Middle School Students Design Cakes

Artists happy with their work

Yumm!!

Deshawn about to dig in

After looking at the work of artist Wayne Thiebaud, known for his luscious dessert paintings, the middle school students created their own pictures of their favorite dessert. When the drawing project was completed the students each decorated and then devoured a real cup cake.

4/5s Work on Their Iroquois Seed Masks

Anya and her Special Friend

Christine (Mom) working with Lara

On Special Friends Day the 4/5s had help from their visitors putting the finishing touches on their seed and bean masks.

2/3s Paint a Mural of the Hudson River

Painting the River

Creative moment

The 2/3s have been studying the Hudson River. In conjunction with their classroom work they are painting a mural of the River and its surrounds using acrylic paint on a 5' x 6' canvas. When it is finished the mural will hang in the office of New York State Office of Children and Family Services.

K/1s Build Animals and Their Habitats

Pierce making a possum

Allison creating her animal

The K/1s are studying animals of the Northeast. To enhance their classroom work they crafted clay animals in art class and then built three habitats: a wetlands, a forest and a field where they will locate their animal.

More tee shirts

More tee shirts for Kenya.

Tee Shirts for Kenya!

The middle school students finished their tee shirts and sent them off to Keela to take to the Jambo Jipya School.

Middle School Students Design Tee Shirts for Africa

Mathilde beginning her tee shirt design

Tyana and Zali designing their tee shirts

We had a presentation a month ago by a very poised 22 year old, Keela Dates. Keela is the founder of Reason2Smile, a support organization for Jambo Jipya, a school in Kenya for orphaned and at-risk children. Since 2004 the school has expanded from one mud hut to 11 cement classrooms with 300 students ages 3 - 18.

Our students were inspired to reach out. When Keela goes to Kenya next month, she will take with her t-shirts our students decorated with artwork they designed. She will also take plain t-shirts and paints from Parker so that students at Jambo Jipya can send something back.

4/5s Begin Iroquois Seed Masks

Jared and Dylan making their masks

Anna gluing seeds

Thinking about the masks of the Iroquois False Face Society, the 4/5 students designed their own masks using seeds and grains to fill in the areas they had defined.

4/5s Paint Geometric Objects

Jack painting his objects

Veda finishing up her painting

4/5 students selected four or five objects and drew them in outline with specific requirements. One object had to be on a diagonal, one had to come in from one side, and one had to touch the top and bottom of the page. The page was then evenly divided into quarters and these quadrants were divided in half again. Then a complementary color scheme was selected and the painting began. At each point that an object crossed a dividing line it had to change colors, using a mix of the complements, or tints or shades achieved by adding black or white.

2/3s Working on Tooth Fairies

Mike beginning his tooth fairy picture

Avery and Megan drawing tooth fairies

After reading Throw Your Tooth on the Roof : Tooth Traditions From Around the World, by Selby Beeler, the 2/3s were inspired to create wonderfully imaginative pictures of whatever the Tooth Fairy might look like.

K/1s Painting in the style of Jasper Johns

Student beginning her painting

Painting numbers

Working on Jasper Johns style painting

The K/1 students learned about the paintings of the contemporary American artist, Jasper Johns. Johns uses everyday images in the creation of his works. The K/1s looked at his number and letter paintings and then made their own vibrant works.

Kindergartners and First Graders Drawing Milkweed

Sonya drawing milkweed

Leo beginning his drawing

Gabrielle and Charlotte figuring out colors

Kindergarten and first grade students observed the life cycle of monarch butterflies in their classroom. Connecting to this in art class they did observational drawings of milkweed and added caterpillars and butterflies (and an occasional bee!).

Second and Third Graders Paint Fall Landscape

Mike and Coleman adding paint to their sketches

Jamie and Avery beginning to paint

The second and third grade students took advantage of Parker's glorious setting by going outdoors with pencil, paper and drawing boards to sketch the landscape they were observing. They returned to art class and, using a limited palette of shades and tints of green and yellow, they painted the landscape they had sketched.

Fourth and Fifth Graders Drawing Locker Names

Veda and Clare work on black and white design

Anna adding monochromatic color scheme

Adam working on his initial design

The fourth and fifth grade students came up with unique and inventive designs for their monochromatic locker identifiers.

Middle School Students Working on Name Designs

Nip Rogers sharing his work with students

Sam working on his name design

Imani at work

The school year begins with fourth through eighth grade students creating an identifier for their hall locker. This fall they worked on monochromatic names with black and white designs filling the rectangular space behind their name. As this project was winding down, artist illustrator Nip Rogers visited the middle school art classes to look at the students' work and inspire them with some of his own.

Second and Third Graders Paint Dutch Doorways

                         Ada working on her doorway painting

                        Veda and Clare working on their paintings 

An introduction to the Dutch master Jan Vermeer  linked to classroom studies of the early settlers in New York. Noticing that Vermeer often viewed his subjects through a window or doorway and working with accuracy and detail, the students created doorways and scenes beyond or within them. Using watercolors and Sharpies they painted compositions that were careful in execution and often fanciful in inspiration. 

Fourth and Fifth Graders Drawing a Bicycle

                     Students drawing the road bike

The fourth and fifth grade students spent several classes closely observing a bicycle, carefully drawing it, adding a background and then adding a rider!

Fourth and Fifth Grade Historical Puppets

                     Harvey Milk, Gandhi, MLK, Helen Keller, and more

                       Lincoln, Louis Armstrong, Crazy Horse and more

The fourth and fifth graders spent the last few months creating extraordinary hand puppets of specific  historical characters they had studied in class. They made the heads from paper mache, painted them, added yarn hair, sewed their clothes and finally added an artifact to help the viewer accurately identify their character. They are amazing!

Middle School Students Drawing a Bicycle

                         Zara, Kiki, and Nora drawing the Bianchi

                       Zali and Zara looking at the bike

As an exercise in observational drawing, the middle school students closely observed Jack's Bianchi road bike, and discovered many intricate shapes and forms that presented fine drawing challenges. The results of their efforts were impressive.

K/1s Working on Self-Portraits

Working with great concentration

Painting in details

The K/1 students have taken on the task of looking carefully in the mirror and painting what they see.

2/3s Working on Their Self-Portraits

                                                    Hunter painting himself

                                                 Heath and Adam at work

The 2/3 students have been observing themselves in the mirror and painting their annual self- portraits trying hard to capture their likeness in paint.