Today I am recognizing a 5th grade student for her scratch board. A scratch board in this case is actually a special piece of paper that has a black film over an under layer that is another color. When the black film is scratched away it reveals the color underneath. Artists create an image by using different scratching techniques to create lines and areas of different value. I chose to recognize this artist not only because she did a careful job, but because of the unique content of her piece. She has depicted a UFO flying over a mountain range. If you look carefully you will see a cow getting pulled up into the space ship by a tractor beam. However this is not just a picture of a UFO flying over a mountain range, it is a picture of a picture of a UFO flying over a mountain range. I find it vey interesting, and it really gets my mind working! The Artist of the Week for 3/27/18 is Elsie Melhorn in Ms. Hoskins 5th Grade Class. Nice job Elsie!

Artist of the Week 3/21/18

She can be a good craftsperson, taking her time to do a careful, quality job. She can also have fun taking chances, making fast choices, and looking forward to seeing how something might turn out. She can make creative choices to visually describe challenging ideas. She is open to suggestions, but she can also stick to her own ideas. She not only has participated in Enrichment  Art (Extra Art) but she also brings in work from home so I can help her create a digital portfolio. That’s where she made this flower which she decided would be the image to represent her as the Artist of the Week 3/21/18. Nice work Aribella O. in Ms. LaFosse’s 4th Grade class.

Artist of the Week 3/7/2018

4th grade students have recently completed ceramic sculptures of penguins. We studied about these aquatic birds that live in the southern hemisphere and are mostly associated with the continent of Antarctica. We  now are in the process of photographing our clay penguin sculptures in front of an Antarctic landscape. I am choosing to recognize a student who did a careful job both sculpting her penguin and glazing it. It’s not very surprising because she always does amazing work in art class. The Artist of the Week 3/7/2018 is Rebekah St. Pierre in Mrs. Towles 4th grade class. Great job!

Artist of the Week 2/28/2018

As many of you know the FMS Art Room has been supporting the Blizzard of the Books reading initiative by allowing students to do a character study. Students must write out the title of the book, the authors name, make an educated guess about the characters age and write three complete sentences about the character they are representing. This was a fun way for students to earn extra squares for their chart. One fifth grade student quickly produced a quality example of this activity and I used it as an example in many classes. Although I think he is most excited by abstract and nonrepresentational art, he quickly made this likeness of Mr. Magee in Chris Van Dusen's Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee (which incidentally is more anatomically proportional than the illustrations in the book!). It's a good drawing, but I was also impressed by the way this student made his sentences about the character rhyme just like the story rhymes! For all these reasons I would like to recognize Otto S. in Mrs. Wheeler's 5th grade class! Nice work Otto!