Art
Fused Glass Colorwheel
McGilvra Elementary Art Curriculum 2009-2010
Each fall at McGilvra, we have a school-wide art theme. This year our theme is MODERN ART. Specifically, we’ll be studying the Avant-Guard artists of the first half of the 20th Century.
Below is a list of artists that we will be studying at McGilvra this year. It is important to note that each grade will focus on a different assortment of these artists and will do some, but not all, of the listed projects. The students’ work will be displayed in the halls and library, so we will all have a chance to learn from one another.
- Gustav Klimt—watercolors, gilding, altered photographs
- Paul Klee –oil pastel hieroglyphics, scratch board fish, fractured words (markers), useless machine line drawings
- Alberto Giacometti—papier-mache sculpture
- Pablo Picasso—cardboard portrait sculptures, clay relief portraits
- Joan Miro—felting, printmaking (styrofoam linocuts)
- Henri Matisse—“drawing with scissors” (paper cuts), still life paintings
- Salvador Dali—Salvador Dollies (soft sculpture)
- Rene Magritte—play with positive and negative, scale and proportion
- Barbara Hepworth—plaster orbs
- Romare Bearden—paper collage
- Georgia O’Keeffe—flowers and bones
- Frida Kahlo—self portraits
- Jacob Lawrence—story painting, tempra
- Wassily Kandinsky—circles quilt, painting music
- William H. Johnson—acrylic painting
- Alexander Calder—Seattle Art Museum Visit and Workshop
January: Auction Projects—All Grades
February: Color Study
Kindergarten: primary and secondary colors, color wheel
1st: mixing colors, complementary colors
2nd: warm and cool colors
3rd: analogous colors, tones, tints, shades
4th: value
5th: functional color wheel
March through June: grade level projects aligned with classroom subject matter
Kindergarten:
- Sculpture (ceramic, wood, wire, foam, etc)
- Butterflies (drawing from observation, felting, symmetry, etc.)
First Grade:
- Community Frieze
- Animals (sewing, felting, drawing, ceramics, etc.)
Second Grade:
- Romare Bearden (collage)
- Georgia O’Keeffe (painting)
- Frida Kahlo (self portraits)
Third Grade:
- Artistic Traditions of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest (button blankets, totem poles, weaving, maskmaking)
Fourth Grade:
- American Folk Art Traditions (quilting, toy making, “Naïve” art)
Fifth Grade:
- Continuation of Modern Art Theme
All students will have experience with the following during the year: Clay (handbuilding), Fiber Arts (sewing, felting, weaving, or soft sculpture), 3D Construction, painting (watercolors, acrylics, pastels), drawing (pencil, colored pencil, pen, charcoal).
Overarching Goals
We value process over product…so, students will be challenged to:
- recognize key themes in the target artist’s work,
- consider the artist’s voice, message, and intended audience and identify their own unique artistic voice, message, and audience,
- work together in a small space,
- share materials and use them effectively and efficiently,
- use tools safely,
- improve small motor skills,
- develop one’s personal aesthetic and art making processes,
- recognize the “Elements of Art”: space, color, shape, texture, form, value, and references,
- consider the “Principles of Design”: balance, proportion, rhythm, emphasis, and unity.
Grades:
Students who participate, make an effort to do all projects, share materials and ideas freely, and contribute to a positive classroom climate will earn a PLUS.
Students who are not distracting to others or detracting from the experience for others but who put forth little or no effort on projects will earn a CHECK.
Students who distract others, do not use materials effectively or safely, or who do not help to make the classroom a safe, positive place will earn a MINUS (even if they make an effort on their own projects).
Rebecca Pleasure
(206) 252-3168
rspleasure@seattleschools.org