Thursday, April 9, 2020

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

5th Grade Home Lesson - Week 4

Fisher Mitchell School is an amazing community of students, families, and school professionals! We need each other more than ever. This week I would like to invite all grades to share illustrations that will help lift us up and stay positive. 

One padlet is called, "Why We Are Thankful or How We Are Helpful." Students are invited to draw a picture of things they are thankful for having in their lives, things they do to help others in this difficult time, or both. It can be found here: https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/ebx8rz19xngn

To post a picture to our padlet try importing it to your Google Drive and then looking for the big plus sign at the bottom of the padlet. If you are having trouble with this or any other technology that I have asked you to try please reach out. I can't help if I don't know you are having trouble.

Our other padlet is called what we love about "Fisher Mitchell School - Student Shout Outs!" Draw pictures of happy times at FMS! We are all doing our best at home learning, but there is something special about all being together at school. Draw a picture of a favorite activity, teacher, or friend at FMS and post it here: https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/mb4118fgl831

 I hope you are all doing well and making time for art in your lives!
-Mr. McGinty

4th Grade Home Lesson - Week 4

Fisher Mitchell School is an amazing community of students, families, and school professionals! We need each other more than ever. This week I would like to invite all grades to share illustrations that will help lift us up and stay positive. 

One padlet is called, "Why We Are Thankful or How We Are Helpful." Students are invited to draw a picture of things they are thankful for having in their lives, things they do to help others in this difficult time, or both. It can be found here: https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/ebx8rz19xngn

To post a picture to our padlet try importing it to your Google Drive and then looking for the big plus sign at the bottom of the padlet. If you are having trouble with this or any other technology that I have asked you to try please reach out. I can't help if I don't know you are having trouble.

Our other padlet is called what we love about "Fisher Mitchell School - Student Shout Outs!" Draw pictures of happy times at FMS! We are all doing our best at home learning, but there is something special about all being together at school. Draw a picture of a favorite activity, teacher, or friend at FMS and post it here: https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/mb4118fgl831

 I hope you are all doing well and making time for art in your lives!
-Mr. McGinty

3rd Grade Home Lesson - Week 4

Fisher Mitchell School is an amazing community of students, families, and school professionals! We need each other more than ever. This week I would like to invite all grades to share illustrations that will help lift us up and stay positive. 

One padlet is called, "Why We Are Thankful or How We Are Helpful." Students are invited to draw a picture of things they are thankful for having in their lives, things they do to help others in this difficult time, or both. It can be found here: https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/ebx8rz19xngn

To post a picture to our padlet try importing it to your Google Drive and then looking for the big plus sign at the bottom of the padlet. If you are having trouble with this or any other technology that I have asked you to try please reach out. I can't help if I don't know you are having trouble.

Our other padlet is called what we love about "Fisher Mitchell School - Student Shout Outs!" Draw pictures of happy times at FMS! We are all doing our best at home learning, but there is something special about all being together at school. Draw a picture of a favorite activity, teacher, or friend at FMS and post it here: https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/mb4118fgl831

 I hope you are all doing well and making time for art in your lives!
-Mr. McGinty

Artist of the Week - 3 / 26 / 20 & 4 / 3 / 20

It has been hard being a remote/online Art Teacher! I became a teacher because I like working with students in real life! I love seeing a class full of students engaged in their work, proving to me that they are learning, but making their work their own, sharing thoughts, space and materials! Trying to set up new ways of communication is challenging for everyone, and we are all learning. Students have proven to be flexible, patient, and helpful to teachers who are learning new ways to use technology.
I want to thank all the students who have shared work on our FMS Art Padlet, tried to do the lessons I post on my blog, and completed some of our first Google Classroom assignments!
On this rainy morning I am having a difficult time deciding on an Artist of the Week. There are 2 students who have been very busy making art since our school closed due to the COVID-19. They both put a lot of effort and a lot of themselves into their artwork and have impressed me many times! I learned early on that one of these students can help me when I have questions about fashion, and the other has often volunteered to sit with students who might be having a hard time in the art room. Thank you both for your hard work and great attitudes! I am recognizing A.T. for her painting inspired by Bob Ross as Artist of the Week for 3/26/20 and H.S. for her toucan piece as Artist of the Week for 4/2/20.
 

