Art A La Carte

Today's art ala carte was a family affair!  Rowan's parents came and his sister, Amara helped out too!  We had a great discussion on warm and cool colors.  We also wondered why the artist would choose a certain color and what does it mean?  Then The Superheroes got the chance to explore on their own.

Storybook Parade

Wow, what an exciting morning!  Students came to school dressed as their favorite storybook character.  We had a lot of fun parading through the hallways and then outside around the track.

Can an egg float?

Today we had a very special visitor, Ethan's mom!  She came to perform a little experiment with The Superheroes.  The question was:  Will an egg float in salt water?  As you can see,  all the students were enthralled with the experiment!  We had a ton of questions!  We also made some great observations - for example...  Is the egg going to float like people float in the Dead Sea?  Thank you Ethan's Mom!!!

Having a little fun in the classroom

We were working hard and listening to some music and I just had to record the students responses. 

We were laughing so hard unfortunately we were interrupted by an announcement.!

The Art of Paper Cutting

Today we had Art Ala Carte with Colin's dad.  The kids were very excited to learn about Matisse and his unique style of paper cutting.  It tied in very well to our recent lesson on creating collages with torn paper; 

a technique we learned from Leo Lionni. 

 Go to:  http://www.henri-matisse.net/cut_outs.html to learn more about Matisse's paper cutting. 

Painting like Klee

As part of our planner, we are exploring how artists express themselves using various types of lines and shapes. We have looked at Matisse and his use of straight and zig zag lines. Our favorite was Paul Klee.  Klee says that you have to make the invisible - visible through art.   So here we are experimenting with lines and shapes to create a piece of art.  The Superheroes also liked the way Paul Klee gave each piece of work a title.  Jenny's piece is called, " The Deep Sea of Happiness." 

 Everywhere you look you will find hearts! 

Exploring Pumpkins

Before we cut open the pumpkins, we made a few scientific observations. 

Pumpkin Investigation Part II

The next phase of our pumpkin investigation got a little messy!  

We made estimations of how many seeds we thought were in the pumpkin.  

Our range was from 10 to 3,000!!  I cut the pumpkins in different ways so the students could see how the seeds are arranged inside the pumpkin. 

 Then we reached inside and grabbed all the seeds.  In the end, our official count was 181 seeds!

Pumpkin Investigation

The Superheroes explored pumpkins today using math and science! 

 First we used our senses to examine the pumpkins.  What did they look like and feel like?  We even had a pumpkin that wasn't orange! Next, we determined how tall our pumpkins were using math manipulatives.  Finally we performed an experiment to determine whether pumpkins would sink or float.  At first we thought since they were so heavy they would sink, but we tried an apple first and it floated.  The conclusion was that no water can get in and it will float. And we were right!  The interesting thing was that the pumpkins turned sideways in the bucket of water.  We think that might have something to do with the stems.  The only pumpkin that did not do that was the white pumpkin. 

Pumpkin Graphing

Today, The Superheroes had a new graphing challenge!  We worked together in cooperative groups to sort the Jack-o-lanterns and then we had to create a graph showing how many we had of each kind of face. 

Pumpkin Challenge II

After completing the pumpkin challenge, The Superheroes used a rubric to choose the pumpkin they felt best met the criteria.  It was interesting to see that there were several winners!  This helped us to understand that everyone has a different perspective when looking at art. Next, I asked them to write their names using chalk. WELL, my Superheroes said, "Can we create a setting for our pumpkin?"  That was music to my ears and my answer, "Of course!"  Here is a small sampling of what they created.  

Pumpkin Challenge?

Can you make a pumpkin using only six one inch wide strips of orange paper.  The artists got right to work experimenting with different possibilities.  We ended up with square pumpkins, round pumpkins and even three dimensional pumpkins!!

Classroom Visitor

We were reading "Alvin Ho" and our main character Alvin was trying to play the flute.  Emil remembered that his mom knows how to play the flute.  She graciously made a visit to us today! 

 Not only did we get to hear "true stories" about Vietnam; we also learned a little about the culture.  

Then Ms. Tu played the flute for us.  The students were mesmerized by the sounds.  It was very beautiful.  

We decided that playing the flute can also be an art form where people express themselves. 

 Instead of using paper and paint, Ms. Tu used the flute.  

Collages

Here are some final products of the torn paper collage activity.  The Superheroes were a little concerned that you could not use scissors, but those rose to the challenge.  They were all risk-takers trying something new and creating these masterpieces!