Grade 3 started a new unit this week and demonstrated a huge knowledge of myths and legends, either from an interest in Greek and Roman Myths, experience of Percy Jackson or a host of animated tales that use myths and legends in some way as part of their story lines. After sharing their knowledge they set to work to invent their own monsters. They had to think about what the story behind the monster would be; where it lived, what it ate, what special powers it might have and if it was a good or bad monster. The stories they came up with were fascinating and showed huge creativity – I can’t wait to see them built! Over the next few weeks we will be using different techniques to make our monsters come to life – let’s hope they don’t bite!

Paper Mache Monster website

is a great website from the guy who makes the monster in the clips above – check it out for ideas and tips and instructional videos that are not so fast!!!!

In order to help our PCF buddies understand how we want to make our community art murals 4 McElhinney created a small mural with recycled materials  to demonstrate the process and welcome out friends when they came on Tuesday. The grade 4 students created a design to be hung in the PCF school and the Pcf kids have created a design for us. On Tuesday during the PCF visit the kids worked together to create the two murals one will be hung in ISM in the coming weeks and the other will be installed in PCF when we go and visit them on the 16th of March. Making an art project together was a great way to build relationships and it was also a lot of fun!

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This video shows how Jackson Pollock controlled his lines to work with paint expressively.

The children LOVED making these Jackson Pollock style paintings and they where surprised to find that rather than just splashing and splattering paint they really could control the types of lines they wanted to make.

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Grade 3 embarked on a unit about Still Life with a look back at the history of artists drawing stuff. Some questions they asked were: Why do people draw stuff? What do they draw? Why do they draw fruit?! By looking back at the history of still life we found that what people chose to draw often told us something about the time in which it was created. The food they chose, the style of painting, the political or philosophical beliefs  of the time. We talked about what kinds of thing we would put in a still life to show something about the kinds of lives we lead or what kind of people we were. But before we draw these things we had to work out what skills we would need to be able to do a good job. We drew some random stuff to work out what we might need to learn. Over the next few weeks the children have made a list of things they think they want to learn. For example – How can we make things look 3D? How can we make the shapes and sizes right? How can we make things look realistic? How can we draw difficult shapes?

If the children come home and talk to you about what they would like to bring into school please encourage them to bring things that mean something to them but are not too precious or breakable. But don’t worry I will write you an email when they are ready to bring things into class.

Taking what they had learnt about mixing a variety of tints and shades the grade three students set to work to create a monochromatic painting. The challenge was to be able to mix enough tints and shades of a colour to make the paintings look interesting and to be able to incorporate details.  Of course they did an amazing job and went on to talk about the mood created by certain colors and subjects in paintings, be it intentionally or unintentionally.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

Continuing our unit on expression and abstract art the grade 2 students have been exploring the different types of line they can use in their art work. By looking at art works of their own and those of others they highlighted 7 different types of line:

Straight, wavy, broken, curved, thin, thick and zig zag.

We discussed how artists had used different types of line to express feelings or ideas.

After watching the artist Rudy Enrst think about and then create a piece of action drawing the children worked in groups of three to create an action drawing inspired by our 7 types of lines. We then discussed how we could add colour and shape to the works to express ourselves further. We watched how Rudy Ernst used colour in his artwork. The children then worked in their groups to decide if they wanted to split up the larger piece or work on it together. They also decided how they would use the shapes that the lines had created and add colour or add colour to follow  the lines. They also choose the colour scheme they wanted to use depending on what they wanted to express. They worked really well collaboratively and created some masterpieces  – I actually like the grade two works much better than Rudy Ernst’s! Art is a matter of taste though, as we know in grade 2, but I do have excellent taste!

Have a look along the art corridor to see the finished works.

Grade 2 explored the possibility of using the the emelents of colour, line and shape to express how they felt when listenting to a vaiety of different music. The paintings were extreamely expressive and we saw some patterns in how some emotions where expressed, the colours used and the lines and shapes created by diffferent feelings. The children demonstrated an ability to react to emotional stimulus and really express how it made them feel through the elements of art. They also showed that they could move!

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