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Third Trimester
Third Trimester
We spent the third trimester celebrating art and each other! Fourth grade students made both individual and collaborative works of art inspired by popular contemporary artists. These projects required strong craftsmanship and extra creativity!
Mrs. Riedy served as the lead teacher for trimester three and had a blast working with these young artists!
Chicago-based artist Nick Cave is well-known for his Soundsuits: surreally majestic objects blending fashion and sculpture. They originated as metaphorical suits of armor in response to the Rodney King incident and have evolved into tools for empowerment. Fully concealing the body, these "soundsuits" serve as an alien second skin that hides race, gender, and class, allowing viewers to look without bias towards the wearer’s identity.
Our 4th grade artists designed their own soundsuits on top of paper dolls using materials found in the classroom. They approached the project with creativity, empathy, and thoughtfulness. The result? Strange and celebratory mixed-media works of art!
Jen Stark
Paint Drips
Jen Stark
Paint Drips
For this project, 4th grade students learned all about Jen Stark, a contemporary artist known for her colorful, psychedelic drips. Stark makes drawings, paintings, sculptures, murals, and interactive installations inspired by sacred geometry, nature, and color theory. Her work has become increasingly popular over the last ten years, resulting in paid collaborations with companies like HBO, MTV, and Sketchers. Each 4th grade artist made two drips—one black and white drip and one colored drip—in Jen Stark's signature style. We started by drawing the drip, one stripe at a time, on poster board. Students then carefully painted each stripe by slowing dragging their paintbrush along each curve. As an added challenge, students had to mix their own colors for drip number two. Finally, the drips were cut out and assembled in one collaborative installation. Using only red, blue, yellow, black, and white paint, we were able to create some crazy colorful art!
Second Trimester
Second Trimester
Second trimester has been full of artist inspiration and the studio habit of "engaging and persisting" by creating art over more extended time through multiple class periods. See below the art we have been creating along with the artists that inspired us.
We're All Works of Art: Self Portraits!
We're All Works of Art: Self Portraits!
Every student in grades PK-4 completed a monochromatic self portrait which will be on display in the hallway to create a rainbow of our faces. We looked at self portraits from artists Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso for inspiration. We then discussed how color schemes and choices can affect the interpretation of a work of art from portraying different emotions to creating harmony amongst a group of works.
We will be completing this project each year to see our growth!
Preschool= red color family
Kindergarten= orange color family
1st Grade= yellow color family
2nd Grade= green color family
3rd Grade= blue color family
4th Grade= purple color family
First Trimester
First Trimester
First trimester focused on three Studio Habits to build the foundation for a creative community (Understanding Art Worlds) that embraces experimentation and risk taking (Stretch & Explore) as essential steps in our artistic process to create meaningful work (Express).
As fourth grade artists progress, they "unlock" resources or mini studios to add to their artist toolboxes and explore during "open studio time." Studios we have unlocked so far are basic tools (scissors, tape, paper, etc.), drawing, painting and paper mache sculpture!
Next trimester we will be diving deeper into the Studio Habit of "Develop Craft" as we fine tune our skills to identify what it means to make artwork that is "art show ready." Stay tuned to see what students choose to show off in the hallways of AACA! 🤩
Open Studio Time
Open Studio Time
After students learn a skill, technique or artist inspiration, they always have something we call "open studio time" where they can apply what they have learned to their own artistic process. The classroom is always buzzing with collaboration and excitement during open studio time!
Color Mixing Challenge!
Color Mixing Challenge!
The opening of the painting studio this year kicked off with a little color theory and a mixing challenge! Students carefully combined colors to create as many new colors as they could come up with...some we have never seen before!
The Beginnings of Paper Mache
The Beginnings of Paper Mache
We ventured into the world of 3D this year with paper mache! We are currently in the process of building our "armature" or foundation for our sculptures out of aluminum foil...the messy part comes next! Lastly, we will paint and add finishing details.
Our artist inspiration was Mexican Folk Artist, Pedro Linares, the creator of "alebrijes" which are fantastical creatures that visited the artist in a dream and are now iconic in Mexican culture. Some students chose fantasy while others are sticking with reality as they chose between an animal form and a human form to start. One group is even working together to make an entire football team!
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