My name is Amber Metcalf and I am so excited to be the art teacher here at Orchard park! This is going to be an exciting year for the students as we are going to explore lots of different materials throughout the year such as clay, coiled paper and cardboard. Every year I have my students keep all of their art in the art room to collect for their portfolio. At the end of the year, we will have a school wide art show where each student will get to pick their favorite piece they created to mount and hang to display. Once May comes, all students will bring all their artwork home to keep. I hope your student enjoys art class this year as much as I enjoy teaching them! If you need to contact me you can email at metcalfv@fortmillschools.org.

Follow what is happening in our classroom on our Instagram page @opes_artstudio

Amazon Wish List (Will update as needs change):

Art Room Wish List

Donations:

Sanitizer Wipes
Lysol Wipes

Hi! My name is Ella Collins and I am super excited to be having my Winthrop Internship here at Orchard Park! I will be here in the art room everyday through the month of August and then I will be switching to a part time schedule. When I am not here I am in the printmaking studio. I cant wait to get to know each of your students during my time here!

Artsonia - I have an online art gallery for the students at Orchard Park each year. I upload artwork as it gets completed throughout the year so you can see what they are working on in art class. You will receive emails when new uploads are completed. The following is the link to the page:

https://www.artsonia.com/connect/275642TC

You can create gifts with your student's artwork on them through Artsonia! Help support your student and your school by checking out the giftshop on the Artsonia website link. The art classroom receives 20% of the profit to go towards new art supplies.

Here are some of the ideas from the giftshop:

This year in the related arts we are working towards similar expectations for the students while they are in our classrooms. We are hoping with the consistency we will have less moments of redirection and more time to learn. At the end of each class period we talk through the expectations and decide how many eagle tickets the class earned as a reward. This is also how we are communicating the progress to the classroom teachers.

I will also naming an amazing artist of the day. Each class will choose an artist that stood out in their actions during class and will receive an award for being an amazing artist that day.

***Remember to wear clothes that are ok to get dirty for art class. You never know when we are going to make a mess!😃

Schoolwide Collaborative Mural Project

Kindergarten through fifth grade students all learned about mosaics and created their own unique mosaic tile out of paper. Then we put each grade level togther to create a large mosaic in the hallways. I am so proud of how these turned out. They all did a great job!

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Kinder-2nd grade

Kindergarten

Just completed: Students finished a cityscape based off of an artist named James Rizzi. They had fun adding silly faces and objects to there city artwork.

Starting: Students are learning about the primary colors through the artist Piet Mondrian. They are creating an artwork using stamped lines and paint sticks in the primary colors.

First Grade

Just completed: Students finished a painted paper collage of a cityscape. Students had to cut shapes to create buildings and details all using painted paper they created.

Starting: Students are learning about the artist Wassily Kandinsky and his super power of being able to hear music when making artwork. We are being inspired by his artwork to create a unique piece with oil pastels and circles.

Second Grade

Just completed: Students learned about color and reflection to create a cityscape with chalk pastel. They made their own city template and smudged color to make layers and reflections in the water.

Starting: Students are being inspired the book "Color Blocked" and creating a factory of pipes that are exploding with watercolor paint. They are working on their craftsmanship and detail when creating their pipe factory.

3rd - 5th grade

Third Grade

Just completed: Students studied the artwork of Mary Blair and her work with Disney. We especially discussed her castle designs. We then were inspired to create our own castle design through collage and small shapes with bright color combinations.

Starting: Students are learning about the art of zentangle and the meditative art form. They are trying to calm their body and mind while filling a pumpkin shape with different patterns in black and white. They are going to be collaging the finished pumpkin onto a printed paper of tiedye color they created earlier.

Fourth Grade

Finishing: Students have been working hard on a project based on folk artists. We studied how folk artists did not use the elements of proportion or perspective in their artwork. We starting with a wavy grid and then created a cityscape within the blocks. Then we used the skill of shading to color each block with vibrant colors making the edge of each darker with a shadow. This project takes several weeks but the students love the results.

Fifth Grade

Just finished: Students were assigned to create a yearbook cover for OPES. They studied what makes a good cover with the principles of emphasis and unity. Then they spent time choosing their design and materials to create their best cover. These will go to Mr. Johnson who will choose the cover and several other spots within this years yearbook as the artwork.

Starting: Students are starting a project created by my intern Ms. Collins for her Winthrop gallery. They are learning about experimental art and choice in materials to create a project. So far they have loved the experimentation of art materials in our classroom. I can't wait to see the end result of this project!

Pre - K

Students have been exploring the foundations of art starting with line, color and currently shape. We have used a variety of materials so far this year including homemade crayons made by Mrs. Metcalf! Each week we start with a book or song and then have an art activity to take home. These students are definitely becoming little artists!

2nd graders working on drawing pipes with detail and craftsmanship.

1st graders creating their painted paper cityscape collage.

Kindergarteners created a house collage with painted paper to start school.

Third graders creating their unique Mary Blair collage castles.