Friday, November 6, 2015

Hundertwasser!!!

Today, 2/3 and 3/4 students did some art history research on Austrian artist and architect Hundertwasser. By collaborating, Mrs. Esterline and I were able to see the two classes together and give them a large chunk of time to prepare their presentations. Working in small groups, children read an excerpt, found interesting facts, and then developed a creative way to present this information to their peers. Below are a few of the awesome presentations! Enjoy!


(Sorry kids auto-correct got the best of me when I titled this one!)




Friday, October 2, 2015

Still Life Drawings


 Ms. Cafferty and Mr. Menz's classes have been working on still life drawings. We began the project by carefully observing the flower arrangements and noticing as many details as possible. Students then sketched the flowers using pencils--making sure to include all those wonderful details. The following week, students checked their work to see if they had created "balanced compositions." Some children decided to add other details in their works to add visual interest and balance to their artwork. Then, they traced their pencil lines with black glue to create a bold, slightly 3D effect. Today, the children began coloring in their works using oil pastels. As a lesson launch we had watched a time lapse video of a professional artist using oil pastels to draw a pear. We observed some techniques she used and then tried them in our own works. Below are a few time lapse videos taken of students working. Enjoy!







Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Free Lantern-Making Workshop for the River of Light Lantern Parade


On Saturday November 21st, 2015 Smilie Memorial School (2712 Theodore Roosevelt Hwy, Bolton, VT) will be hosting a special one-day lantern-making workshop in preparation for Waterbury’s River of Light Community Lantern Procession which will be taking place on Saturday December 5th in Waterbury VT.

Workshop:
Date: Saturday November 21st 2015
Place: Smilie Memorial School
Time: 10am-3pm to include an hour break for lunch

– Workshop is free to attend
– All tools and materials will be provided. If you have a pair of hand-held
 pruning shears, please bring them along, you’ll find it useful to have a 
pair of your own.
– Children under the age of 8 must be accompanied by an adult. This 
activity is not suitable for children under 6.
– There will be a limit of 20 participants.
– Donations will be welcome.
– For more information or to register please contact Gowri Savoor at info@gowrisavoor.com or visit https://ariveroflightinwaterbury.wordpress.com/

Friday, September 4, 2015

Community Paper!!




All students at Smilie made large sheets of community paper in art class today. This is paper made by our school community, for our school community. Ms. Cafferty and Mr. Menz's classes both did bubble printing. Ms. Thompson's class did a crayon resist with watercolor and Ms. Cole's class used bleeding tissue paper. All the papers have turned out beautifully! I am in the process of cutting these large paper down to sketch-book size so that the kids can go "shopping" in art next week for a lovely sketch book cover. 

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Smilie Reads!!

All students have been hard at work on our Smilie Reads t-shirts. I never knew Einstein had so many awesome hair styles!