Mrs. Edwards' Art Class

 School is back in session at GCS, and we are already having a blast in art class! We have been reviewing rules, expectations, routines, and beginning our newest art activity! We hope to get these featured on the site this week!
If you aren't familiar with our classroom, take a look at our class policies and routines below!
Most of our rules can fit into one of these four categories:

• Be Kind!
• Don't make fun of others' art work.
• Have a happy and cooperative attitude.
• Don't talk while I am teaching or when a classmate is presenting.
• Be Careful!
• Don't run around the room like a crazy kid! 
• When working with certain supplies, we try as much as possible to keep our hands away from our face and clothes (to avoid blue/orange faces!!)
• Watch out for others' art work to be sure you do not accidentally ruin their work.
• Be Creative!
• Most common phrase in our class is PLAN with your Pencil!
• Do not mindlessly draw without a creative plan in mind. 
• Sketch out ideas before using permanent color.
• Be Original!
• Do your best to come up with an idea of you own
• Never copy Mrs. Edwards' work or your neighbor's work.

There are times when a student may be having a hard day... we'll just leave it at that!! In such cases, they may be given a Warning (Level 1), a "W" (Level 2), or a Check (Level 3). A "W" stands for wait. If you receive a “W”, you must wait 5 minutes away from the art table while everyone else continues to work.

I do reward excellent behavior though! When a student shows kindness, self-control, willingness to follow directions, helpfulness, and creativity they are eligible for Art Star! Art Star is a highly-esteemed award that receives a very cool certificate and CANDY!!

It is super important to me to conserve our supplies to the best of our ability! That's why we have a "no wasting" rule! If we are cutting up paper for an activity, I have the students place any leftover paper into our nicely color coded slots! They are doing a great job at this too!


When we come back after a break, I just assume students were stricken with amnesia and quickly review rules and expectations!! So far so good! They really are a super bunch of kids! I am so blessed to have them in my art class and thank our Lord for giving me the opportunity to minister to them!

Please bare with me as I continue to update the blog a bit. Let me know of any glitches you may find. The comment section should be easier to access now, so please give some positive feedback to our students that I can read to them in our class! They love that! 

Hello again!

Did you know that Grace Christian School is offering awesome summer camps this year? This is something new my husband and I are starting! I am so excited about our first summer camp coming up in just 1 week!

June 6th-10th I will be conducting a Drama Camp for students in Kindergarten through 7th grade!
This will truly be an unforgettable week as we work together at becoming wonderful actors and actresses! We are going to have so much fun performing, wearing costumes and makeup, filming commercials, and more! Throughout the week we will be practicing for our BIG SHOW which is our Friday performance in front of family and friends! If you are in the Huntington, WV area you are invited to attend this super-dee-duper camp!

• Camp will meet 9am-12pm Monday through Friday
• Campers must be registered the Friday before each camp begins.
• Each camper will receive a very "dramatic" t-shirt!
• Awards and certificates will be given out at the BIG SHOW!
• Each camper must bring his/her own daily snack and drink.
• Dress code- loose-fitting pants/jeans or knee-length shorts

Costs:

• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day Campers- $15

I will be offering several other camps and in-depth details will be coming later, but here is a brief summer schedule of the camps.

• June 6th - 10th 9am-12pm: DRAMA CAMP
• Open to students K5-7th grade
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• June 20th - 24th 9am-12pm: ART CAMP
• Open to students K5-3rd grade
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• ALSO June 20th - 24th 9am-12pm: SOCCER CAMP
• Open to students 4th-7th grade (boys and girls)
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• July 11th - 15th 9am-12pm: ART CAMP II
• Open to students 4th - 7th grades
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• ALSO July 11th-15th 9am-12pm: SOCCER CAMP II
• Open to students K5-3rd grades (boys and girls)
• Non Day-Campers- $60
• Registered Day-Campers- $15
• July 18th-22nd 10am-12pm: CHEERLEADING CAMP
• Open to girls in rising 4th-7th grades
• Non Day-Campers- $45
• Registered Day-Campers- $10
• ALSO July 18th-22nd 1-3pm: TECHNOLOGY CAMP
• Open to students 4th-7th grades
• Non Day-Campers- $45
• Registered Day-Campers- $10

Please note the time changes the week of July 18th-22nd. There is one camp in the morning and one camp in the afternoon (with a break in the middle for lunch!!). We hope you can make it out to these absolutely amazing camps! You will not regret it!

