Theme of the Month: Architecture

This year's art curriculum is all about exploring different careers in the arts.  I wanted to make sure students learned a variety of different options as well as make sure it was organized in a way I could manage all of my 10 grade levels.  So that's where my Monthly art themes come in.  Each month we have a different category to explore.  All of my classes explore this theme in different ways and different levels.

October's theme was Architecture.  Here is just a few of the projects that were created.

Kindergarten:

Students designed their own dream playgrounds after looking at some of the craziest from around the world!  They also practiced cutting out their shapes with scissors.  

First Grade:

Students made some 3D houses from boxes and paper towel rolls to create these colorful houses.

Second Grade:
Students took a look at contemporary illustrator and artist Marz Jr.  They also looked at Buffalo Architecture icons to help make these drawings.  Do you recognize any of the white buildings?

Fourth Grade:
We looked at Victorian Houses to help inspire these foam prints. Since it was close to Halloween, some of them decided to add some spooky twists.

Tutorial: Origami Sphere

 

I have been making these origami balls ever since my elementary art teacher taught me in 4th grade. That's right, 4th grade! I have no clue how I have remembered this for all these years but I'm certainly glad I did. I recently taught my 5th graders how to make these and many made some at home!  Since then, I have gotten quite a few requests on how to make them. So here is my attempt at showing you how through pictures. If you have any questions just shoot me an email or comment on this post and I will try and help you out! 

Tips: 

 -I suggest using 6in by 6in paper (traditional origami size) for the first time round because the smaller it is the harder. 

 -Try making them all different sizes and hanging them! It would make for a gorgeous arrangement for a party or event! 

-Make the edges nice a crisp by using the back of your thumbnail, and bone folder or even a popsicle stick to create a crisp fold.

Click for full post.

Miss T's Back, Back Again....

 

90s boy band song anyone?  No...just me?
Anyways......

After an extremely long hiatus, I am back to blog land! It has been over a year since I last posted and quite a bit has happened!  I survived my first year teaching full time at a new school, performed Master's research and graduated, ran two art shows for my biggest group of kids yet and much more!  I do plan on posting some of these past events, but to be honest, I wasn't the best at snapping pictures this past year.  So expect more of a round-up with plenty of pictures of last year's art show.  I do plan on photography a lot more this year.  So look out for some new lessons and shenanigans from the St. Christopher art room!

Stay tuned! 

One door closes....

It is with a heavy heart that I write, St. Leo's has officially closed their doors.  It was a bittersweet day on Tuesday as we have the last school-wide mass followed by an awards ceremony and then fun at Fantasy Island.  It was also the day that I packed up and moved out what seemed like 20 years worth if stuff from my classroom of three years.  I end this chapter of my teaching career with this update and farewell: 

Where has this semester gone! It has been a whirlwind of activity in the artroom.  The last projects have been finished and handed in and artwork from the beginning of the year has been sent home!  It was a lot!  You don’t realize all that has been made until you bring it all out.  It was memory lane for some classes who have forgotten all they have done!  And for me…I have found a lot of extra space in the artroom! 

                The highlight of this semester was not only seeing students talk about past art projects and look through portfolios but our Variety Show!   I cannot be more proud of those students who had incredible courage to perform not only in front f loved ones but the entire school as well!  The first Variety Show night was one to remember.  All of our performers did absolutely wonderful! There were tears, laughs and some very proud Drama Club advisors!  Congratulations Drama Club and Variety Show participants!  

The days are flying by as we enter the last few days of school.  I’m sure many of our hearts are heavy but also our minds full of precious memories of our time here at St. Leo’s.  These past three years have been a pleasure to see these wonderful students grow and make some incredible artwork.  This was my very first teaching placement and I cannot think of a better fit to start my career.  To the parents, thank you for all your support and instilling your children will the importance of succeeding in all subjects, even art.  It was great to have students that loved art as much as I do and to be able to run a successful art club and drama club.  We had more participants then I could have hoped for!  To the staff, thank you for keeping this part-time teacher in the loop.  It is easy to feel distant and not part of this community being here twice a week but I can happily say that I felt quite a part of this school.  Thank you for the guidance and allowing your students to get quite messy at times in the artroom.  To the students, you are what made me want to go to work every Tuesday and Thursday.   You are all so talented in your own little ways, whether art was “your thing” or not, find what you love and pursue it.  I wish you all the very best at your new school, you will all do wonderful, but just remember to keep being good friends and remember all that you learned and accomplished at St. Leo’s.  I will miss you all but I know I will fondly bring these memories with me to wherever I end up next. 

Wishing you all the very best,

         Miss Thrun

Larger than Life

Beginning of the year, meant lots of self portraits in various forms.  6th grade channeled all of their social media knowledge and took a look at avatars and cartoons.  We discovered that avatars often have exaggerated physical features.  We then compared these to Japanese manga and anime.  I was surprised many knew some mangas (Dragon-ball Z and others from my high school days). We also talked about the literary form of exaggeration (I like to use the fishing story example). We used faceyourmanga to exaggerate our physical features and of course had to blow them up to larger than life size!

We used a grid to help us enlarge our avatars and keep the correct proportion.  We then talked baout what we want to exaggerate about ourselves.  Often we focus on the things that we do not like rather than the things that are good about ourselves.  I have then make a list of the things they love about themselves and things about them that they want to exaggerate.   These are written in the background of their portraits.

I absolutely love how these turned out!  They did a fantastic job enlarging something that started so small to something so big!  They got a kick out of seeing our 3 and 4 year olds seeing these large portraits out in the hallway.  For some reason they were mesmerized by these portraits! 

Let's Catch up!

Hey everyone!  Miss Thrun certainly has been missing in action for quite a while.  There has been a lot of news, both happy and sad as well as a lot going on!

A few months ago, we found out that St. Leo's will be closing at the end of this school year.  It is a heartbreaking development and I will miss all of my students dearly but we still have many months to go so we should all look forward to making this the best school year ever! Drama club is in full swing and art club is learning stop motion animation this month!  Our three short films will premiere at our Variety Show in May and Drama club will be performing two songs from Oliver Twist to open and close this end of the year extravaganza!

With in this post are some snap shots taking from these past months but I'll be back with some more details project posts soon! 

Rizzi City for Meet the Teacher Night!

First artwork of the year is up! I wanted to have some work for the parents to see at meet the teacher night. Grades K-8 learned about NYC artist James Rizzi. Rizzi lived his community and you can see it,in his playful paintings. We focused on his buildings that seem to take in a personality of their own. Students were asked to think about their community and specifically our school community here at St. Leo's. After discussing the important, favorite and their own role in the community students were asked to create a building that commucates their role or something about their personality.  Put them all together and you get a Rizzi city of unique and wonderful artists!