Sketchbooks and Start of the Year Goals

One of my goals this year is for each student 1st through 5th grade to have a sketchbook of their own in art. This is a huge goal for a few reasons.

I had to buy around 650 composition notebooks from Walmart, get them to school, and find a good way to store them so that the kids can easily access them. 650 books=32 boxes! That's a lot of boxes, and there is one little me. The possibilities were endless! 

Below you can see, it was an even bigger challenge than anticipated loading the boxes into three shopping carts by myself and hauling them across Springdale in my little car to Sonora and unloading again. (The boxes did not revolt, however.)

We will be using our sketchbooks to draw preliminary drawings for projects, sketch and brainstorm ideas, practice the elements and principles of art, and write artist statements and art observations. I am excited about being able to implement literacy into the art room! I believe every subject, from art to PE, can be cross curricular and serve to move students forward in their education.  

Yes, I only see the kids once a week for 40 minutes, but it is worth it for them to be expressive through their writing as well as their art. That is part of being an artist! 

Getting the sketchbooks organized by class- I am BIG on organization!!

Students will be able to find their sketchbook organized by teacher in a shelf system marked with their teacher name. 

Another new edition to the art room this year is Arkansas Art Common Core Curriculum. The Springdale elementary art teachers met over the summer at a seminar at Crystal Bridges to refine the vocabulary and come up with a power standards sheet for each grade level. We are really excited about this, because we know exactly what our students will be learning ON ONE SHEET!  I have

attached them
below for you to look through to see what your child will be learning in art if they are an elementary student in Arkansas. 

 Some new visuals around the classroom!

Students will see which vocabulary words they have mastered

We will start with a drawing unit this year

The line is starting somewhere new this year! Watch out students!

Looking forward to another great year!

Mrs. Cartmill

Gardens and Landscapes

We've been getting in the summer spirit with gardens and landscapes at Sonora!

First and second grade did a cross-curriculum unit on the garden. We mixed some science and literacy into art! 
We went outside and learned how to plant some radish seeds, and all the different parts of a plant. 
We then got to read a story about a little girl that imagines growing all sorts of odd things in her own garden like chocolate bunnies, seashells and jelly beans! 

We imagined what we'd grow in our own gardens and made a garden painting with patterned flowers, and our own imaginative plants. 
Their artworks turned out great!

Fredrick Edwin Church, The Heart of the Andes, 1859 

Student work in progress

Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders looked at 19th century landscape artist Fredwick Edwin Church for inspiration for a drawing study. They started by doing a writing exercise about what they saw in the painting, thinking like an artist traveling through new, unexplored territory. They sketched, outlined, then used watercolor crayons to color in the style of the Fauv artists. The Fauv artists didn't want to use the natural colors- instead they used bright, primary colors for their landscapes.

Painting by artist, Derain. Example of Fauvism that students looked at to start adding color

The students really embraced the freedom of color, and their paintings turned out so vibrant and wonderful for it!

Owl About Our Art

This week, fifth and fourth grade completed collaborative projects for the art auction in May by each working on a grid piece of a larger picture. These will be available for purchase in a few months- look for more details soon! 

Second and third grade started drawing owls for the next project. We are still waiting on some materials to finish our "Thiebaud Cakes" that got snowed in on the road! I will post pictures of those finished next week. 

This new project will be created using a white glue outline and chalk pastels. As the Sonora Scholars, we love OWLS! They are looking great so far!

Northfell, 3rd

Wilson-Scott, 2nd

Butler, 3rd

Dellett, 2nd

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VIII

First grade is still focusing on Kandinsky. This week, we continued working on our music inspired drawings. We talked about how Kandinsky created ABSTRACT paintings while he listened to music. We listened to instrumental music, and drew lines based on what we heard. We then colored in all the shapes we had made. 

Below is a video of this process. 

As always, we are working on ways to learn effectively in the art room. One of the things I have implemented this year is the "Mona Lisa". I say "Mona" and students reply "Lisa" when they are ready to listen. 

We talked about how Mona Lisa shows many qualities of a great listener: eyes forward, sitting up straight, hands in lap, and mouth closed. It is a fun way to incorporate some art history into behavior learning! Below is a poster students see in the art room every day. 

Sail On!

Mrs. Cartmill

Tape and Cakes

 4th and 5th grade students have started their African masks. We watched a video of the Dogon tribe in West Africa doing a ceremonial weather dance to gain inspiration for our artwork. After doing some sketching, we started putting recycled materials together to create the skeleton for our masks. Since American's use about 52 million tons of trash a year, and only recycle about 34 percent of that trash, we thought it would be a great idea to reuse some items from home! 

Tape, tape, and more tape...

Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963



In second and third grade, we were looking at artists Wayne Thiebaud and Claus Oldenburg for inspiration. We talked about the difference between a painting and a sculpture, 2D and 3D art, and how Pop Art was all about using everyday objects and making them really "POP" in art!
The kids got to use model magic clay to form their own designed cake. They loved this process, and the cakes turned out awesome!
We will be adding a few final touches once the clay sets.

First graders have been working on a collaborative project. First, we read 'The Dot' by Peter Reynolds. Then, each student created a Kandinsky circle with oil pastels, and we combined them to create one awesome classwork! (ps. You might just see these later in the year at our annual PTA Art Auction!)