Middle School: The first week

Hi Art Spotters!

Well, summer is official over, and the new school year has begun! This year is definitely going to be new for me in many ways, because I've moved from teaching K-6th grade to teaching 7th and 8th! I'm no longer at the Elementary level.  While this fact is bittersweet in some ways (I'm sure going to miss all those tiny hugs and energy!) it is very exciting in so many others. Already after just being here at the Middle School for four days, I can say that I am SO happy with my decision to move up!

The middle school students are so independent at this age, which has allowed us to jump right in and get quite a bit accomplished in just these first four days of school.

Our first tasks of the trimester included creating a sketchbook and portfolio which will both be used very frequently.

We are focusing on The Elements of Art and the Principles of Design, which are the building blocks of Art!! If you think of them in terms of cooking, the Elements are like the ingredients, and the Principles are like the recipe. Speaking of Food and Art...here's a link to a fun video that we watched in class that combines food and art!

 Can you Turn Fresh Food into Art?

For our sketchbook covers, we learned all about the 7 Elements of Art. Students were asked to draw a sketch representing each of the 7 Elements. Here are a few examples of Student's finished Sketchbooks. 

Aren't they looking great? I'm really getting excited about the level of talent and enthusiasm I'm seeing already with just our Sketchbook covers. This tells me that this trimester (and year) is going to be really amazing! 

Ok, well that's all for now. Check back soon for glimpses of our first project. It's going to be a collaborative painting project that will be displayed on a very large temporary construction wall in the front of our school! (Parts of the Middle School will be under construction this year, and so we've been asked to decorate the drywall that has gone up.)

I'll see you all later! Keep spotting Art all around you!

-Miss O'Donnell

Clay Fish

Hi Art Spotters! Have you been spotting art all around Grandville lately? I have! Last weekend we had our first Art and Chocolate Walk in downtown Grandville! Similar to Art Prize, (without the cash prize), we hung artwork from students in Grandville Schools up in the businesses located downtown. It was a huge success, and I'll be working on a blog post on that soon.

Until then, I wanted to share a fantastic clay fish project that I completed with 6th graders. Some of the pieces were in the show!

This was a project that really focused on learning how to score and slip pieces of clay together. Students learned that without properly attaching clay pieces, they would fall off during the drying process.

To make the fish bodies hollow, we started out by making two small pinch pots. Taller pinch pots made longer thinner fish, and wider pinch pots made rounder fish. We attached the two pinch pots using score and slip, and added a hole for the mouth. Then we added eyes, lips, fins, and tails. The last work day was used to add details such as gills, scales, and texture.

 Check out some of my favorites from C.P.L.C. below!

This student also made a fish, but had a bit of extra clay. He made this lizard and I just couldn't resist letting him fire it and glaze it! I think it came out so great!

Aren't they amazing!! I was so proud of my 6th graders. I also had some fantastic results at Central and Grand View. Their fish are being finished right now, so I'll post some of those when they are done!

Happy Art making!
-Miss O'Donnell

Kinder Spring Flowers

Hi everyone! It's been a busy year, and it's almost over! Can't believe how fast it went by :)  Just wanted to stop in quickly to share a super cute Spring Kindergarten project with you. It's a project that teaches Kinders how to draw three types of flowers, as well as create a pattern for a vase.

I chose this project to try out our new Tempera Cakes.  And I must say.....I absolutely LOVE them! They are great for younger artists to use.  I was spending so much time pouring tempera paint and then ending up with a huge mess that needed to be cleaned up after each class. These tempera cakes are already ready to go, and if any colors get mixed up, all it takes is a quick swipe with a wet cloth to clean them off.

Here are some in progress shots of the kids painting their flowers.

And the finished product!

Well that's all for today Art Spotters! See you next time. 

sincerely, 

Miss O'Donnell

Biggby Contest Winners!!

Hi Art Spotters!  This past week I hope you all had a chance to head on over to the Standale Biggby to vote for your favorite pieces of Artwork from Cummings Elementary 3rd and 4th graders. Last night was the final night to vote, and at 7pm we announced the winners!

Take a look at the top 3 as well as the Barista's Choice winners below!


First Place, #57.  Prize: $20 Gift Card to Service Reproduction (Art supply store)

2nd Place: #21. Prize: $15 to Service Reproduction

3rd Place #15. Prize: $10 to Service Reproduction.

