Grade 6

Spring may be chilly, but it’s just fine for us Penguins! Young artists in Mr. Spitzer’s 3rd Grade class worked collaboratively to create this segmented image of three emperor penguins amid an arctic landscape. Using oil pastels to recreate seemingly abstract shapes from cut squares of a photograph, each student rendered two drawings that, ultimately, join to form a complete image. The unique way that each student approached the mark-making and blending process adds to the overall vibrancy and multi-dimensional quality of the piece.

Time for the annual Fifth Grade Book Drive!

In conjunction with Reader-to-Reader, a Springfield-based non-profit organization, the Fifth Grade is collecting books!

Reader-to-Reader serves children in rural and underserved communities in the US and around the world. We are excited to continue this community service project in 2015! Last year, Fifth Grade collected several hundred books for this important cause.

Please bring your gently used children’s books (through Grade 9) to the Fifth Grade homeroom in the next two weeks. No textbooks, magazines, videos or reference materials, please!

Thanks for your support!

Grade Five

Join us in the Furey Hall Art Studios this Thursday for an array of sights, sounds, and hands-on experiences. Student-artists and Arts faculty will be present to guide families, friends, and students of all ages through the spaces to see finished artworks and works in progress. Stop in for this cabin-fever fixer!

Students of the Arts Block Painting class had a special opportunity to get up-close and personal with Tom O’Neil and his artworks today as he welcomed the students to his home studio in Stockbridge. The students engaged in a dialogue with Mr. O’Neil about his process and about his finished and unfinished artworks. The group remarked that, after having worked with the concept of abstraction in class, they were able to relate to Mr. O’Neil’s work in a tangible way based on their experience with similar ideas and materials. Having the ability to step into a professional artist’s space helped to actualize the notion of what it means and what it looks like to make art for a living. Thank you, Mr. O’Neil!

Some Notes on Abstraction…

In abstraction, you pull out and push in the positives and negatives to create different grounds and spaces. – Mimi

One thing can always fold into another. – Beatrice

It’s important not to get caught up in one place in the painting. You have to move around it. – Elena

If you don’t like something (or if you like something), it’s okay to cover it up rather than try to work through the painting. – Doree

Don’t be afraid to mess up. – William

A Sampling of Student Works in Progress…