Wire Sculptures – Grade K

Check out the amazing final sculptures K students created. We reused styrofoam that Mr. Colleton collects for the art room, along with pipe cleaners and twisteez wire. Some of the k students finished early enough and were able to share a bit about their work. I recorded them with the Audioboo app on my iPad. The thing I like the best about this app, is that it’s easy to add photos to the audio recordings.

Check out some of them below, or click through to see and hear ADK students talk about their work. AMK students talk about their work. PMK students talk about their work.

Paper Sculpture Exploration – Grade K

Kindergarten students have continued working on exploring sculpture materials. Recently they explored paper. They were asked to problem solve ways to transform it into a 3-dimensional sculpture. They also had to problem solve how to attach the pieces of their paper sculpture. Check out photos below to see what they came up with.

Functional Art – Coil Pots – Grade 4

Fourth grade has been exploring the difference between functional art and non-functional art. These two types of art are some times referred to as craft and fine arts. Craft is often times seen as the lesser of the two arts, which is why we use the terms functional and non-functional. After having a conversation about these two types of art, we started working on our coil pots. All grade 4 classes have finished building their coil pots. I am just waiting for the coil pots to dry out, then I will bring them to the junior high to be fired in the kiln. Check out the photos below to see room 18 in action.

Pinch Pots – Grade 1

First grade has either finished up, or will soon finish up their pinch pots. Besides learning how their hands can be used as tools to manipulate the clay, they also practiced their observation drawing skills. Check out some of the finished pinch pots shared here, along with the observation drawings, which I’ve shared next to each pinch pot photo.

There will also be pinch pots and drawings on display in the lobby, so if you stop by school in the next couple of weeks, be sure to take a minute to check them out!

Figurative Wire Sculptures – Grade 6

Sixth graders are working on finishing up their wire sculptures. From practicing drawing people from observation, to planning their wire sculpture, to problem-solving while working with wire, it’s taken a lot of hard work. The last steps are creating a base so their sculpture can stand on it’s own, and drafting their artist statements. Check out some in-process photos below, and make sure to visit our Artsonia gallery to see finished work and to read their artist statements. Work will be uploaded as it is finished over the next couple of weeks.

Exploring Clay – Grade 1

First grade students have been spending some time in November and December working with clay. Our first day was an exploration, where students were asked to see what they could do to the clay with their hands and how many words they could come up with that described what they did. Each class amazed me with the long list they came up with. Check out the Wordle which is made up from the word list from all 3 classes.

Students have learned and used roll, poke, and pinch, to create a pinch pot. Room 4’s pinch pots are currently on display in the glass case in the front lobby, and Room 3 & 5’s will be on display after the holiday break. Be sure to come in and check them out before they go home!

Fairy Houses Collaboration – Room 17 – Grade 4

This lesson started because of Mrs. Pastor’s inspiration from the book ‘Fairy House….Everywhere!‘. It’s a new book in our school library this year. When she approached me, I got really excited for a collaboration with her, working with her class in groups to help them make their own fairy houses.

I immediately put out the word that we would need help collecting materials from nature, like pine needles, acorns, sea shells, etc, and the students, along with Mrs. Pastor, collected materials on their nature walk. We had bags and bags of supplies, and spent one Tuesday afternoon bringing it all together.

Mrs. Pastor used the experience as a writing prompt, which her class has been working on diligently. I can’t wait to read them when they are done!

Right now the fairy houses are on display in the case in the front lobby, so be sure to check them out when you stop by Conant. If you can’t make it to Conant, check out the photos below!

Andy Goldsworthy Inspired Collaboration – Room 19 – Grade 4

Day 1

Students in Mrs. Cole’s 4th grade class got again this year! As part of my collaboration with classroom teachers, I worked with Mrs. Cole to facilitate group nature sculptures with her students. It was a treat to share with them an artist I really love, Andy Goldsworthy. After looking at his work, and reviewing the elements of art, students headed outside, and came up with some really lovely nature sculptures. As part of Mrs. Cole’s side of the lesson design, she had students not only spend time documenting their sculptures on day two in their nature journals, they also have been working hard on a writing piece, about the experience. Please check out the in-process photos below!

Day 1

Day 2

Stop-Motion Animations – Grade 6

When grade 6 artists started their wire sculptures early this year, the plan was to collaborate with some high school students in the animation class at ABRHS, to make a stop-motion animation. Unfortunately with the low enrollment in the animation class, that wasn’t a possibility, so I came up with the idea for the 6th graders to animate their wire sculptures themselves! We used the iPad application iMotion HD (which is also available for the iPhone), and I gathered a number of iPads from teachers at Conant, along with my own personal iPad. A little demo of how to use the application was all it took to get these students inspired. Unfortunately Room 12 didn’t have enough time in the year to complete the animations. Below you’ll find a video compilation of the animations from Room 11 and Room 13. Enjoy!

Relief Sculpture – Grade 3

Room 17

The last unit of the year in third grade taught the third grade artists about relief sculpture and how it compares to sculpture in-the-round, which is the type of sculpture they made in first and second grade. A relief sculpture is a sculpture consisting of shapes carved or applied to a surface so as to stand out from the surrounding background. Think of one side of a coin, and you get the idea of what a relief sculpture is.

Room 17

As a class we filled out a venn diagram on the first day of this unit, describing the sculptures on display, which included some relief and some in-the-round sculptures. Once we started working, third graders spent a number of classes practicing in modeling clay and planning for their final sculpture by creating a pencil sketch. Many students redesigned their sketch after spending some time working with modeling clay, as they realized their idea was too detailed for creating out of clay.

Room 17

The final step was painting the sculptures with watercolor paint. Third graders enjoyed being able to use some metallic watercolors. Once these go home, I could see a magnet being added to some of the smaller ones (or maybe a heavy duty magnet to the larger ones), and being displayed on the fridge!