The school purchased brand new matted framed to display student artwork throughout the building. Check out these beautiful artworks!
The second graders finished their warm and cool peacock mixed media project with some very cool feathers! A big thank you goes out to Creative Pitch, an organization the art department has worked with for 2 years now in finding new uses for donated materials. This charity is hard at work to make sure the arts in schools across the Chicagoland area are supported and thriving! Great job 2nd grade!
The fourth graders are exploring the world of paper mache. Each child has been working 2 or more class periods building up layers of their paper mache sculpture. This messy technique is an oldie, but a goodie! The students were introduced to Dale Chihuly and his wonderful and quite stunning glass sculptures. Their organic forms and bright colors take your breath away. The students also learned about the concept of installation art, art that can be installed in an area or environment as a part of the art itself. Check out some of Dale Chihuly's art below! The kindergaterns have been practicing pattern last week and this week before their winter break. Watching their patterns become forms will be magical when they come back from break. After the patterns are drawn and colored (in marker! WHOOO HOOO!), the students will learn to cut them in a way to create miniature sculptures. I cannot wait to see the final result, the photo to the left is an example of what they will look like once they are finished! Check out this video for more on Ancient Egypt!
Kindergarten learned about lines this week! Straight, curly, wavy, and zig-zag were the highlight of the week! The kinders had a good time learning about the magic of watercolors over the oil pastels. Watching tyhe watercolor glide over the colors WITHOUT covering the oil pastel seemed like MAGIC. Always fun to see their faces when they realize this fun trick. Paitning can be a great way for our little artists to build their fine motor skills. The kinders used their brushes like a pencil but with hair. We talked about how the hair of the paintbrush is just like the hair on their head. We must clean it to get all the paint out and be gentle, so our brushes don't get a bad hair day! The fourth graders have been hard at work weaving their painted paper plates. We introduced the principles of design with balance being one of them. When it comes to art, you can three different types of balance: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial. Our focus for this project was to achieve a radial balance with our loom. We explored Peru and Peruvian looms to see how other cultures use looms.
"The Little White Owl" by Tracey Corderoy is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it! I love owls and could not resist doing this art project with the kindergarteners. They have been doing a wonderful job, moving right along in art. We learned about color, shapes, forms, space, and now TEXTURE! These owls look cute, but they are a lot of work. Each child must tear the feathers from paper, building and strengthening their fine motor skills. The end result is awesome, and we even got to add a silver moon with special mirror paper (so cool!!!).
In 3rd Grade, we just finished up our aboriginal cave art and are moving into our Keith Haring drawings. Keith Haring was a cartoon artist and social activist during the 1980's. Just like the artists during the Stone Age, Keith created art that everyone could understand in places everyone had access too. He created many cartoon images where "movement" can be easily identified. Check out his website for kids!! http://m.haringkids.com Lately, the Kinders have been working hard! Our shape robots were a hit! Since they have been working on shapes in the classroom, we decided to create some art using shapes. They did a fantastic job problem solving how to make new shapes out of squares. Our funny face pumpkins helped used discover red and yellow make orange! Our newest project, the turkeys, we a great way to show how art can incorporate textures. Great job kindergarten artists!
Happy Halloween! RGS celebrates Dia de Los Muertos and a spooky Halloween this season. The 6th graders worked on Calaveras ink/watercolor art, 3rd graders recreated the illusions in the West African folktale "Anansi the Spider", and the 5th graders recreated tints and shades accompanied with an artist statement.
Location grocery store Super-Low donated over 90 pumpkins to Mrs. Loconti for the art room! The third graders were so excited to paint real pumpkins!
International Dot Day celebrates the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds we read in art classes K-5 the first week of school. The kids have been hard at work to make their own dots! Kinders - 3D Paper Sculpture Dots 1st - Dotter Paintings 2nd - Tye Dye Dots 3rd - Collaberative Dot Murals 4th - Radial Design Dots 5th - Zentangle Dots Happy Dot Day! Hope this inspires you to create throughout this year!! My favorite season is fall. I love the way the kiddos learn about color through the leaves changing colors. This season, I have the third and first graders working on some watercolor leaf resists. We are investigating the structure and organic shapes of all different types of leaves such as maple and oak. After we drew them, the third grade used a special black glue (half glue/half black tempera) to outline their leaves. The first graders used warm colored oil pastels to outline their leave drawings. The first graders will be painting their leaves within the next week. The third graders will create a more advanced watercolor technique by adding salt to the liquid watercolor to create a textured look! It's magical to see their faces. The second graders will be mixing red and orange paint to make orange pumpkins, with yellow and blue to give them some leaves. Next week we will add our magic touches, such as chalk for some highlights, and we will have some AWESOME pumpkins! Watch out in our hallways to see some of these beautiful masterpieces. The 4th graders worked outside today on their one point perspective museum drawings. We researched different artworks with our iPads, and added them to our watercolor museums! Beautiful job 4th grade!!
K-5 Art classes will be collaboratively creating projects on the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. This book is a great way to explain the way we become inspired and create, and how no matter our skill levels - we are all artists inside! Please ask you child about Vashti and her beautiful dots! If you would like to create your own dot in a swirly gold frame, please do so!! I hope you have enjoyed your summer! I am so happy to be back creating art with all of you! |
About Mrs. Montalbano...Welcome to the River Grove School's Art Classroom! I am a K-8 art teacher to over 700 students throughout the school year. I am so proud to be a part of the Royal family at RGS. Feel free to browse the beautiful student artwork. Archives
May 2017
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