We stretched the boundaries of our whole-child approach in January by combining Art and P.E.! Younger Kids first created some Keith Haring inspired figures in Art class, and then followed up with a P.E. class where they examined each figure and had to do their best to recreate the “pose” or “motion” with their own bodies. Some figures presented more of a challenge than others!
Middle Kids finished up their South America prints this week. They watercolored a background piece and then cut a map of South America into a piece of styrofoam (backwards!), inked it and printed it onto their backgrounds. You can see them on display outside the Middle Kid classrooms. The kids were very excited to lift up the styrofoam “plate” to see what they had created. If you go see them, look for the details that make each piece their own.
Older Kids worked on a quick paper batik project today and the results were pretty fantastic, so we thought we’d share a few. Here are their maps of South America, made with wax resist and watercolors. It’s a tricky technique and they worked hard to transfer the wax and use detail in their painting. Nicely done!
The preschoolers worked on a print making project to explore texture and color and the results were pretty amazing! I think they had fun too.
Younger Kids and Middle Kids have been learning about radial symmetry. Their creations included everything from colorful snowflakes to pizza!
We’ve had so much fun the past few weeks in the Art Room! Preschool has been exploring stamping and creating texture with leaf prints. The Younger Kids each created a fantastic watercolor of some koi fish, painted from the overhead perspective (or bird’s eye view) that are hanging in the hallway outside the technology classroom right now. Middle Kids and Older Kids finished up their metallic relief sea creatures and did an awesome print making project where we learned about positive and negative space in artwork and how to make a gelatin print with a leaf. Here are a few photos to give you a glimpse of some of the fun activities! 
All the grade levels have been learning about Japanese artist Hokusai’s print “The Great Wave” to go along with our school-wide topic unit on oceans. It’s been fun to see each child’s creative interpretation of the image. Each grade level reproduced the image with different media and techniques. I hope to have them displayed around school this week.
All the Rivendell artists have been working hard on a collaborative art piece that will be on display during our Back to School Night, this Thursday, September 4th. Each student created a tracing of their own hand and then used some of the techniques we have been working on for Line and Pattern to decorate the hands. Don’t forget to stop by the bulletin board in the hallway between the Art Room and the Preschool Rooms to see the finished product! Here are some Younger Kids hard at work this week….
I’m excited to be the new Art teacher at Rivendell and it’s been especially fun to update the Art room into a fun, creative space!
This week we learned about the element of Line in artwork. Each grade level is working on a different project using line. I am so impressed with the work ethic and artistic ability of these kiddos, wow! I’m looking forward to exploring many different techniques and media with them over this year, just to see what they come up with.
Here are a few pictures of the Middle Kids and Younger Kids working on their projects. 
Andrew Goldsworthy is a famous land artist, taking nature and creating designs, redistributing the beauty around him.
The YK looked at his work and were inspired to create his/her own land art with the leaves and other natural items on the playground.
Enjoy what they have created..
We have received eight trash cans from the city that our Rivendell students are going to paint. Then they will be placed in Edora Park to brighten up the landscape! Every class will have a theme and work their magic. We plan to dedicate them to the park in the Spring. 
Here are the trash cans being delivered. Not so beautiful now, but just wait…!