I finally got some time to update the blog! These past few weeks have been some crazy, crowded, and fun times! This week's post will feature the Spring Art Show held last Thursday night. It was an enchanting and beautiful time, and I really enjoyed watching the children run around and point out their artwork to their family. So sweet!!


I really hope you enjoyed this very small representation of our awesome Art Show! To those who were able to attend, I hope you loved it as much as I did!! I look forward to the next show coming in December!! Thanks for all your support!

We have been very busy creating some amazing looking artwork for our Spring Art Show!! Our Spring Art Show will be open the night of the elementary concert on May 19 at 6:15. We held our very first art show back in December the night of the Christmas concert. I hope to continue to have a Christmas and Spring art show every year too! The students and their families really enjoy looking around at all the wonderful art projects. For our first show, each class made a Christmas quilt that was displayed along with several samples of projects we had worked on during that semester.


Since you are a dear and loved blog reader, I will fill you in on some of the exciting things you will see at the Spring Art Show. Last week and this week the students have made and will be painting clay pots. We learned about different techniques to create these pots and now we are going to paint beautiful designs on them! Another cool exhibit will be our wall of self-portraits. You will NOT want to miss this amazing display of each elementary student's self-portrait. You may also see some other famous GCS staff on the wall! Along with these two special exhibits, I will feature some of the exceptional pieces of artwork from weeks past that show all visitors what we have learned this semester.

I am looking definitely looking forward to the unveiling of our awesome clay pots and other artwork! Be sure to come to the BEST art show around!! Also, at 7:00 pm the elementary will put on a wonderful spring concert! It will be a fun and beautiful night for everyone!

I might put some sneak peeks of our pots on here since you are such a great group of blog-readers, so stay tuned for a special surprise later this week!! But you will have to come to the art show to see them in all of their glory!

Kindergarten art is anything but boring! We have learned so much this year! I wanted to share two fun projects that we have done recently. These projects can be used with children as young as two, so take notes if you are a stay-at-home parent who is interested in bringing some artful fun to your home!

String Paintings
Everyone really enjoyed this colorful, unique, and hands-on project! To begin, I sat out several different colors of paper, and several colors of paints. I chose the quiestest, best-seated students to go first. Each child had to pick a color of paint and paper. Together, we dipped a very long string (about 2 feet) into a bowl of paint. We made sure the whole string was coated. Next we laid the string down in the pattern of our choice, being sure to include lots of loops! On top of the string designed paper, I placed one more colored paper followed by a heavy-duty piece of cardboard and a heavy-duty can of paint. Next the students had to pull with all their might to get the string out from between to two papers. Most students needed help pulling that stubborn string out, but it was well worth the beautiful result! When you unveil the two papers, you will find mirror reflections of the string designed pulled out in a manner that resembles a flower. Some looked different than flowers, but all were unique and abstract! We had such a good time laughing and cheering for each new piece of art that was formed that day! Here is a sampling of what we did:


Stunning, One-of-a-Kind Masterpieces!

 Clay Day Snails
On Clay Day, students had a blast experimenting with 3-D art. When I first passed out the clay, I had students quickly form whatever object I called out. It was a race to create a tooth, flower, snake, balloon, bowl, and other fun objects. Then I let the students create anything they wished. It wasn't long before one student discovered how to make a nice looking snail! Soon after, many of the students decided to present a friendly little snail to me. This project helped the kindergarten practice their fine motor skills as well as learn about form and shape. Take a look at the family of snails from this fun day!


An exciting day ended with some snail pals!

 Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing about the wonderful artwork of our Kindergarteners! They have really grown in their art skills this year!

(Note: Even though you are not viewing this until April 11, this post is actually from March 14, but Mrs. Edwards is sometimes "bloggically-challenged" and forgot to officially publish it!!)