And Finally, The Barista's Choice Award: #53. Prize: Biggby Ribbon

Congratulations Winners! Can't wait to see next year's selection for the Biggby Art Contest. 

Check in later for some updates on what my other grades have been making so far this school year!

- Miss O'Donnell

Biggby Art Contest

Hi all you Art Spotters out there! I hope you all had a chance to spot some great art in Downtown Grand Rapids over the past few weeks at ArtPrize! Well, now it's time to spot some amazing artwork made by students from Cummings Elementary. Where can you find this art? Hanging on the walls of the Standale Biggby Coffee (on Wilson Road by the Meijer)!  For the second year in a row, select 3rd and 4th graders from Cummings will have there artwork entered into the Biggby Coffee Contest. Starting today, anyone who enters the coffee shop can vote for their top 3 pieces of artwork.  But you don't just get one chance to vote.....you can vote everyday for the next full week for you favorites!

Then, next Wednesday October 16th, the top 3 pieces of art will be announced after the votes are tallied.  At 7 pm we will announce the winners and award the prizes and certificates at the Biggby shop.  Prizes are gift cards to Service Reproduction which is a fantastic Art Supply store in Grand Rapids!

I hope you can get over to Biggby's this week to vote at least once or twice....but if not, here are some pics of the amazing art!

The two projects you are seeing are the 3rd graders Warm/Cool Cities, and the 4th grades Flower Zentangles!

Have a great week, and go out and Spot some Art!!

-Miss O'Donnell

Summer School Week 1

Hello everyone out there in blogger world! Thanks for checking in on me here at The Art Spot Summer Edition!  Today was an exciting day, as it was the start of our Summer School session at Century Park.  Each week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I'll be seeing different grade levels for Art class.

This week was all about 2nd and 3rd Graders!!  I definitely saw some familiar faces in my classes, as well as had the chance to meet some new students which is always fun.  For Summer school this year, its all about focusing on Math and Literacy skills.....YES, even in Art!!  So each grade will be making a project that goes along with a fantastic book, and/or incorporates important Math skills.

Take a look at what the 2nd graders worked on today:

First, after introductions, we all read the great book "The Ice-Cream King".  This story follows a young boy's imagination as he daydreams about an ice-cream land where he is king.  He soon finds out however, that his kingdom has no one else in it!  So instead of having all the ice-cream to himself and being very lonely, it would be MUCH better to share his ice-cream with someone else- His Mom!

Then it was time to begin our project.  Today we created our very own ice-cream flavors! Some were favorites that we've tried before, and others were completely new inventions!  To make our ice-cream, we painted different colors onto paper.  Tomorrow in class when our paintings are dry, we will cut out shapes that look like scoops of ice-cream.  We may even trade ice-cream flavors with each other!!

Here are a few examples of some fantastic and colorful flavors! (Each page has been divided into two different sides so we could make two flavors per paper.)

Take a look at what the 3rd graders worked on today:

First we all read a book called "Where is the Frog".  This book was all about the artist Claude Monet and his beautiful Impressionist paintings. The story followed a small green frog named Antoinette as she tried to pose for one of Monet's paintings. Each page of the book depicted a different Monet inspired illustration, and student's could search for where Antoinette was hidden. 

Our first day of the project began with students painting a beautiful water background in the Impressionist style.  They used dark blue, light blue, purple, and accented this with magenta.  Here are some of the wonderful results!

Tomorrow we will be making lily pads using oil pastels!

Thanks for stopping by to see what the 2nd and 3rd graders have been working on this week so far, make sure to check back tomorrow to see the second day's results!

-Miss O'Donnell

The Art Show!

Hello there Art Spotters! It's been a great few days for spotting art since this past Thursday and Friday we finally had the Art Show!! And I'm proud to say that it was a huge success!  We had a great turnout both nights and we (myself and Mr. Leonard) spotted LOTS of our artistic students and their families there. In case you missed the show (or just want to see it one more time) I'm filling this entire post with pictures from the event.  So sit back, relax, and get ready to spot some fantastic ART!

Before the show:

Welcome sign

Color coded Name Labels by School

 During the Show:

Thanks for checking out the 1st Annual Grandville Elementary Art Show here at The Art Spot! 

- Miss O'Donnell