March 2013
Nancy Walsh, Lauren Beard and Katie Murphy
Our new curriculum, Art Connection from SRA, is an exciting visual arts education program
being implemented into Fulton County Art classes. Students in the art class will:
• Explore the great art, artists, and cultures of the world.
• Develop skills to understand and appreciate artwork.
• Participate in hands-on art activities.
• Develop critical thinking skills by studying other’s works of art as well as their own pieces.
More and more, the arts are playing a vital role in education and learning. Unlike many other
subjects areas, the arts introduce students to way of thinking that are based upon imagination
and judgment. The arts encourage students to think and learn in a variety of ways, in addition to
using language and logic skills.
One of the most exciting aspects of art education for students is creating their own artwork. A
few activities your student has to look forward to this year are drawing, painting, clay, weaving,
printmaking, and sculpture. Students will begin to see the world through an artist’s eyes and
develop critical thinking skills that will last a lifetime.
Art with Walsh
Kindergarten – Resist Castles – Kindergarten will revisit geometric shapes and pattern
repetition to create watercolor resist castles. The focus of the project is to understand that a
picture tells a story as each individual artwork exhibits to a viewer. Each artist excitement builds
as we explore the history and use of castles.
Rainbow Fish – Kindergarten will be introduced to the method of stamp printing as they explore the
world of fish. The class will read and discuss the story The Rainbow Fish. A colorful painting inspired by
the book will show the printmaking method called stamping!
First Grade – Picasso Self-portrait – Students will be introduced to the art of abstraction. Inspiration
by the work of the famous abstract artist, Pablo Picasso, students will create a self-portrait that is
abstract with concentrating on balance (symmetry and asymmetry).
Second Grade – Aboriginal Handprint –Students will learn of the Australian Aboriginals, focusing on
their history, artwork, symbols, traditions. The focus will be on the unique style of painting by dots to
recreate a cave painting to tell a story or fable.
Third Grade – Third graders will focus on creating a “Winter Landscape” artwork, using oil
pastels and watercolors. They have learned about perspective, foreground, middle ground,
background, and other overlapping techniques.
Fourth Grade – 1 Point Perspective - Students will explore a drawing lesson in which they
apply the principles of 1 point perspective using a vanishing point and orthogonal lines in a
landscape.
Clay Castle – Fourth grade will begin our unit on clay. Students will be the Lord of their castle and
construct a textured slab clay castle. Through class discussion, students will explore all of the features
and parts of a castle, when and where castles are located, and who lived and worked in a castle.
Fifth Grade – Op Art Sculpture - Students revisited Op artist Bridget Riley and her love of the
Op art movement (optical illusions). Students will explore pattern, rhythm and color schemes in
their own op art techniques to design a free-form paper sculpture which highlights positive and
negative space.
Two-point perspective - The illusion of depth and space is shown through perspective. Students
will design two-point perspective sketch showing vanishing points on a horizon line with the use
of orthogonal lines to show proper perspective of objects in a drawing.
Art with Beard
Kindergarteners are just about finished with their stamping project! We read the story The Rainbow Fish
and made a colorful painting based off of the book, using the printmaking method called stamping!
Next, we will learn about the famous artist, Vincent van Gogh, and we will create our own versions of
Starry Night!
~Ms. Beard
1st Grade:
First Graders have just completed their recreations of Claude Monet’s water garden! We learned about
tints, what happens to a color when we add white, and we learned about his unique painting style! We
also used the fun and exciting method of printmaking called stamping!
~Ms. Beard
2nd Grade:
Second graders have completed their Aboriginal cave paintings in which they told a story using symbols
and dots! We even got to try some splatter painting! Now, we are learning about a method of
printmaking called a Monoprint. We are creating our own monoprints and will use Vincent van Gogh’s
cherry tree painting as our inspiration!
~Ms. Beard
3rd Grade:
Third graders have just completed the building process of their clay face jugs! Once the jugs are fired in
the kiln, we will get to add color and glaze our clay pieces!! Then they will be ready for students to take
home!
~Ms. Beard
4th Grade:
Fourth graders are in the process of completing their 1 point perspective train drawings! Next, we are
going to begin our unit on clay! We will learn about all of the features and parts of a castle, and we will
be able to build our own castle tower!!
~Ms. Beard
5th Grade:
Fifth graders have just completed building their clay masks, based off of the style of Kimmy Cantrell.
Next we will add color to our clay pieces, and later, we will learn about the steps for 2 point perspective
in a drawing.
~Ms. Beard
Adaptive Art
The Adaptive Art program at Lake Windward is off to a wonderful start. We have an exciting fall
planned with activities centered on classroom themes, seasonal changes and holidays. We will
explore many art mediums while introducing art concepts and terminology. The art class will
work closely with other classroom teachers in providing reinforcement to academic skills being
introduced across all areas of academics. Art will provide students the opportunity to further
develop fine motor skills, increases vocabulary, observe the environment around them while
providing an avenue for self-expression. We have an excellent year planned and can't wait to
get started! Please enjoy each of the wonderful art pieces that arrive home and PLEASE talk to
your children about their work.
Katie Murphy
Adaptive Art
Art sites to visit:
www.alarion.com
www.artograph.com
www.artvideostore.com
www.allartsupplies.org
www.arrowmont.com
www.artsandactivities.com
www.cartoonconnection.com
www.caryola.com
www.museumstamps.com http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/art_center.html
Adaptive Art Website: www.geocities.com/mrrobinson1975/adapative_art.html