Land Art Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy

This beautiful morning first, second, and third grade students at Smilie Memorial School were able to go outside and build Land Art. Last week, the children worked in small groups to design their piece of Land Art. We were all inspired by the amazing works of Land Art done by Andy Goldsworthy. 

In reflecting on the process, all students determined that Land Artists needed to be flexible and creative problem solvers--after all building with only natural materials is tricky business.

The children were amazed by the wealth of natural materials available to them in the wooded area.

I saw SO much amazing teamwork and cooperation!

Mixed Media in the Morning: Preschool at Smilie

Preschoolers enjoyed dripping glue onto their pieces that they had painted last week in art. This was our second day working on these "mixed media" works. The preschoolers have learned that mixed media means using many different types of art materials on the same piece of artwork. 

Tea with the Queen

Our kindergartners at Smilie have been very busy making teacups out of clay. The children have been learning all about clay and, most recently, they used the pinch pot technique to make a teacup. Today, was exciting because we got to actually USE the teacups the students made. We had a VERY fancy tea party with our special guest--the Queen aka Mrs. Cole. It was meaningful for the children to see that their own art creations were real and functional.

Concentric Circles inspired by Matt W Moore

Smilie students made this collaborative piece of artwork inspired by Matt W Moore's mural. 

OUR SHOES MADE IT TO KENYA!!

Last year all Smilie students created shoes in art as part of our Smilie Cares and Smilie Shares initiative. The fourth grade students designed and decorated two pairs of shoes in art. These students worked hard to design their shoes all the while keeping in mind that the shoes are meant to be a piece of artwork themselves. (Which lead us to several queries... for example: What is art?)

Then, each fourth grader implemented his or her design on two pairs of white canvas shoes using permanent sharpie markers. One pair of shoes was for the students to keep and proudly wear. The second pair of shoes was a donation to another child. (This brought up several questions as well...what would it be like to NOT have shoes?) 

NOW THIS IS THE EXCITING PART; the second pair of shoes has now made it all the way to Kenya!!!! 

It is so exciting that we were able to share our creativity and celebrate the spirit of giving. 

Now our students have a unique connection to the students in Zimbabwe in that they own the only two pairs of each unique shoe design that exist in the whole world!

Printmaking for All!

All classes have been doing some fun and exciting printmaking projects. 

The first, second, third and fourth graders have been looking at the artwork of Georgia O'Keefe. The students observed that she paints a lot of flowers and that her artwork is MAGNIFIED. In her style, the children drew a close up of a flower and then an EVEN closer magnified version. 

In her style, students created stamps that are magnified view of flowers using foam board as the base of the stamp and markers to ink.

Using the same technique and materials, Kindergarten students have created a four-seasoned inspired stamp. Each child created a stamp of a basic tree and then by inking the stamp in differing ways, they have turned it into each of the four seasons.

Smilie Cares, Smilie Shares