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

5th Grade Home Lesson - Week 3

5th Graders have been given an assignment on Google Classroom that involves using their Chrome Books to search for an artist with the same last name as theirs. They are to take a partial screenshot of one of this artist's works and save it with this artist's name. They should attach it to a document and pass it in to me. There are both instructions and a video demonstrating the steps.

I would also like to invite 5th Graders to make an American Flag that Mr. Berkowitz can use in his morning announcements. People all across the country are dealing with difficult situations because of this virus. Take pride in thinking about our country and what you can do to help.


Notice some of these important details:


I first found the halfway mark on the top and the side of my rectangle and made the dotted lines. (If this was a final draft this would be done VERY LIGHTLY)
Notice the blue rectangle in the corner does not make it all the way to the middle of the top line and extends a little below the middle of the side line.
The blue rectangle has 9 rows of stars, starting with 6, alternating to 5, and ending on 6.
There are 13 alternating red and white stripes, starting and ending with red.
The seventh stripe is red and the bottom of it lines up with the bottom of the blue rectangle.






4th Grade Home Lesson - Week 3

Hello 4th Graders and families!
We have two lessons today. One is a very quick lesson on Google Classroom using Google Slides. I have set up and assignment for you with written instructions and an online tutorial. Please access it through Google Classroom.

The other lesson is another using Scale, but this time also using lines to create a road that looks like it is extending into the distance. This is also known as using a Vanishing Point in our art work.

Let's start by making a Horizon Line, or the line where land meets sky:

Then let's pick a point on that line where our road will go to. I the Art Room we would all use a ruler to draw these lines, but I used the edge of my notebook. We should make two angled lines that create a triangle from the bottom of the page to our horizon line. You can experiment making your lines create a bigger "triangle" than I have, but don't make it narrower than mine.

At the bottom of your page, find the halfway point between the two straight lines you made. Make a very light line that goes from there to the top point of your triangle. At this point lets use Scale to make a dotted line that looks like it is going into the distance. Your rectangles should get smaller and become morel closely spaced as they go up your page:

I did a similar thing with telephone poles and cactus, remember to make these things a smaller scale as they get closer to the horizon line!


You don't have to make a desert, but I would like to see a road, runway or canal extending into the distance in your drawing as well as things with smaller scale closer to your horizon line. I can't wait to see your creative ideas!
Remember, you can share your work with everyone on our padlet:



3rd Grade Home Lesson - Week 3

Hello 3rd Graders and families! Have you ever heard of the author and illustrator Mo Willems? Maybe you know about his characters, Piggie, Gerald (the elephant) or Pigeon. These funny books have great dialog, or characters speaking to each other, and are easy to read! Turns out, his characters are easy to draw too! Let's all draw a Pigeon!

Start out with a circle for a head:

Then draw the neck (not too skinny!):

I like to add a gentle curve for the pigeon's chest and an almost straight line for the pigeon's back:

Then I connect the bottom of the chest to the end of the back or tail with a gently curving line:

Then add eye, beak, collar, wing and legs:

Now color, add a voice bubble, and put your pigeon in a background! What are they saying? What is happening around them? Are they going fishing? Have fun adding details!

Don't forget to add your completed work to our padlet!








Wednesday, March 25, 2020

5th Grade Home Lesson - Week 2

Hello FMS 5th Graders and Families,

As you know we are going to be out of school for longer than we thought. I will be posting lessons here once a week. I hope you are all making the best out of this strange situation and being safe.

It looks like we are going to have to put our ceramic sculpture ideas on the back burner. I sincerely hope you will have time to make a clay sculpture in the FMS Art Room one more time before you all graduate to BMS.

I am in the process of rethinking some of my lessons so I can better reach you at home.

This week I would like us to make some word art using bubble/block letters and lines. I would like us to first think of some adjectives, or describing words, that would describe how we want to be during this time when we are all dealing with this virus. Write one of them very lightly in the middle of a piece of paper with a pencil. (I did two different versions, so you could see some different ways to do the same project.


