Art with Ms. Sallen

VISUAL ARTS CURRICULUM: KINDERGARTEN THROUGH 8^TH GRADE

AMY SALLEN

This year, we’ve already started to cover a variety of subjects. Kindergarten has finished using crayon to create designs with their names. Very strong themes for them and First grade are following directions, shape recognition and use, colour, shape and line pattern,

We are working on colour mixing, fine motor control and developing awareness of the progressive development of an image. As we work, students are encouraged to start with the "Big Idea" and work down to the details. Kindergartners are finishing up clowns made of "the French fry man"- made of a variety of geometric shapes. They have also added pattern and colour to this image. Students in 1^st through 4^th grades have been working on "Hidden Name Plates", changing letters into things they’re shaped like. Students are surrounding the name with puzzle pieces to confuse the viewer. Students are building on basic concepts mentioned earlier, only adding a narrative element, fine details and experimenting more independently with materials to create new effects. 5th and 6^th grade names are much more complex, involving the creation of space and volume, using perspective, using rulers and some geometry on the "bubble letters" of their name. They are also adding environments, which interact with the letters such as animals moving behind or through a letter. They are also adding a shadow side of the letters to further activate the space.

All students did Victorian Haunted Houses, both looking at real images and working with me to create a step-by-step image. We considered Second Empire Victorian Houses and their actual characteristics specifically. Many students discovered that there were Victorian houses near them or they even lived in one! This was an excellent introduction to the concept of Architecture in general, and how people live in other places.

We are beginning a K- 6 unit on Native American culture. Students K-3 will create Tipis using authentic pictographs. Did these people use an architect for their home? Why? Why not? We will study Sioux culture and look at authentic artifacts.

4th through 6^th Grade will create Tipis telling their own important personal story and identifying role models, integrating traditional images as well. We will also create totem poles, older grades possibly creating class totem poles. These poles may tell an important story for this class. Depending on time, we may also paint a small thematic mural. Students love this exploration of Native American culture through images, culture and communication expressed through the visual- pictographs or sign language.

For the holidays, we will create family portraits, utilizing anatomy, personal narrative and visual details, finishing things up with a frame.

In the winter, to get warm, students will create "floral bouquets in winter" on black paper. They will consider flower anatomy, use of pattern, colour mixing and the medium of Cray Pas on black paper. Many young students love discovering this medium because results are so dramatic. Students will also be working on images for display at both the All-City Martin Luther King (MLK) Celebration and for Black History Month at the Lyndon. Student artists will work to create a strong narrative image, using skills we are developing, to express their feelings on this subject. By considering MLK both in classrooms and with me, students will have a more personally meaningful learning experience and further identify themselves as artists.

Of course, for Valentine’s Day all students will create positive-negative shape and just funny valentines for friends and family. It’s extremely important for the student to feel pride in their product and the pleasure of sharing an original card with others.

Into the spring, students will work on portraits of friends, considering facial structure and drawing from observation. Older students will work with mirrors on self-portraits, and using shadow, they will create the illusion of volume in the face. This may be achieved with charcoal. All students will look at examples of portraits throughout history, examining images for costume, pose, location and emotional feeling.

We are hoping to go outside and do some landscape painting in the spring, experimenting with the tempera paint medium to comprehend light as colour. Students will examine landscapes of some Impressionists. I will also bring in a few my own landscapes and do a demonstration with them.

Students will start a weaving series in the lower grades, by using a ruler to create a black paper loom, actually measuring in the 1^st grade. We will begin to consider pattern in weaving and work on the actual tightness of the weave and colour choices. 2^nd Grade through 6^th grade will use real yarn to weave after they make looms. Toward the end of the year, we also will make another form of weaving, Gods Eyes (Tsurikis). This is another excellent spacial 3 dimensional pattern/math exercise – to better reach all kinds of learners.

In the spring, we will also use self-drying clay. Kindergartners and older students will first experiment and practice correct techniques with Plasticine. Kindergartners will make and decorate a pot. Older students will create an animal and paint it. Students must follow directions or their piece won’t hold together. As students become familiar with new mediums, they sharpen their skills and become more sophisticated, confident artists.

Otherwise, Ms.McClure- Lower School Science, the 4^th grade teachers and I, will be working together with the 4^th graders on a unit. Students will be creating, after research and writing, Famous Women Scientist Stamps. These stamps will be possibly be displayed at the post office.

In April or May, the 5^th Grade will work on a unit covering the use of Herbals in 17^th Century American Life. In Science, students will consider the actual herbs properties, and observe the live herb. From this observation, students will do accurate drawings, which they will transfer to plates and then print, also printing advertisements for their herbs. These printed advertisements will be put together, creating a facsimile of a 17^th century newspaper.

As the year progresses, other projects will be added (for specific teachers), deleted or moved.