Welcome to the art blog featuring the best students in the world!
It’s Second Grade’s turn to show you how to draw a realistic human eye! They created unbelievable sketches that included the following parts of the eye:
Iris                                    Pupil
Reflective Highlight           Eyelids
Eyelashes                         Eyebrows

Some of us decided to include wrinkles too! We also discussed that the eye can take on many different shapes depending on the expression on our face. Take a look at our beautifully and carefully drawn sketches of the human eye!

Great work, Alex!!

Ellen's shading makes the eyes look very nice!

Mackenzi just about mastered the "closed eye"!

Micah's eyes look so real!

Yes, there is more wonderful pieces of art to see!!

• Students planned out a picture they could create using dots.
• We used water colors and Q-Tips to make our colorful dots.
• Students learned that dots closer together would create a darker shade, and the spaced out dots made lighter shades.
• No lines were allowed at all! Only dots!
• If you squint, you may be able to make out the object of our pointillism paintings!

This pointillism pie looks good enough to eat! By: Rachel- 6th Grade

Nice looking sunset! By: Noah- 5th Grade



A baseball complete with light source and shadow! By: Nathaniel- 5th Grade



Two little apples hanging from a branch! By: Bryan- 4th Grade

We hope you enjoyed these creative pointillism pictures! We worked very hard on these! Come back soon for more art!

Welcome back to the art blog featuring the most talented artists: GCS elementary art students! Make sure you catch up on everything we have been doing in art class for the past few weeks!!

We have been talking about the life and work of famous artists and this week we discussed the troubled, yet talented artist Vincent Van Gogh. We learned about his quite crazy personality, his missing ear, and also his posthumous fame. Although we think he was a great painter, we definitely do not want to act like him!!
This week, art students in grades 1st-6th created beautiful landscapes using chalk pastels. These are sure to take your breath away! Here’s how we made these masterpieces:

• We learned that landscapes should show both the land and the sky.
• Each student had to choose between a warm or cool set of colors.
• We used Van Gogh’s technique of blustery, windy, and wavy lines to make the sky.
• Next we used our finger to blend the colors together by slightly smearing the lines to create a windy or sandy effect.
• Some students used dark construction paper to create the land with a foreground shadow while others used pastels to draw the land.

This is a pretty city-scape in cool colors! By: Abby- 6th Grade



This warm-colored desert looks nice and sandy! By: Bryan- 4th Grade



I would love to visit this warm-colored beach! By: Lena- 2nd Grade

This night-time landscape is eerily beautiful! By: Dana- 4th grade

This cool color landscape reminds me of a breezy night! By: Lilly- 2nd Grade

We hope you enjoyed these vibrant landscapes! Come back for many more pieces of artwork!!

We keep having this little glimpses of spring recently! I absolutely love the breezy weather, bright colors, and green goodness of spring! God is such a wonderful Creator to have given us these gifts of beauty! Can't wait til spring is here to stay!!

"Red Poppy" by Georgia O'Keeffe

Last week art students created breath-taking watercolor paintings of huge and colorful flowers. We learned about artist, Geogia O'Keeffe who is famous for her larger-than-life flowers. She used a variety of colors and sometimes abstract designs to make unique and exciting pieces of art. We painted lovely flowers with petals bursting off the page, and I have to say I love the results! Enjoy!

Welcome back after a long break! You will love what we have in store for you today!

Art students at GCS had a blast last week filming creative commercials for various items picked out by me!
Students used their knowledge of advertisement, character placement, and creative marketing to create a quality commercial for their product or service. They had to include a product name, phone number, and use for the product.

Take a look at some of these great commercials! I think we have some future actors/marketing gurus!

Did you remember to check out our on-the-side blog, www.aBunchofPhotographers.blogspot.com ??

If you forgot, here is a quick recap:
Day 1- Our theme was "Show Your Love" - find you mom, dog, grandpa, buddy, or sweetheart and snap a picture!
Day 2- Our theme was "Capturing the Wonder" - Take a picture featuring the amazing creation of our God!

