Middle School Students Experiment with Boat Designs

Thinking about buoyancy, displacement, density and stability, the middle school students experimented with boat designs. Beginning with several iterations of paper boats the students tried them out in the stream table to figure out which designs worked well, were stable and efficient moving through the water. After figuring out which designs worked best the students will build small models and then scale one up to culminate in the construction of wooden paddles and a single coroplast and wood boat large enough for a student to paddle across the Parker pond.

Early trial with paper and tape

Tape to help with waterproofing

Figuring it out together

Checking buoyancy by adding pennies for weight

An ark-like creation

Figuring proportions  and folds for the scale model boats

Hot gluing the stern flaps up

Fitting the breast hook to give the boat its shape

Fitting the gunwales

Naming the model boat

A finished model

And one more

Working on the final boat....folding the coroplast with the help of Ron Ishkanian, a local boat builder and friend

Attaching the breast hook

Sawing a paddle handle

Trying out the finished boat (in the art room)!

And in the pond!

4/5s Work on Self-Portraits

Looking closely at their image in a mirror the 4/5 students observe the proportion and placement of their features, the color and texture of their hair and their general expression as they try to capture their likeness in colored pencil for the annual self-portrait project.

Moving from a sketch to final paper

Checking the expression

Skin tones

Wavy hair captured

Four finished portraits

The self-portrait wall

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

Each year every student in grades K-8 work on a self-portrait  This is a wonderful way to get a glimpse into the way the students see themselves, as their drawing and observational skills mature. When all the work is hung together in the school hallway, the viewer gets a terrific look at the different developmental stages from those just entering school all the way through to those who are about to graduate.  All the students focus on proportion and placement of facial features. They progress from tempera paint to colored pencil to just graphite, working on values and shading. The portraits become the pages of the school calendar for the coming year so they can continue to be appreciated after the original work is returned to the artists.
Here are some pictures of the k-3 student work in progress.

Working on skin tones

Painting hair

Looking in the mirror and beginning the pencil drawing

Checking back to the mirror

Mixing colors

4/5s Maya, Inca, and Aztec Inspired Repousse Designs

As the Incas, Aztecs and Maya are the topic of study in the 4/5 classroom, their art  inspired designs in art class.   These early civilizations had intricately patterned deities  involving images of birds, snakes, spears, etc. Taking image ideas from these cultures the students  designed 6"x6" squares to transfer to aluminum plates where they'll inscribe them in the art form known as repousse. The aluminum is placed on a surface of newspapers and pressed with an implement to push the design from the back to the front. As the plate is turned over it can be worked in both directions. The final result is a finely patterned design in low relief that is inked and then wiped down so the ink remains in the indented areas.

Pressing the design into the metal plate

Working on some small detail

Applying ink to the finished plate

Wiping it back so the ink stays in the indentations

Completed work

One more finished

2/3s Learn to Weave

The 2/3s were  excited to tackle their first round weaving. Working on a paper plate with 19 slits cut into the rim, they strung the "loom" with white string and began the first round of rainbow yarn to get the rhythm of weaving.

Tying on the first yarn

Round one going well

Getting the over and under rhythm

Moving right along with tight rounds of yarn

Adding another round

Finished and off the loom

One more finished

K/1s Perform Jan Brett's The Hat

As part of the K/1's study of Jan Brett they will perform the play The Hat, based on her book. They made masks of the different animals, painted trees and turned a large refrigerator box into Lisa's house.

Painting paper to become trees

Working together on the tree paper

Painting the house panels

It takes cooperation and care to make this work

M.S. Self-Portraits

The annual Parker self-portrait project has begun for the middle school students. The students watched a video on how use different values and gray tones to give dimension to a face and then reviewed rule of thumb methods for placement and proportion for achieving their likeness. They worked from mirrors or photos, thinking about the shape of their face and trying to accurately locate and capture their features. They tried to put all these elements together to create an image that is recognizable as them.

Checking in with the mirror

Luckily, it was the left arm that was broken!

Working from top to bottom

Trial and error yield fine results

Close attention working from a phone photo

Parker Alum, Sam Wickstrom, portrait artist, gives the middle school students some pointers