Art

Incorporation of understanding and appreciation of art by learning the elements of art: Color (primary, secondary, warm and cool), line and shape (geometric and biomorphic), and sculpture forms. This is also enforced by an introduction to the art of Pieter Bruegel, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Alexander Calder, and Henri Matisse.

Students learn how to describe qualities of texture and distinguish between tactile and visual texture and learn to recognize portraits, self-portraits, still life pictures, and murals. It also incorporates art of ancient Egypt and the Christmas story. Artists studied include Jacob Lawrence, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, James McNeil Whistler, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Diego Rivera. 

Art created can include cave art, Egyptian life-size figures, tempera paintings, mixed media collages, portraits, self portraits, oil pastel drawings, and arrangements in black and gray.

 

Students learn about tertiary colors and placement of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors on a color wheel.  Emphasis is placed on line (recognizing horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines) and making a connection between the element of line and the horizon line in a landscape picture while studying landscapes by David Hockney, John Constable, JMW Turner, and Vincent van Gogh.

Second graders learn about the art of ancient Greece while studying the Parthenon, sculpture, and ceramic painting. The concept of abstract art is introduced as well as students make comparisons between realistic and abstract art. Other artists studied include George Catlin, John James Audubon, Katsushika Hokusai, Auguste Rodin, and Constantin Brancusi.  Art created can include oil pastel and acrylic paint landscapes, portraits, black figure painted plates, prints and Model Magic sculpture.

 

Study of the art of ancient Rome including the Pantheon, the Column of Trajan, and mosaics. Created art can include three-dimensional landscapes, window landscapes, light acrostics, drawings of cubes and spheres, skeleton drawings, and paper mosaics. 

Third graders also read together Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer and create lap books connecting the story to the artist Johannes Vermeer using the elements of light and form and references to light in the Bible. Additionally, students study William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and prepare and perform a twenty minute adaptation of the play using Shakespeare’s original language.

Works of art and artists include the Book of Kells, John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Paul Revere, Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington, and Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware. 

Fourth graders study the art of the Middle Ages, including features of Gothic architecture and illuminated manuscripts, the art of Africa, the art of China, and the art of a new nation (America). Created art can include brass rubbings, tissue paper rose windows, manuscript pages, Fibonacci collages, African masks, Chinese dragons, faux Chinese porcelain painting, realistic portraits, and 3-D abstract self-portraits.