Welcome to the Art Room 2017-2018

Welcome back to school! I hope you had a great vacation. I made a lot of art this summer. I hope you did too. Here is a few photos of me painting at an art competition I participated in this August. I have to say, I was inspired by my students rainbows last year, so I started to paint them too! I can't wait to see what they come up with this year.

Adventures in Sculpture

There's been a lot of serious Making going on in the UMS art room. Since January, Kindergarteners have worked to create paper mache donuts (classic ring donut, jelly-filled, and of course, the infamous munchkin). 1st Graders used paper mache to build realistic ice cream cones. And 2nd Graders used plaster gauze to create sculptures of the Blue Whale.

This week students got to work with clay, which will be transported to the high school art department for a kiln firing. Kindergarteners made clay cupcakes, 1st graders made birds and their nests and second graders made monsters. Here are some pictures from our adventures in sculpture:

Mrs. Collins' Class Animated Creatures

In second grade, we created articulated creatures inspired by mythology and imagination. After creating the creatures (which had movable limbs from using fasteners) we made short animated movies in partner groups. Below are their finished videos organized by class. Here are Mrs. Collins class' videos

Ms. Barnett's Class Animated Creatures

Mrs. Thibault's Class Animated Creatures

Mrs. Davis' Class Animated Creatures

Working as a Team to Create a New Mural

If you've been into the front hallway of UMS, you've probably noticed the mural has changed. The original mural was painted almost twenty years ago with Ms. Joppe, the art teacher at the time. I met with Ms. Joppe last spring and she suggested I paint over it with some of our current students. Her blessing got me thinking, so I asked permission and took some suggestions from faculty and staff to plan for a new one. It's going to take a number of months to accomplish! 

Based on the art schedule, it works out that I have a free period every Thursday afternoon. That's when 1st graders have flex time in their schedule as well. So, every Thursday I've planned to take 3-5 students to help me paint the mural. We began with a coat of white paint, and have just begun painting the background image. After that's finished we'll begin adding characters in the foreground who are playing, learning and having a good time! 

Here are some pictures of our progress so far:

SUPERHEROES!!

Check out these sweet superheros made by Ms. Barnett's Class! Boom! Pow! KerSplat!

Self-Portraits

We've been working on our Self-Portraits in art class this week. We talked about how different colors can convey different emotions. Some of us decided to show ourselves realistically, while others took a less traditional route (and decided they'd rather have green skin and grow a mustache!). Keep your eye out for our unique and descriptive portraits in the hallway next week.

Just Make a Mark & See Where It Takes You

For our first art project of the year, all students at PPS got to explore their own unique "art mark." We read the book , "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds which is about a little girl who doesn't think she can draw, but discovers she really is an incredible artist. 

On its own each student's mark is gorgeous, but when pieced together, they look even more impressive!

Ms. Vella's Summer Art Projects

I've been doing a lot of painting this summer, as I hope you all have too. I was lucky enough to take a course with Julian Bradshaw at St. Michael's College entitled, "Educator as Artist." The course focused on personalized learning in the arts. Each student enrolled in the course were encouraged to work on their own passions and interests as an artist while developing a large body of work.

Here are some of my paintings I did during my time working on my concentration; you might see some of these at the South End Art Hop in Burlington in September, if you get a chance to visit the Innovation Building off Lakeside Avenue.

Tracy Campbell Pearson Visits UMS!

You may have already heard about our special guest, Author and Illustrator, Tracy Campbell Pearson. She visited UMS today, speaking to all students about the process of being an artist and writer. To celebrate her visit, I was inspired to design a fun lesson based on one of my favorite characters she created: Bob the Rooster. To make their pictures of Bob, students followed a step-by-step drawing guide, outlined their work in black oil pastel, then added splashes of paint to bring their "Bobs" to life. These were a great end-of-year project!