green" installation at Bear Tavern. We collected caps for 8 months before creating our bottlecap mural.

This year, we created mandalas heavily inspired by artist Virginia Fleck. We aimed to reduce the amount of plastic bags going into the ground by reusing them to create several wonderful mandalas. Our school community brought in an extraordinary amount of beautifully colored plastic bags that were cut up for the kids to use today.

Virginia Fleck is so inspiring. She's such a nice woman and I am looking forward to sending her some pictures of our finished designs.

We also snuck in some large leaf paintings towards the end of the day.
I really love all of the art created today and am glad that I can restore the art room to "normalcy". For the past week I've had plastic bags all over getting them prepped for the kids today.

I felt pretty happy to hear students say things like "I want to be an art teacher when I grow up!" and "This was so much fun!"
Some people wonder why I do so many projects each year and the answer is "because it's my job...and I love art".
 Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time today and to the staff who assisted in prepping for the event... I couldn't have managed with out you...thanks for making today a fun one for our kids!

Leaf painting....I'm in love

I love this leaf painting

3rd grade boys laying out strips

Students working on a mandala with help from Mrs. Majkowski

Students brainstorming ideas

Virginia Fleck "Dot Mandala"

50th Anniversary Mosaic Preview

Progress: We. Are. Almost. Done. 

Our 50th Anniversary exterior mosaic which consists of five, 3'x4' ceramic panels depicting events since 1962 has been a labor of love. Every single tile was handcrafted by my talented students in all grades including preschool and kindergarten. 

The artsy staff at Bear Tavern have poured support into the project in so many way. Not only did they make their own fabulous tiles but have been there to offer advice, extra time filling in holes and general positive spirits.

Our Artist-in-Residence, Jessica Liddell, is pulling together all of the pieces. I am coordinating installation as you read this entry. She will return to grout when spring arrives. 

Check back for updates on the final install and finished panels or stop by the main entrance to Bear Tavern sometime soon!

Update: April 16, 2013

There she is...Jessica Gorlin-Liddell our Artist-in-Residence installing tiles to fill in the spaces. 

Here are the panels that the awesome HVRSD Facilities guys installed last week.

3rd Grade: Art Meets Rocks in our Parade of Artists Assembly

Some projects are meant to be. My most recent Parade of Artists assembly was definitely in the stars.

Talking with Mr. Kirwan, our wonderful School Counselor, about random artsy things, he mentioned a Photographer named Jonathon Wells that he met a while back.

This Photographer is quite extraordinary for a few reasons....
1. He is a very good photographer....
2. He is also a Geologist....
3. He has a studio near Hopewell....
4. He creates unique photo collages depicting landscapes (cities, rolling hills, etc.) and the layers of rock beneath... exposing the beauty that lies underneath.

Jonathon Wells and students

Well, guess what, I reached out and got an answer back that he would be willing to talk to our 3rd graders about Art and Rocks! 3rd grade is currently studying rocks and minerals in science so what a perfect time to match up Art and Science.

We set up Mr. Wells' photographs on tables in the the All Purpose Room. The longest photograph stretches 7 feet! The kids "gallery walked" the table which were set up in a large "U" shape admiring the dozen or so images.
Each photograph is as impressive in the visible photography skills of Mr. Wells as much so as the amazing accuracy in the layers of rocks that he has photographed underneath Boston, New York City and numerous places around the U.S.
Just imagine how difficult that is to photograph layers of rock and to arrange those layers beautiful as a collage under an equally beautiful landscape photograph....

The Third graders asked Mr. Wells really great questions that reflect how much they are learning in science and how interested they are in learning about rocks and minerals.

Students at the start of the U shaped viewing line

I always feel proud to work for my school district (and BT in particular), but felt a new sense of pride in being able to connect two areas of interest for our kids and with the perfect guest speaker.

Grade 1: Cats, Birds and Sketchbooks

I just adore my 1st graders. On Friday, with Mrs. Weidman's class,  we had such a nice conversation about a new project we started. The kids really liked looking at Swiss painter Paul Klee's "Cat with Bird". We talked about how silly it is that the cat has a bird on it's forehead, among other things relating to the painting and life as a cat.

 The kids asked if they could draw a bird on their cats forehead or on top of it's head. My answer: OF COURSE YOU CAN...but draw it in pencil first to make sure you're happy with it :-)

I had some really nice scraps of paper left over and decided to make each of the kids a sketchbook to take home. 

Mariella's sketchbook and Aaron's day 1 cat w/ bird

Paul Klee "Cat and Bird"

Logged 20 pages of reading in for March Reading Challenge