You might be amazed at what our students learn in the art room. Sometimes we learn about history, other times we might learn a little math or science, we have been known to incorporate language arts and writing into our art lessons, there are even times when we pretend we are great chefs. Art class is so much more than just learning how to draw. It may look like chaos if you just look in the window, but if you can look past the chaos you will see students learning through discovery and using their new knowledge to create their own original masterpiece.

You can expect to see some of the following things happening in the art room this year:

Kindergarten – We will focus on learning how to use new materials. We frequently use stories to stimulate our imaginations.

1st Grade – We will be chefs in class to learn about the color wheel, we will be the grandest weavers in the land to make a beautiful dress, we will learn about expressive painting, making objects out of geometric shapes and we will spend time making animals that are two and three dimensional.

2nd Grade – Ancient Egypt will play a large part in our work this year. We will be learning about all the different areas of life in Ancient Egypt that were influenced by art and we will be replicating some of it. We will learn about the work of Eric Carle and will create our own “Wild Thing Jungle” after reading Where the Wild Things Are.

3rd Grade – We study the art of other cultures. We study Native American blanket weavings and will create our own weaving. We will also incorporate their lessons from their classroom on Greece into our lessons in art. We will talk about Greek art and story vases in particular. Students will have the opportunity to work with pastels, clay, underglaze and glaze, textiles, paint and much more. This is a great year to learn how to use new materials.

4th Grade – This year is filled with so many great lessons. This is the year when students really begin to shine in the art room and show their creativity. We will be creating our own superheroes, learning how to use watercolors, do some papermaking, gesture drawing, and incorporating some of the Virginia history they learn in their classroom into works of art. This is the year when students are expected to be able to critique their own work. This is an important part of learning and getting better at the skills we use in class.

5th Grade – This is a very busy year in the art room. All students are expected to keep a sketchbook and complete weekly assignments in them. As the year goes on students will find that the drawing they completed at the end of the year is so much better than the drawing they did at the beginning of the year. One of the focuses of the sketchbook is simply practice; the other is the students learning to draw what they see. 5th graders will learn a little about art history through their interview with an artist assignment. They will also learn how to use technology to communicate what they have learned. We will learn about how math is an important part of art when we want to make our work symmetrical, develop a pattern, or create an optical illusion. We will focus a good amount of time on self-portraits. They will learn about many different styles of art and use these to create different styles of self portraits.

Joyce Sipe
Art