Students are creating their clay projects this month! The majority of students at WBES create model-magic air dry projects. Over at WCES all students have the opportunity to create a real ceramic project! These projects are featured at each school's upcoming STEAM Nights!

It's mARTch Madness! Each school is running its own bracket‑style showdown, where students review two artists and vote for the one they think should advance to the next round. Match by match, the bracket narrows… until one artist is crowned this year’s champion. Who will take the title? More to come... 

Brrr! February was a snowy short month! Mixed with February Vacation, it made quite the impact! The art room is resisiliant, and able to adapt to sometimes challenging schedules, while also looking to the bright side, and using the weather as inspiration. Kindergarten students created fun snow and spring prints by arranging foam shapes on their papers. Some students made patterns, and others made animals, flowers, and more! They watched as watered‑down paint was sprayed over the surface, and then lifted the shapes to reveal silhouettes hidden beneath the spray! 

The Annual Fourth Grade "Creature Letter" project has come together! Fourth grade students at both elementary schools exchanged "creature letters" a letter describing a mysterious creature. Partners drew each others' creatures based only on the descriptions that were shared. Students at the high school also got in on the fun! For several years now this project has gone full-circle, with high schoolers that once participated as fourth graders! 

To celebrate the new year, students in each school created "fireworks" focusing on creating "ripples" or a "bullseye", and then filling in each ripple with a pattern. This was a great calming and mindfulness activity during the last week of school before winter vacation. Some students used metallic paints, others used metallic oil pastel, and some used markers! Everyone used Kwick Stixs to get started. The displays also feature prominent local landmarks for each town.

This December, students at WCES collaborated once again to create their massive cardboard gingerbread houses! Each grade level shares a gingerbread house and is able to decorate it with various donated art materials. We were very fortunate to have many awesome items donated to help make this project special. Each grade level has a general theme, while also having a lot of creative freedom to add special unique details that always make the houses fun and surprising to look at. During this time, students in West Brookfield were able to create decorations (snow globes, and radically symmetrical snowflakes) for their Winter Concert. 

This November, students at each school worked with their classmates to creatively honor Veterans. They built parts of the American flag together, and when all the pieces came together, the finished flags became a symbol of teamwork and respect for those who served. These flags decorated the spaces where Veterans entered for the ceremonies at each school. Students were excited when the pieces came together. This project was completed by select classes in grades 2, 3, 5, and 6th. 

Each year during the month of October students are challenged to draw real gourds! Students are allowed to touch the gourds and explore their texture. The lights were turned down, and special lights were used to cast more shadows and make the experience extra special. Different grade levels use different tools to draw what they see. Throughout the class they have opportunities to draw several different gourds depending on their pace.  

School wide displays for the beginning of the has become a yearly tradition! This year students were inspired by Liz Elliot to create colorful "quilt" squares. Each student was responsible for their own square which was put together with grades 1 -6 to make a giant quilt! Students were thoughtful in the placement of their pieces, "playing" with placement before coming up with a finished composition.  Some were even specific about which direction to hang their piece on the wall!