Art Room Update! West Salem Elementary Ms. Vesperman and Mrs. Hemker Issue: 1 Serve with Passion to Ignite Creativity, Innovation and Excellence Dear Parents, Guardians and Students, We have had a blast during the first 2 trimesters of the school year learning about artists, exploring art materials and making lots of projects! Here is a quick review as to what your students have been learning about and making since the beginning of the school year. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. Kindergarten Our kindergarteners have been learning about how to be safe, responsible and respectful in the art room. They are working on making sure they are using the art materials in the proper manner and really making sure they are producing quality artwork! We have made several self-portraits and are continuing to work on putting all of our facial features on our face, sometimes we still forget a nose or an ear! We have been working with markers, paint, oil pastels, fabric and watercolor. Our projects are designed to have the students explore different art materials while learning about line, shape, color, textures and space.
1st Grade First graders have grown a great deal in the art room this year. We spend a lot of time reinforcing different types of pictures. The four main kinds of pictures are portrait, landscape, still life and non-objective. Students learn about artists that specialize in each of these types of pictures and experience different materials when learning about each one. They have created many beautiful works of art!
2 nd Grade This year in the art room it is all about color schemes. We have talked about and explored the following color schemes; primary, secondary, warm, cool, monochromatic, neutral, complementary, tints and shades. Feel free to quiz your student about what colors are in each color scheme! You will find a lot of your students art projects are colored or painted using a particular color scheme or multiple color schemes. We sure do love color in second grade!
3 rd Grade In third grade we started the year off learning about what an architect is and the type of art they make. The first several projects were based off of different styles of architecture. Students were asked to use a thoughtful composition for their drawings and make sure they filled up their page wisely. We have used our memory, imagination and our observation skills to produce our architecture themed artwork. Third graders are really working hard on putting lots of detail into their artwork to enhance their work. Here are a few examples of projects we have completed so far from some of our 3 rd grade artists!
4th Grade So far this year we have learned about the following amazing artists: Chuck Close, Daniel Chester French, Grant Wood and Frank Lloyd Wright. We will continuing to learn about more artists as the year progresses. Students have been given choices on how they want to compose their artwork and the types of materials they want to use to complete some of their work. They are continuing to work on developing their own personal drawing style while paying close attention to details to enhance their work. Here are a few examples from some of our 4th grade artists!
5th Grade In fifth grade we have taken all that we have worked on over the course of elementary school and are applying it to our projects. Each assignment has only 2-6 requirements and that opens up many possibilities for student choice and creativity. While projects start with the same basics, the end products can vary greatly from student to student. We have worked in portraits, clay, weaving and will be starting a pen and ink unit soon! The West Salem Art Department is very proud of the work produced by all of our students this year in their art classes. Thank you for your continued support of the visual art programs in our schools!