It seems as if the time from January till now has just flown by! Weren’t we just doing Gingerbread Houses? January’s special project for all the classes involved taking recycled materials, such as plastic bottles of all shapes and sizes, empty detergent containers, sticks, feathers, old Legos, bottle caps and coffee creamer caps to build imaginative creatures and characters. What the students came up with far exceeded my expectations! A police robot, a cow, a feathered voo-doo witch doctor (at least that’s what I think it is), an orange chainsaw, and a truck with side-view mirrors are just a few of the what they put together. (See pictures)
In late January we moved on to Chinese New Year. Two of the classes not only painted their names in Chinese characters (letters), but researched characteristics of the animal that represented their birth year according to Chinese culture. They then had to write how those traits may, or may not, reflect their true nature.
The other Art class painted items that are associated with the Chinese culture, such as pagodas, cherry blossom trees, dragons, onto watercolor paper, then had to fold and string the papers together to form a lantern. These were then hung from our classroom ceiling. The lanterns are four-sided and have a design on each side. The results of their artwork are displayed in vivid color complete with tassels. (See pictures)
Further into February we celebrated Black History Month by creating “Quilt Stories” in the style of artist Faith Ringgold. Using old file folders, the students cut, pasted, and glued fabric swatches to the edges of the folders then painted a center scene that would tell a story. They then had to write a short paragraph describing what their “quilt” represented.
Early March has the classes working on the third “installment” of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The theme this time is to incorporate the Spring season into their works, whether it be wildflowers, Easter bunnies and eggs, sunflowers or something else that caught their imagination. These will be displayed in our Art Gallery sequentially with their Fall and Winter pieces. (See pictures). It will be exciting to see their work for all four seasons!
