Tuesday, September 15, 2009

September Curriculum Newsletter

Below is what you will find in our September Art Newsletter:


Studio 220 Newsletter: September 2009

 

Welcome Back! I am so excited to be here again and working with your children!

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Megan Kimball (formerly Driscoll).  This year I am teaching grades one through five.  Each time they have art, they will come to the art studio, room 220.

 

In Studio 220, we will work on a variety of art and design projects.  All of the children will work with a variety of media as mandated by the Blueprint for the Arts: drawing, painting, printmaking, arts in technology, design, collage and sculpture.  These units, spread throughout the year, will cover a variety of topics, often linked to the learning that is happening in their classroom.  I am thrilled to be incorporating technology into the art studio more this year with the addition of a Smartboard, Desktop computer and two digital cameras for student use.  This year we will be incorporating artist visits, as well.  At some point during the year, each grade with have an artist from outside of the school who we will partner with on a unit.  If anyone knows an artist who might be interested in working with us, let me know.

 

Here is a glimpse of what we are doing in September:

 

First Grade: All first graders have art twice a week with Danielle and/or me. First graders are working on an introduction to printmaking.  We will be learning about what a print is and making monoprints.  We will use these monoprints and add collage and craypa to create animals inspired by the artist Charley Harper.  We will explore color mixing and line with this unit. 

First graders will then be creating paintings of their families inspired by the work of Carmen Lomas Garza.

 

Second Grade: Second graders are working on paintings of animals that use line and gesture to show movement.  We will be exploring the work of Keith Haring as an example of using line to show movement.  We will explore different ways to apply paint and reinforce what we know about color mixing including making colors lighter and darker.

 

Third Grade: In this two-part unit, students will first create a creature inspired by Uglydolls.  In this part of the unit, we will be exploring symmetry and collage.  Third graders will then create a dream world for their creature with paint.  We will look at the work of Marc Chagall as an example of dreamlike imagery and compositions.  

 

Fourth Grade: Big News! Fourth graders are working on a unit creating art about the Gowanus Canal.  We will be meeting artists who are part of AGAST (http://agastbrooklyn.com/) and our work will be shown in a gallery stop during their studio tour.  We are working collaboratively with paint and collage.  I will send home more information about the gallery show soon.

 

Fifth Grade: Fifth graders are working on drawing and painting from observation.  We are going to be exploring zooming in and creating big paintings of tiny things.  We looked at the work of Wayne Thiebaud at the end of last year, so we will start there and move on to other artists who create still life paintings.

 

Artist of the Month: The Artist of the Month for September and October is Denyse Schmidt.  She is a contemporary quilt maker who works in an exciting “improvisational” way. 

 

Most Importantly: Check out the Studio 220 blog! We will be posting tons of information about what we are working on.

www.megankimball.blogspot.com

 

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