To begin this project class had a discussion about the impact a kind word or compliment could have on someone’s day. We learned about the Kindness project, a worldwide art project aimed to spread kindness (click here to learn more). Each student tried to come up with something meaningful and genuine in their speech bubble that would help spread kindness throughout Monroe. Check out the student's work here: https://goo.gl/9W5Hpp. 

Students  built an origami box to house their figure. Using their knowledge of portraiture and proportion students drew and shaded a self-portrait and background to fit into their box. 


Watch the videos that inspired this project here: 

• Kindergarteners learned about the beehive sculptures created by beekeeper/artist Ren Ri (see below)
• Students recalled the printmaking process and investigated how it could be applied to different materials.
• Each child painted a piece of bubble wrap and printed it on their paper to simulate a bee hive.
• Students learned more about Honeybees, bee hives and the different members of a bee hive.
• They then drew workers bees and added details to one of their bees to designate the queen bee.

CLICK HERE to see more student work. 

​4th-grade students learned about the artist, writer, director, animator, and producer Tim Burton. Students studied his paintings, sculptures and some of the characters from his films, specifically his stop motion animation figures. Next, students learned about special effects make-up and process of prosthetic sculpting, molding and casting techniques used to create advanced cosmetic effects. Using all this as inspiration and their previous knowledge of ceramic techniques students created a textured dragon eye and face. 

CLICK HERE  to see more student examples. 

1st graders began the project by comparing and contrasting famous self-portraits throughout history. Each student then brainstormed a list of career possibilities and appropriate clothing and accessories for each job. Finally, they drew and measured a proportional self-portrait and added details relating to their future career choice. 
See more student work here: https://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=1599510



​
See the portraits we looked at in class below:

​In Kindergarten students learned about illustration and looked at popular books and the illustrators who worked on them. Students tried to guess the book by the illustrator's style. Then each student chose their favorite book and a small picture that they felt represented that book. Finally, each student drew a book and "illustrated" the cover. They then created a self-portrait and collaged the book cover on top. 
To see more student work click here. 

​See some of the illustrators we discussed below. 

Fifth grade students learned about a group of contemporary ceramicists and current ceramic tends. We looked closely at the artist Carrianne Hendrickson, shown above. Student started their piece with a pinch then using the slip and score method added features and textures to turn their pot into an animal of their choice. 

​CLICK HERE to see more student work. 

In this project, 1st grade students learned how to make coils and the history of the coil pot. Each student created as many coils as possible and built their nests using the slip and score method to securely connect each coil. Students were ask to think about what animal might use this nest and created and glazed their eggs to match with their animal choice. 

CLICK HERE to see the student's work

Coil Pots by High School Students: 

In 1st grade, we read the book Tacky the Penguin and had a discussion on the importance of being original and different. The students discussed their own traits or interests that make them different and thought of how they could depict these qualities in their penguin drawing. Students, then learned about artist have drawn portraits in profile and the history of a profile view in art.  With all this knowledge students drew a penguin in profile add their own unique details. 
​
CLICK HERE to see more student work