Please join us for art exhibits in the classrooms and hands-on activities in the art studio during Open House!
Bayside Elementary
Wednesday, May 19
4:30-5:15 pm
Willow Creek Academy
Thursday, May 27
6:30-8:00 pm
Martin Luther King Jr. Academy
Wednesday, May 26
5:30-7:30
Each class will be exhibiting one project made during their time in art. Alongside the artwork will be a Making Learning Visible poster, with photographs and descriptions of the project’s process. Feel free to check out all the classrooms!
Elementary School
In the studio, students are investigating clay with K-5 Visual Arts Specialist Brooke Toczylowski.
Fourth graders in Ms, Hammons’ class have created coil pots for their Open House display.
“How did you make your coil pot?”
“We made a slab for the bottom. We rolled the coils. After that we scratched and attached the coil to the base. We put slip around the coil.” – Alvina
“After my pot was done drying I glazed it. I used four different colors.” – Darrielle
Middle School Arts Integration Project:
Part of a first year pilot program, the middle school teachers from across the district meet with Arts Specialists Ascha Drake and Evan Bissell every month. The meetings have focused on unit plan writing, documentation ideas, critique, collaboration strategies, researching supporting images, and assessment.
The goal for each participating teacher is to develop and teach a unit that has a supporting art extension. The monthly meetings introduce the teachers to new materials and processes, encouraging them to design arts integrated lessons that connect deeply to areas of their curriculum.
Unit plans are evolving, and exciting ideas are surfacing: from Greek Mythology “Wanted Posters” (Matt Helmenstine’s 6th grade Social Studies) to Periodic Table playing cards (Natasha Griffin’s 8th grade Science). Students studying Egypt in Yvonne West’s 6th grade have been building canopic jars (used to hold the guts of mummies), and creating collages of the things they would bring to the afterlife. Wendy Powell and Brian Nielsen are working with scaling up in their math classes, using self-portraiture and the environment as a motivation. Their students have been looking at the work of contemporary artists Ron Mueck and Chuck Close. Katie Beckman has transformed the science lab into an art studio. Her 7th grade students have been working with recycled and reused materials to design “simple machine” sculptures related to the systems of the human body. Carmen Rivera has been working with students on developing “Where I’m From” poems accompanied by the students’ photographs. And in Debra Moore’s AVID class, students are working on creating autobiographical comic strips inspired by the likes of Persepolis and Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Congratulations to all the teachers and students who are continuing to build our young Arts Learning Community!
Check out the work, and the students’ artwork at Open House May 26.
