Middle School Helps Out

 Sign production

An origami lesson

The middle school students helped paint green arrows for trail markers for the upcoming 5K Trail Run and they made origami lilies for the May auction.

K/1s Make Paper Mache Birds

 Adding strips of newspaper

 Getting the shape right

Wiping the excess glue back into the container!

Covering the tails and wings

  

 Painting the nuthatch

 

painting the red-winged blackbird

Some finished birds 

 Three finished birds

The finished blue jay

To round out their knowledge of their particular birds, the K/1s sculpted them out of paper mache. The glue was gooey, but they did a great job.

K/1s Draw Birds

 The robin looking strong

Working on the chickadee

 The red-tailed hawk and the bluejay taking form

The barn swallow and the goldfinch getting finishing touches

The K/1s have begun their study of birds of the Northeast. Each student is researching a particular bird,  drawing and then sculpting it in art class.

2/3s Assemble Hudson River Book

 Gluing the fish in the river

 Adding the dragonfly

 Putting in the crayfish

Assembling the pages

Poetry, research, observational drawing and watercolors all went into the 2/3s book on the Hudson River. After months of work, the book was assembled and sent off the Scholastic in the hopes that they pick this beautiful book to be published!

4-8th Graders Begin Their Self-Portraits

 A 4/5 Portrait

Another 4/5

The fourth through eighth grade students, after several years of working on their images in the younger grades, do these portraits in colored pencil. The middle schoolers tend to use more graphite shading with just a touch of color, while the 4/5s color the whole image with colored pencil.

K/1s and 2/3s Add Paint to their Self-Portraits

After getting the drawing to their liking, the K-3s continued to use the mirror as they mixed colors and added paint to their self-portraits.

K/1s and 2/3s Begin Self-Portraits

 Initial drawing

 Locating the mouth

 Working on the eyes

Checking in the mirror

Each year all Parker students in grades K-8 create a self-portrait. The medium changes through the grades with the younger students painting and the older ones drawing. All the portraits hang together in the front hall in a marvelous quilt of the many faces of the school. These images then become the pages of the school calendar for the coming school year. Here, the K/1s and 2/3s are looking in the mirror as they begin the initial drawing for their portraits.