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Visual Art Curriculum Summary – Fall 2024

Visual Art Curriculum Summary – Fall 2024
Abbey Day

All Grade Levels: An Artist Mindset

At the beginning of the semester, it is always paramount to reset art studio habits of mind, establish expectations for working with materials respectfully, and set the tone for an encouraging, open creative community.

We start each year with the tradition of practicing a “Beautiful Oops” mindset, inspired by Barney Saltzberg’s beloved book. This book illustrates how “oopses,” like a torn piece of paper, can transform into creative opportunities, such as a crocodile’s mouth. Older students look forward to seeing which “beautiful oops” mark they will receive to transform, while younger students are eager to tackle this challenge for the first time. This project sets the tone for the year, encouraging us to embrace creativity and problem-solving while focusing on art as a process, not just a product.

Students begin by turning their marks in different directions, brainstorming ideas, asking peers for feedback, and using their chosen materials to transform the marks into something new. After working for one class, many are surprised to learn that we’ll be continuing the project the following week. “But I’m done!” is a common refrain, giving us the perfect opportunity to discuss refinement. We explore ways to take work from “good” to “great”—whether by adding details, filling blank spaces, or improving composition. This focus on growth and perseverance is universal, whether a student is in 1st or 5th grade, and many are delighted by how they “level up” and grow more proud of their work.

Open Studio Time

We are fortunate to have 90-minute weekly art classes, allowing time to combine structured skill-building with open studio exploration. Open studio time is where the magic happens—students experiment with materials, collaborate with peers, and create works that reflect their unique interests and artistic voices. They discover new techniques, practice social-emotional skills through art, and share ideas that often inspire future projects. This time is student-driven, and their enthusiasm for creating exactly what they want often leads to their most meaningful artistic discoveries.

Art History as Inspiration

Every year, art history and contemporary artists inspire our curriculum. This semester, students explored two art historical focuses: the Surrealists and the cultural celebration of Día de los Muertos.

All students learned about the Surrealists and their dreamlike artworks that revolutionized creativity. The inspiration wheel was a huge hit—it assigned each student two or more disparate elements to combine. Younger students responded with drawings and paintings, while older students experimented with digital collages. The room was filled with excitement and laughter as students brainstormed clever visual mashups.

For Día de los Muertos, students explored the holiday’s origins, blending Aztec and Western traditions, and learned about its vibrant iconography. Projects included digital FacePaints, sculpting and drawing calaveras, and creating designs inspired by the celebration. Students were thrilled to share personal connections, heritage, or pop culture knowledge (hello, Coco!) while others embraced the opportunity to learn something new. Art becomes a wonderful lens for exploring the world.

Skill Building: Observation Drawing

Each year, students create an observational self-portrait, practicing how to observe and record shapes as they truly appear rather than as they think they should look. This practice challenges students to sync their eye and hand movements while focusing on the overall process rather than perfection.

Self-portraits are kept at school until 5th grade so students can reflect on their growth as artists over time. These portraits are often part of their Capstone presentations and serve as a tangible reminder of their artistic journey.

In another observational drawing project, students created scenes of towns, cities, or neighborhoods using step-by-step guides. They began with simple shapes and added details to make their scenes unique expressions of their imaginations.

Skill Building: Digital Art

Our students are fortunate to have access to digital art tools like Procreate and the Drawing Pad app. Younger students focus on fine motor skills and begin exploring Procreate’s tools, such as layers, special effects, and symmetry features. Meanwhile, older students tackle more advanced techniques, with digital animation being a favorite this semester. This labor-intensive but rewarding process captivated students from 1st through 5th grade, reflecting their growing confidence and technical skill.

Inquiry Focus: 1st/2nd Grades

As the 1st and 2nd-grade classrooms focused on the theme of “Story,” we explored storytelling through art. Students created characters with names, likes, dislikes, and homes, then animated them using tools that allowed their creations to walk, dance, or skip.

They also experimented with cartoon storyboarding, using a scroll-like format to tell their stories visually without words. Inspired by surrealism, students created hybrid characters, combining elements like a bug with a superhero’s head, and developed imaginative backstories for their creations.

As students’ classroom inquiries and questions deepen, we will continue to explore their ideas in art.

Inquiry Focus: 3rd/4th Grades

The Noio classrooms’ theme of “Unity and Diversity” inspired art projects exploring these concepts visually. Students designed tessellation patterns, transforming shapes into unique compositions, and applied color theory to create monochromatic, analogous, or complementary schemes.

Digital landscapes offered another exploration of unity and diversity. Students drew scenes with just three lines, then experimented with different color palettes in Procreate to observe how the mood and feeling of their landscapes changed. Does having all the same color or different colors impact how we view art?

In a mini-project, students used air-dry colored clay to represent “sameness” or “difference.” Creations ranged from emojis to planets and insects, each showcasing their unique interpretations of the theme.

The second semester always results in more inquiry-focus art projects. We look forward to seeing how students’ ideas will develop.

Inquiry Focus: 5th Grade

Fifth-grade inquiry focuses on personal and family history, which overlaps with art and CE classes. This semester, students created eight different digital landscapes, applied color theory to evoke emotions, and selected a favorite to recreate as a collage. Some worked abstractly, while others leaned toward representational art.

In October, many students were captivated by observational drawing, focusing on cartoon characters. Inspired by Día de los Muertos, they added imagined skeleton X-rays to their creations, combining technical skill with playful creativity.

Their enthusiasm extended to CE class, where they designed “How Are You Feeling?” pages for their Kinderbuddies. These pages featured cartoon characters expressing different emotions and were added to their Kinderbuddies’ CE journals, becoming tools for emotional reflection.

Next semester will have even more opportunities for personal reflections and strengthening of artistic voice.

The images in this summary are a tiny taste of all the amazing works created. Please check out your child’s MyPueo page to see all their artworks!

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