Once you have figured out the spelling, size and spacing of your letters, draw around them to create bubble or block letters.


Then follow these letters with a line that encloses the space around the word. Make this line follow the shape of the whole word. Then make another, and another..


Continue this process until you fill the page.


Add color or fill in some of the areas with pencil or lines!


As you can see, I did this project to, and you know what? I felt smarter and calmer when I was done!
Please share your work with FMS by posting it on our padlet! Thanks, Mr. McGinty

https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/3ejyv7bove4z




4th Grade Home Lesson - Week 2

Hello FMS 4th Graders and Families,

As you know we are going to be out of school for longer than we thought. I will be posting lessons here once a week. I hope you are all making the best out of this strange situation and being safe.



At this point I hope you all know something about scale. Today we are going to experiment with using scale to show the illusion of distance. You will need two pieces of paper and a pencil.

Using one piece of paper, (or a piece of recycling if paper is in short supply) warm up by drawing something simple that you like to draw. This could be a cartoon character or a an animal. For this exercise, you must be comfortable drawing it multiple times, and have the ability to make it smaller each time.

When you are ready draw your thing with a rather large scale towards the bottom of your paper.

Then, a little bit higher up, draw that same thing, but at a slightly smaller scale.

Then, a little bit higher than that, draw that same thing even smaller!

Add details in your picture, like a horizon line and environmental details. Notice the flowers always go up to my characters hand.


I used these same techniques to make this forest scene. You can see how the ferns change in scale as they recede into the distance:


I can't wait to see some of your creative ideas using scale to show the illusion of distance in a drawing. I hope some of you will post them to our padlet! 

Thanks, Mr. McGinty

  https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/3ejyv7bove4z







3rd Grade Home Lesson - Week 2

Hello FMS Students and Family Members,

As you know we are going to be out of school for longer than we thought. I will be posting lessons here once a week. I hope you are all making the best out of this strange situation and being safe.

Today I want to teach you about value, yet another one of those words that has multiple meanings! In art, value means the lightness or darkness of a color. For this lesson you will need a piece of paper and a pencil. If you want to use a colored pencil you may, but please limit yourself to one color for at least the first part of this project.

Start by drawing a shape. This can be a simple shape like a square or rectangle, or more complex like a shark.

Next use lines to split this shape into three zones, or shapes with in the shape.


Then, pushing down hard, make one of the shapes within the shape you created as dark as you can make it.


Now, with very light pressure, color in one zone of your shape as lightly as you can. Try to only use your eraser if you have to.


Your next step is to color in the remaining step so that the value is somewhere between your darkest and your lightest value. How did you do this?


At this point you could be done or you could add whatever kind of details you want to finish your piece. Be creative!


Thanks 3rd Graders, share your work with me by posting it to our padlet:
    https://padlet.com/gmcginty1/3ejyv7bove4z




Wednesday, March 18, 2020

5th Grade Home Lesson Week 1

It's that time of year again! We will soon be creating our ceramic clay sculptures in 5th Grade Art Class. Last year we had great success with a cool project that can last a lifetime (and much longer!) if we treat it properly. We will be making a clay tile of any shape, that demonstrates RELIEF. Relief is one of those cool words that have many meanings. Relief sculptures are usually on the wall. They stick out off of a flat backing. If they only stick out a little bit they are considered low relief, and if they stick out quite a bit they are considered high relief. I would love it if 5th Grade students could start thinking about their relief sculpture and draft it on paper. A frontal view is important, but a side view that shows the relief could be cool too! My experience shows me the more we think about our sculpture before we sit down to make it the better they turn out!

Have fun drafting some ideas! Maybe you have more than one?

No one is responsible for completing any work at home this week or passing anything in to me. I am happy if you spend a little time thinking about what we have been doing in class and making art at home!

Thanks! Make healthy choices!
-Mr. McGinty

4th Grade Home Lesson Week 1

We are currently in the middle of two lessons in 4th Grade art class.

