PTA Art Workshop

On January 8, Mr. Seligman and I led a PTA meeting Art Workshop! Parents of Post Road students, as well as our principal, Mrs. Ossorio, learned about a growth mindset, or learning to embrace mistakes and retrain your brain to take on risks/challenges so that you can grow! In the art room, this means that we try things we might not be able to do and use mistakes to help us learn. We read the book “Beautiful Oops” by Barney Saltzberg, then each person was given a piece of paper with either a yellow, blue, green, orange or red “mistake” shape glued onto it (a few people each had the same shape). Attendees considered how they might turn this mistake into a picture. They learned how they might change paper with their hands (tearing, folding, ripping, etc.) and scissors (cutting various edges, shapes and textures) in order to create their work of art incorporating the original “mistake” shape. 

At the end, attendees shared their work and discussed successes (things they were proud of in their art/during work time) and struggles (things that were hard for them), and also noticed the different ways others transformed the same shape they were given.  

Please enjoy these beautiful collages and allow them to remind you that we can learn new things, embrace our mistakes and challenge ourselves at any age!

Grade 5 Original Emojis

5^th graders began this project by looking at the art of contemporary artist, Yue Minjun. They noticed his use of line, shape and exaggeration to express emotion in his artwork. 

Yue Minjun

They compared his work to emojis, or small digital icons. They noticed that emojis also use line, simple shapes, a limited color palette and exaggeration to convey an emotion or idea. 

Students then brainstormed ideas for their own original emojis and picked two to sketch in their sketchbooks. Next class, students picked one of their original emoji ideas to create in collage, which they worked on for several classes. They learned how to cut paper in a variety of ways, layer pieces and compose a basic composition with background to make these beautiful collages. 

Students finished by reflecting on their artistic process and choices in writing. 

Please enjoy these excellent emoji collages!!

Angel, 5Red

Phia, 5 Bennett

Miguel, 5 Bennett

First Grade Nutcracker Drawings

1st Graders have been working hard on an observational drawing unit. Observation means to look closely. The artists began by exploring lines they know (curvy, wiggly, zig zag, straight, etc.). Next they observed nutcrackers and noticed how nutcrackers are made up of many types of lines and shapes. While looking at the nutcracker, students drew what they saw in pencil, starting with big parts (body, head, legs, etc.), then small parts (eyes, hair, hands, etc.), and finally with the details (mustache, jewels, belt buckle, etc.). Next, students imagined the setting their nutcracker would be in, and drew this from their imagination; in art, we call the setting the background. To help them get some ideas about where a nutcracker might live, we learned about the nutcracker ballet and the story of Clara and her nutcracker. 

After this, they traced their lines with sharpie and added color with oil pastel.

Lastly, students used watercolor paint to finish their beautiful works of art. They learned that water and oil don't mix, so the result was a watercolor resist, in which the oil pastel pushed through the watercolor, creating a very interesting effect!

Please enjoy first graders beautiful nutcracker drawings!

Jadiel 1R

Tyrell 1R

Benjamin 1R

MJ 1R

Clara 1R

Kathleen 1R

Rafael 1R

Otis 1R

5th Grade Clay Leaf Dishes

5^th Grade artists created ceramic leaf dishes by pressing fresh leaves into clay slabs (flat pieces of clay). Leaves are textured (bumpy), so it created an impression in the clay.  Students used pin tools (sharp tools) to cut around the edges of the leaves. Students then learned how to bend parts of their clay up in order to create curved parts for their leaves.

 Leaves were then fired in the kiln (called a bisque fire), which made them hard and stone-like. 

Students then glazed their leaves and the leaves were fired again. 

When they came out of the kiln, they were the colorful shiny leaves you see here.

Please enjoy 5^th Graders’ beautiful ceramic leaves.

First Grade Line Monsters

Students in first grade began this project by learning about lines. We read "Lines That Wiggle" by Candace Whitman and "Harold and the Purple Crayon" by Crockett Johnson. We identified various types of lines (straight, curvy, zig zag, bumpy, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, etc.) as we looked at paintings by Sol Lewitt and Stuart Davis, who used lots of lines in their work.

Sol Lewitt

Stuart Davis

After this, students practiced creating a variety of lines by making a drawing of their choosing using all of the lines we learned.
Next class, we read the story "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. We imagined "if we had our own monster, what might it look like?" We discussed big parts (head, neck, body, arms, legs, wings, tail, etc.) that the body might have as well as small parts (eyes, mouth, nose, ears, eyebrows, horns, etc.). Students spent a class drawing the big and small parts for their monsters in pencil.

After this, students learned about texture (or the way things feel). We identified different textures we could spot in the art studio and on ourselves (bumpy on the bottom of our shoes, fuzzy inside a sweatshirt, smooth floors, etc.). Students learned how they might use a variety of lines to re-present various textures on their monsters.

Students continued creating these beautiful line drawings of monsters by tracing all of their lines with Sharpie, cutting their monsters out and pasting them onto colored paper. Lastly, students spent a couple of classes painting their monsters with tempera cakes. Please enjoy these friendly and fierce Line Monsters!

Mei, 1R

Uriel, 1R

Denise, 1R

MJ, 1R

Zoey, 1R

Kathleen, 1R