Join us on Thursday, May 14, between 5:00 and 7:00 pm, for the spring trimester’s Open Studios event! Arts faculty and students will be present to lead families and friends through the Furey Hall Art Studios to view and talk about finished artworks and works-in-progress. See demonstrations by Upper School students, take the potter’s wheel for a spin, and add your mark to the “Scrawl Wall”! Refreshments will be served.
The Drawing & Painting Studio was abuzz this morning as Second grade students stood collectively around a large table with large sheets of white paper before them. Cups of tempera paint and non-traditional painting tools were placed next to each student but their task at hand was about to be explained by Mr. Spitzer, stop-watch in hand. “As you know we have been doing some very careful drawings from observation over the past few weeks. Now we’re going to mix things up by making some big paintings!” Response: excitement and a lot of bodies wiggling about in anticipation. “Use the tool and the paint in front of you to make marks on your paper in whatever way you want. BUT after three minutes, you will pass your paint to the left, your tools to the right, then continue working.”
“READY-SET-GO!”
Students dove right into the process, experimenting by dipping objects such as seashells, wooden spoons, and wire into paint then applying to the paper, spontaneously inventing various methods of doing this along the way. As paint cups and tools rotated, colors mixed into new hues, objects took on unanticipated functions, and artworks emerged. Students had multiple layers of paper, allowing them to peel away a painting that was deemed ‘finished’ in order to begin again.
This playful, collaborative, and active project certainly succeeded in its intention to depart from technical drawing and last week’s lesson on the rendering of light and shadow. In addition, Mr. Spitzer imparted an important lesson about the value of process and how, like sports and language and mathematics, it is important to exercise skills often and in different ways. Oh, and to have FUN doing it!
April! Spring! – Well, not quite spring, not quite yet. But in the classroom, we’re well into our spring topic, the study of the ocean. This is an enormous (and enormously popular) topic. The class has started a mural to showcase their knowledge, and have added creatures to the top two layers, the sea shore and the sunlight zone. More and more things will be added as we dive deeper. Stay tuned for a photo!
We had a great visit to the Berkshire Museum earlier this week. The aquarium presentation was excellent. We also were able to explore the rest of the museum, spending time creating in the Spark Zone, visiting the mummy, seeing several Norman Rockwell paintings, and enjoying the climbing wall.
The climbing wall was great!
In classroom news, Krish turned six last week! Krish’s father and grandmother were able to join us in the classroom for stories, lunch and dessert. In addition to cupcakes, Krish’s grandmother prepared gulab jamun, a traditional Indian dessert made with rose water syrup. Thank you – what a treat they were!
In older classroom news, we also had a wonderful Lunch Bunch before March break, prepared by Raleigh’s family. The class loved the tacos and chocolate chip cookies. Thank you Lyndsey, for such a yummy meal (and my apologies for such late reporting!)
The class continues to make great progress in language arts. Their individual alphabet books are now halfway done, and they are becoming quite proficient at independently getting their thoughts onto paper. This is a highly motivated group of five-and-six year olds!
Upcoming events:
Thursday, April 23 – Trip to Hancock Shaker Village with the Preschool
Friday, May 8, 11:00 – Kindergarten Poetry Assembly and Class Potluck
Think Spring!
Andrea
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.
