Mrs. Edwards' Art Class

Oh Kindergarten...

In K-5 art we have so much fun, make such messes, and learn soooo many lessons! We have been discussing the color wheel, rainbows, primary colors, secondary colors and such... and this week we talked about cool colors! We celebrated the colors Blue, Purple, and Green by making beautiful peacocks!

Missions Conference is coming!

It's important that elementary students learn the value of missions at a young age. Next week Grace Gospel Church will be hosting their 70th annual Missions Conference. Our school then invites the visiting missionaries to speak in the classrooms about their work on the mission field.

I like for the art students to create some artwork for the missionaries to see when they visit our halls. This year, we talked about a Christian's duty to be a shining light in a dark world. Matthew 5:14 says "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." and 5:16 says "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." I used these verses as the basis for our art project.

Fourth and fifth grade students used chalk to sketch the form of a candle. They had to first draw out a cylinder, then add the lumps of melting wax, some black outlines, a wick and a burning flame to represent our responsibility to be that shining light!

Welcome back Art Friends!

Things have been busy in art class at GCS! Students in 1st-5th grade are working diligently on comic books / story books. I will feature those as soon as the last details are finished! This week, second grade finished their comics, so for the remaining class time we played with Moon Sand!

You may be wondering what moon sand is... think of the consistency of wet sand that you can always build sand castles with, but without the water and without the gritty sand! Moon sand is very soft but not squishy like play-dough. If you still don't understand, look at some of the pictures and just trust me that it is verrrry fun to play with!




• 9 Cups of Flour
• 1 1/4 Cup Oil
• Add dry tempera paint for color if you wish!
• Mix together with your hands and in no time you'll be having a blast!

Welcome Artists!!

Thoughts about K-5 Art...
I have a special place in my heart for Kindergarten. I did my student teaching with a group of the sweetest K-5 students! As much as I love these cuties, I have to say it is one of the most difficult art classes! There is so much that is new to them, that I often can easily get frustrated. Thankfully, for me, it's just easier (and way more rewarding) to laugh and pray in those times!! When I first started teaching art, my wonderful and perfect lesson plans for K-5 had to be thrown out the window. I started from scratch and got down to the very basic, and very FUN and exciting lessons for this group of kids. I realized this: What's more important? Teaching the kids to recognize a VanGogh or Seurat painting when they see it? Or teaching them how to appreciate art and get excited about it!? Obviously, at that age, most of them love art anyway... but I want to foster a love for art and desire to be creative in all of my students and it must start in that first year of art. That can't happen if I begin with lessons loaded with technicalities and projects too challenging to enjoy. If a student becomes frustrated to the point of giving up, I have failed as an art teacher! My goal now is to come up with lessons that "secretly" teach the principles and concepts of art that they will need later on! This way, students just see a really fun activity that leaves them craving for more!

Hence... rainbow hair!!! (The actual lesson)

Again, starting with the basics, I get the students excited about color, about the rainbow, and about the absolute beauty of creation- God's masterpiece! We go over the color wheel which actually is slightly different than the rainbow.

• Rainbow= "ROYGBIV" -this is a scientific breakdown of the color spectrum
• Color wheel= Red ,Yellow, and Blue are primary; Orange, Green, and Purple are Secondary.. so basically we don't include indigo.. (which is basically blue, right?)

Gesture Drawing is sketching the basic form of a body in motion. We try to do this lesson early in the year so students can use this technique in other projects. It really helps them learn how to draw people in another form other than standing up straight.

• They start with the direction of the head
• Add the tilt of the shoulders
• A U-shape for the torso
• The arms and legs are added in 2-part lines.
• Hands and feet are represented with ovals in the direction they are pointed.

Greetings to my 2012-2013 art students and parents!

I'm so glad to be back in the blogging world! After a year-long break from blogging, I really missed it and wanted to get it going again! Plus, there is soooo much beautiful art to see! Enjoy the next few blog posts as I have blogging fever and want to show all that we've been doing!

At the beginning of the year, I have to remind my students of all the classroom expectations. I try not to bore them the whole time, so after a quick review, I get to the fun stuff as quickly as possible! This year as an opening activity, some classes listened to a few musical selections then drew scenes depicting what they thought was going on in the music.

This activity is good for a number of reasons:

• We learned that art should have a meaning and story to it. Not just scribbles and chaos!
• We got our brains back to thinking creatively after a summer of no art class!
• This helps our new students feel more comfortable with a stress-free lesson.
• Studies show that listening to music aids in the creative processing when drawing!

Here are the selections as well as a few examples of Second Grade work!
1. Trumpet Concerto in C
2. Op. 289 Persian March
3. Everlasting Gobstoppers (from the soundtrack Willy Wonka{Mrs. Edwards' favorite movie!})
4. The Entertainer


Several students pictured a train of some sort for #3!




I love the evil snake being charmed!

All the students did a super job and their work is being displayed in the classroom now! Thanks for reading and please visit again!

 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!