For the most part, all of us have sculpted our salamanders and peeper frogs out of ceramic clay. We will be glazing them when we return to school. I am a little nervous about our forest friends having enough water in the vernal pools where they breed this spring because of the lack of snowpack in the woods. If you hear or see some of these creatures on your (social distancing) adventures into the woods this spring please let me know!

We also learning about SCALE. Scale is one of those cool words that have many meanings. In this case we are talking about:

4a: a proportion between two sets of dimensions (as between those of a drawing and its original)
b: a distinctive relative size, extent, or degree

We are using a cool website, remove.bg to create a google slide that shows pictures of ourselves in different scales. It is easy to use, and if you have a computer at home you might want to mess around with it.

I would love my 4th Grade students to make a drawing where they shrink the scale of some human figures and picture them interacting with a giant size world. When I was a kid I loved The Littles, a series of books by John Peterson about little people who lived in the walls. Can you imagine riding on the back of a frog or a bird? What animals would we have to worry about as predators if we were as small as a mouse? How could inside or outside environments become more fun or more challenging?

No one is responsible for completing any work at home this week or passing anything in to me. I am happy if you spend a little time thinking about what we have been doing in class and making art at home!

Thanks! Make healthy choices!
-Mr. McGinty

3rd Grade Home Lesson - Week 1



One of the subjects that we have been learning about in our 3rd Grade Art Classes is SHAPES. We've learned about 2 big shape families, Geometric Shapes and Organic Shapes. I would love to imagine my students explaining the differences between these different types of shapes to their parents or guardians. If you're reading this together maybe you could have a discussion about this now.


Hopefully students told the adults in their lives that Geometric Shapes "have rules" (like a square must have four equal sides and four 90 degree angles) and Organic Shapes are looser, curvy, and smooth, but don't have perfect symmetry like a perfect oval or circle.


We will be returning to our Coral Reef paintings and all the organic shapes we find in them when we get back to class, but I wonder if students could come up with some drawings that have both geometric shapes and organic shapes in the same picture? Use a ruler, the edge of a box or note book to help you draw straight lines..


We also will be making our turtle sculptures out of clay. Drawing is actually great practice for sculpting so maybe you can find time to practice drawing a sea turtle like the ones we saw in the coral reefs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DXTWTbd8G4


No one is responsible for completing any work at home this week or passing anything in to me. I am happy if you spend a little time thinking about what we have been doing in class and making art at home!


Thanks! Make healthy choices!
-Mr. McGinty

COVID-19 Informational Comic Strip




I'm pretty sure you all have received some information about COVID-19 at this point, but this comic strip by editor / author / illustrator Malaka Gharib has some good information in it for children. Check it out here.

Friday, March 13, 2020

Artist of the Week 3 / 11 / 2020

The student I am choosing to recognize this week is a pleasure to have in the art room. They take their time, but make progress each day. A few years ago, they were one of our first students recognized as student artist of the week. Perhaps you remember their very creative illustration of cats scuba diving? Well they've done it again, creating one of the most creative hand puppets I've seen this year. Check out this amazing cactus and her friend Olivia’s puppet Cam! Congratulations GE and OC in Mrs. Wheeler's 5th Grade Class, Student Artists of the Week!

Friday, March 6, 2020

Artist of the Week 3 / 5 / 2020



I have only known the student that I am recognizing this week since the start of the school year. They are quiet but contribute in class conversations and seem to have a lot of friends in their grade. They have participated in Enrichment (or "Extra") Art many times and have recently been finishing up a piece that they invited some of their friends to help complete. The powerful female figures they created have wings, animal parts, and connections to the earth. When I look at them I see a powerful group that represents love, diversity, and community. Nice Work G.K. in Ms. Zipperer's 3rd Grade Class, Student Artist of the Week!

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Artist of the Week 2 / 27 / 2020


 Sometimes the Art Room can be kind of chaotic. We have a room full of 20 or so artists sharing space, different materials, and conversation. 5th Grade students are working on their hand puppets. This is a multi-media (or more than one art material) project that involves cutting, sewing, designing, drawing, writing, performing, and video. I love seeing all my students working on different aspects of their projects.  This week I am choosing to recognize a student who not only does quality work, but also uses their time well and has a great sense of humor! I am excited to see their puppet come alive in their video. Check out some of the great details she added to this funny Turkey Puppet! Congratulations B. W. in Mrs. Wheeler's 5th Grade Class, student artist of the week!

