Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Drawing Development in Children

This slideshow is adapted from Betty Edward's book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."  This shows the different stages of development in children's artwork.  This can be useful information as a teacher or a parent when looking at a child's work.  We understand that every child's work looks different, but it can be interesting to examine and compare benchmarks.


Monday, September 29, 2014

imagination


Leaf printing and leaf rubbings


Mrs. Morse lead kindergartners and first and second graders in making leaf prints and leaf rubbings. 

Making lanterns for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Third and fourth graders made strings of paper lanterns to decorate for our school's celebration of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. 
Fifth and sixth graders made paper mâché lanterns using balloons and tissue. 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Fayston School celebrates
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
Monday, October 6th, 2014


Join us to give thanks, honor the full moon and celebrate the harvest with a special picnic lunch shared with friends and family.
Adult lunch $3.75
R.S.V.P. to cjoslin@wwsu.org
11:30 grades K-3 / 12:00 grades 4-6

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Harvest and Thanksgiving Festival celebrated in China, Vietnam, Taiwan and other Asian countries.  It takes place during the full moon in September or October.
During this festival, people gather with their families and friends, offer thanks for the harvest or other good fortune and send their wishes and prayers to the moon.  Other traditions include an outdoor nighttime picnic, with special treats called Mooncakes, and other traditional foods.  At the gathering, people display colorful lanterns to light up the night.

At the Fayston School, we will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival on Monday, October 6.  Students will read Thanking the Moon, by Maya Lin, to learn about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and prepare for this event.

MENU
Potstickers with Stir-Fried Vegetables
Mooncakes
Sesame Noodles
Fortune cookies
Pears and Grapefruit
Tea





Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Mandalas!

In celebration of International Dot Day, all classes will create different types of "Dot Art."  Fifth and sixth grade artists will create circular artwork called Mandalas.  

Mandalas are created in many cultures as a support for meditation.  They can be drawings or painted or made from sand.  

What is a Mandala?

The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.
Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.

Mandalas have Radial Symmetry:  the condition of having similar parts regularly arranged around a central axis 


Examples of Mandalas:

How to Grow a Mandala Video:




Video of the Dali Lama creating a Sand Mandala



Monday, September 15, 2014

Dot day!



Dot paintings by first and second grade artists in celebration of International Dot Day!
Did you remember to wear dots today?  These kids did! 

Kindergarten Dot Day Art Stations:

Dot stickers
Dot stampers
Dot tracing
Dot collage 

Third and fourth grade group Dot Paintings 



Friday, September 12, 2014

Printmaking by first and second graders

First and second graders used foam paper to create stamps of their houses or other buildings. We used printing ink to create prints of our stamps in multiple colors. 

Student Guest Post! Street Art by Morgan Frank


Street Art 
by Morgan Frank
Many of you may have seen some of the art I have done, graffiti. Some people would argue that graffiti is not an art! I think it’s a way of expressing yourself and it takes talent, so in my opinion it’s an art. I like to do graffiti on canvas, and sometimes on walls, and boards (I’ll talk about that later).  I recently found a new style, it’s not necessarily graffiti, its called space art.
Graffiti
I started graffiti two years ago. I was basically just doing bubble letters and combining them. Then I moved on to more block letters. After that I got some graffiti books and it turns out that arrows are a big part of graffiti and they look very cool. Then I saw some graffiti that I couldn't read. I thought this was very cool. At first I just started out not having the graffiti readable, but then I decided to put words into the unreadable graffiti, just like the bubble and block letter graffiti. This is called wildstyle. I was ten and was figuring out what wildstyle looked like. Now I have adapted to wildstyle and I don't need to do even use pencil. The style of wildstyle I was doing was straight, like all the arrows and letters were straight, then I moved on to having them more curved. Now at age twelve, I started using spray paint as my background, but the problem was that sharpie colors couldn't make their color on the colored spray paint. So, I got these markers called MOLOTOW markers. I would not suggest these markers to beginners, as they can be very hard to use and they are expensive. The reason I got them was because they’re paint markers and I needed colors that could go over spray paint. But, I found that these markers can go over each other, so the blue, red, etc. can go over the black, so it’s a little tricky to fill inside the lines. Now, I do straight graffiti again but it is much better!

I can also do throw up graffiti, which is like bubble letters but it has different little bubbles inside of it. I can do semi wildstyle which is readable graffiti words, but it’s very complicated. I would consider myself pretty good at graffiti for being twelve.

Space Painting
I started space painting very recently. I have done maybe five or six canvases. I have not completely mastered it, but I'm still improving.  Okay, well here’s how you do space painting. First you spray paint the background you want your buildings to be, then on top of that you spray paint what color you want your planets to be. Then you put a spray paint cap or some round object over where you want your planets to be, then spray paint black around the planets and the objects that are covering the planets. Then with a spackle you cut out buildings horizontally and then the buildings are the color you put under the black. Then you add some last details, take off the material that is covering your planets and you're done, and they you just need to wait for it to dry. This is a lot harder than it looks!

Tagging
Tagging is your mark. It’s like your signature. It’s in a certain type of style, you don't always do your name, you can do something that inspires you like my tag is wizzard 101. The reason I came up with this tag is because the letters look really slick when you put them together, and I put two z’s in it to give it some extra spice.              

Those are some types of street art or urban art whatever you want to call it. My name is Morgan Frank (tag) wizzard 101. I Hope I gave you some interest or inspiration!

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Dot Day is coming to Fayston School!


International Dot Day is a day to celebrate CREATIVITY, COURAGE and COLLABORATION.  During the week of September 15th, all students will create artwork inspired by the message in Peter Reynolds' book The Dot:

"Make your mark and see where it takes you!" 

And Remember... On Monday, September 15th, WEAR DOTS! 

Let's see which classroom has the most Dot Day Spirit! 

Kindergartners explore new art stations!

Sparkle crayons on black or white paper 

Nature Stencils 

White boards 

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Ten Lessons the Arts Teach


Kindergartners Explore Art Stations!

Watercolor Paint

Colored Pencils 

Markers

Pattern Games 

Watercolor Paint