March+2010

= = =March 2010= == March 26: Our second day with our artist-in-residence, Ms. Alison Zapata, witnessed a reworking of our ideas using tools from our artist's toolbox. Our tools included pattern, repetition, color, and variety in size. We are looking forward to seeing her vision of all of our ideas combined into three paintings! ==

== March 19: Our first day with our artist-in-residence was a smashing success! I'm so excited about our work! Here you see Ms. Alison Zapata talking with fourth grade students about one of her mural designs from a Sprout project in Pittsburgh. We also chose a big idea from the science curriculum framework, and began sketching ideas abou t that big idea. One group chose Energy is neither created nor destroyed. Energy can be transformed from one form to another, but transformation between forms often results in the loss of useable energy through the production of heatand the two other groups chose The earth system changes constantly as air, water, soil, and rock interact, and the earth is a part of a larger sun, earth, moon system. ==

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March 18: Fourth grade students at Franklin collaborated to create this moving sculpture. The car moves through the tunnel!
== March 18: Students at Franklin School created a collaborative painting. They created just the right hue of orange, then repeated a motif at different scales to create a composition with unity and variety. == == March 17: A second grade student shares her discovery about how to create meaning using moving paper on the document camera. The Ladybug is our favorite sharing tool! We can see details and processes in rich detail. ==



== March 17: Students in fifth grade contributed ideas in response to the question, "How should we evaluate our work?" Here is a Wordle with their ideas. Higher freqeuency words appear larger. (Click on the Wordle to see a larger image.) == media type="custom" key="5649447" == March 14: Students in second grade at Wharton learned about using hole punches and brass fasteners to join materials together with the bonus of movement. Students then created their own moving paper sculptures. ==

== March 12: I am pleased to announce our school's partnership with Gateway to the Arts, and our upcoming artist residency with Ms. Alison Zapata! She will be working with our students to create murals in our outdoor learning area, M.O.L.E. You can see some of her recent work on her website, == []

These are some of the areas in M.O.L.E. (Menallen Outdoor Learning Environment) where we will be adding murals.


== March 9: Third grade students have been exploring painting with watercolors. Last week, we painted on small pieces of watercolor paper and shared our results using the document camera. Students were able to share their discoveries and instruct the class in new techniques! This week, we expanded our exploration to create original images. Some students remembered Roy G. Biv, and chose to illustrate spectral order in rainbows! ==

== March 2: Second grade students are exploring ways to make paper three-dimensional, crossing between collage and sculpture. You can see one student sharing his artwork with the class on our document camera (The Ladybug!). == == March 2: This week, the sculpture center at Menallen officially opens! Fourth, fifth and sixth grade students will have the opportunity to explore creating in three dimensions using materials and tools from this center. Here are pictures of some sculpture explorations by sixth grade students. ==

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== March 1: Kindergarten students at Wharton school explored color mixing today. They painted one color on one side of their paper, one color on the other side, then folded the paper and mixed the colors. When they opened their papers, they saw secondary colors: orange, purple and green! == == March 1: Welcome to our Menallen art classroom! View two videos here of fourth grade students exploring artistic behavior. One student is learning about color relationships, and how to create colors (this one is still in process. . .coming soon hopefully!). Another is expressing his interest in ancient architecture by creating a collage. ==

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