Friday, February 14, 2020

Artist of the Week 2 / 14 / 2020

  The student I am choosing to recognize this week is pretty quiet. He does really well in Art Class and often surprises me by the unique way he approaches our assignments. 3rd Grade students have been learning about Geometric Shapes. Geometry is where Math and Art meet. A simple way to think about a geometric shape is as a shape that has rules. A square must have 4 equal sides, 4 corners and 4 right angles. 3rd Graders learned it can be difficult to make perfect geometric shapes by hand, and then used our laptops to create digital geometric artworks. This student seemed very comfortable with using his computer to make art. I really like the colors he used in his piece and I think it is very interesting how he used a few shapes to create and abstract landscape with trees, a house, and what might be a tractor. Congratulations E.M. in Mr. Deanes'  third grade class, student artist of the week!

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Artist of the Week 2 / 6 / 2020

by W.Q. in 4S

In the past week I have been very pleased with some of the art I have been seeing. 3rd Graders have finished their heart weavings and are on to learning about Geometric Shapes. 4th Graders have completed their Britto Romero inspired hearts and are now finishing up another piece using the same techniques, and 5th Grade students have a good start on their hand puppets.

First I want to recognize a student who is often quiet and thinking. I like talking to him in the hallway in the morning. Congratulations WQ in 4S for his amazing waterfall piece!






I also want to recognize two brothers who often work together on projects. They have participated in extra art many times and can use their combined creative power for good in the art room. They recently really impressed me with the farm complete with animals that they made in their teachers class, congratulations P.C.  and P. C. in 5G!

Lastly, I need to recognize Mrs. Cole who was so inspired by last week’s Artist of the Week that she went right home and made an amazing stained glass piece that replicated it. The piece hung in our front office for a few days, but has since been packaged in bubble wrap and sent home with the 3rd Grade student who made the original painting!


Thank you all for trying your best and putting yourself into your art!

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Artist of the Week 1 / 30 / 2020



The student I am choosing to recognize this week is a role model. They ask quality questions in class that let me know they are thinking about our lessons, but also how to make their artwork their own. They use their time extremely well. They are able to talk to their classmates a little, but get right to work. They are fast and efficient, but the quality of their work never suffers. They are so efficient they have actually made 2 quality versions of three of our major projects, often leaving one here to share with our school community. And lastly, I must thank them for being both patient and polite when I forget their name. They always remember to call me Mr. Carter when I do. Check out her pink and purple painting she created after completing her Mondrian primary color painting! Congratulations BS in Ms. Newkirk's 3rd Grade Class, Student Artist of the Week!

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Artist of the Week 1 / 23 / 2020


Britto Romero is an artist who was born in Brazil and now lives in the United States in Florida. His art has elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti. After spending some time looking at his work Fourth Grade students identified his use of vibrant colors, thick black lines, and simple patterns. They then used his work as inspiration for these heart pieces that should be finished in time to get up in the hallway for Valentines Day.

The student I am choosing to recognize today does a good job remembering our assignments from the week before. He takes pride in his work and is helpful both passing out materials and cleaning the room. I really enjoyed watching him experimenting with color as he finished his piece. He was excited to see the colors mixing and creating new colors, but also managed to not go too far and kept his colors bright and vibrant. Nice work G.A. in Ms. Soule's 4th Grade Class, Student Artist of the Week!

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Artist of the Week 1 / 2 / 2020

You know a student is invested in their classroom assignment when they choose to work on it during free time. The student I am choosing to recognize today always does quality work in art class. When students are acting goofy or not making their best effort in Art Class, he separates himself so he can do his work. For this project he is the only student I saw use a ruler to make sure his lines were straight and to cut his snowglobe out and put a ribbon on it. Nice work CP in Ms. Hoskins' 5th grade class, Student Artist of the Week!