While Kapaa Middle School’s 7th and 8th grade Art students worked on the Kahu Kai Mosaic Mural project, 6th graders created a different kind of mosaic. Instead of ceramic tile, these mosaic fish are composed of small cut-up magazine images. Don’t be fooled… selecting colors, cutting pieces, and arranging them to fit perfectly took an enormous amount of concentration and patience! Currently these colorful sea creatures are decorating Kapaa Middle School’s main office.
Kapaa Middle School Art students recently finished a coil-building project in which they incorporated an animal, sea-creature, or insect into their design. I’m so impressed with the creativity and talent demonstrated by these 7th and 8th grade students… the final products exceeded my expectations!
“Hello boys and girls! Unfortunately, Mrs. Sanderl cannot be here to teach you today. My name is Ms. Pretty, and I am the substitute teacher. What happened to Mrs. Sanderl, you ask? She had an unfortunate accident… I ATE HER FOR BREAKFAST! If you don’t behave, I might just eat you too! Ahahaha! Ahahaha! Ahahaha!”
The Gifted & Talented Digital Media Class is an opportunity for bright and motivated students to work with the school’s most advanced equipment. 6th, 7th, and 8th graders work as a team to broadcast the Morning News for all of Kapaa Middle School, create High Definition movies and animated films, document school events through photography, and edit their projects to create professional-looking end-products. I really enjoy the playful and eccentric personalities in the group, along with this unique experience teaching digital art.
My 6th and 7th graders recently completed a project that was influenced by Australian Aboriginal dot painting. They were only given limited paint colors: the 3 primaries plus black and white to mix their own palette with. Using the eraser end of their pencils, chopsticks, or other stick-like tools, they dipped into their paint and stamped it onto their paper to create a layered image composed entirely of small circles. I even subjected them to didgeridoo music to get them in the mood, and by the end I think some of them started to enjoy the foreign sounding instrument!
There were many exceptional entries this year, and I hope we have some winners from our school!
Art Smart is an after school program that I am teaching for “at risk” 1st and 2nd-graders. I have about 15 kids that gather in my classroom for 2 hours after school, and we do art projects together. Most recently we created cities with water color paints.
Teaching elementary art is very different than teaching high school Ceramics, and Kindergarten is probably the most challenging for me! There’s always at least one in the group crying for his mommy, half of them take their shoes off and can’t get them back on again, and the average attention span is about 3 minutes. Combine that with a class of 25, one adult (me), and messy paint!
Luckily I have my mom as a resource, and her good advice has rescued me several times already this year. Breaking up the time with books and songs, not to mention the actual art project, seems to work best. We’ve done school bus pictures inspired by Donald Crews SCHOOL BUS, and underwater fish paintings inspired by Marcus Pfister’s Rainbow Fish. Stay tuned for more elementary school art… next time I’ll post some images of 1st-5th grade projects.
For our final project in Ceramics, I collaborated with my students on two large circle paintings (details shown above). We did the same painting activity to start off the school year, so it seemed appropriate to end with a final group effort. I am really fortunate to have worked with such talented students at an amazing school. I sure will miss you La Serna High School!
I’m finally getting around to glazing some of my teapots. I like this one even better now that it’s colored… Anyone want to come to a tea party?
Here are the completed mask examples that I created. The fabric additions on the left mask were recycled headdress materials from my friend Lara. Mom, you may recognize a few items that are attached to the skull… I hope it’s not too creepy.
Julia