There is still time for you to catch up and submit pictures from Day 1 and 2!! Plus, the photography fun lasts all week! E-mail all submissions to me at happyedwards77@gmail.com 

Also, get timely updates about what we are doing in art class by following me on Twitter @MrsEdwardsArt

COMING NEXT WEEK!!
 
Starting Monday, February 14, all teachers and students and parents and anybody remotely related to Grace Christian School will begin our wonderfully exciting photography week!

Read more about this on our brand new on-the-side blog!!!

This is something you will not want to miss! Because you are a valuable reader of our Art Class blog, you are among the very first to learn about this one of a kind event!
Thanks for visiting, and be sure to check out this photo blog everyday next week!!

Welcome Faithful Readers and Brand New Visitors!

I have been waiting all week to share the exciting things we have been doing in art this week!! I wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day with each class, so this week was full of parties! I still wanted to incorporate a small addition to our study of possible careers in art. I chose to discuss the field of Culinary Arts!

We got to decorate cookies with lots (and I mean LOTS) of icing, sprinkles, colored sugar, and other things that will cause parents to shudder!! Before decorating, we played some awesome games and posed with our buddies in the Heart Photo Booth. Over all, it was an absolute blast! This is definitely going down in the top five most memorable weeks of art class! I

Now for a look at some of the fun we had:
(Click on any picture to make it bigger)

Kindergarten student, Gabe being a Culinary Artist!

 

Madelynne and Tessa in the Heart Photo Booth

Ashton and Cameron

2nd Grade boys get together.. We missed you, Alex!

Tomi and Skyler

2nd graders showing off their beautiful cookies!

Selena and Amy smiling big in the photo booth!

Gabrielle and Kaylyn- so sweet!

Some good-looking redheads: Levi and Grant

4th graders race to win the "Heart Toss."

Jacob, Isaac, and Luke cram into the heart photo booth!

Drew and Josh enjoying the Valentine Party!

If you're in the area, make sure you stop by the "Hall of Frame" to see even more pictures of the GCS art students having Valentine Fun!! Next week has even more great things in store! I hope everyone has a happy Valentine Weekend!

Welcome Friends!
Week 5 of our study on Careers in art led us to the Craft Artist. For those interested only in their child's artwork, feel free to skip down to heading Our Adventures as Craft Artists. For those with some extra time or interest in my viewpoint on crafts, read on!



Cut and Paste Activities

 Craft vs. Art
I generally do not teach crafts, because they often float away from the ideas and elements of art. We have all seen the Sunday School cut and paste activities that have pre-designed pieces that are basically glued together. While there is nothing wrong with these types of crafts in certain situations, I try to stay away from these in art class. I prefer to teach students how to take the basic elements of art and create their own work out of their own ideas. The problem with the 'cut and paste activities" used as an art lesson is: it does not allow for individual creativity! The whole point of art class is for students to learn skills that will help them come up with a design that is unique to them! Gluing together a print-out of a pilgrim is not exactly unique... especially when every other student is cutting out that same pilgrim! There is such a thing as a artfully-crafted craft! That's where Craft Artists come in! Here is a great explanation of a craft artist from this site:

"Craft artists create a wide range of objects typically by hand. They strive to create unique art pieces such as clothing, jewelry, pottery, mosaics, candles, furniture, quilts, stained glass, and tapestries. They work with a variety of materials such as wood, ceramics, metal, glass, paper, and textiles. ... Many craft artists also employ fine art methods including painting and printing to improve the appearance of their creations. Some craft artists use recycled objects to create their art. Craft artists often display and sell their creations at craft shows, fairs, studios, galleries, museums, and retail outlets."

Our Adventures as Craft Artists
So as you can see, craft artists take their skills to create a handmade item that is unique! Art students at GCS did just that by creating funny and sweet Valentine Cards out of construction paper, glue, wooden sticks, string, and markers. Students had to create a self-designed Valentine centered around hearts. They also had to include a funny or sweet message that creatively captioned the picture. Your heart will melt when you read these mushy, lovey Valentines!!