Both Third Grade Art and Fifth Grade Art completed landscapes that used “pattern” as the selected principle of Art & Design we were developing. Third grade artists completed theirs with a different color marker and pattern in each area, and fifth grade artists “Zentangled” their landscape patterns. Zentangles are a form of thoughtful, meditative drawing that allows the artist to concentrate on mindful, careful placement of lines to create value, depth, and visual interest.These pieces are still being assessed and photographed for our digital Artsonia gallery, but will be sent home soon. Instructor examples are below:


Lastly, Fourth Grade art made clay tiles, with a central motif carved into the center, and (you guessed it )a framing pattern around the outside of the tile. We added “engobe” which is colored slip (slip is a very wet clay body) before bisque-firing them, and now, students are putting the finishing touches on their tiles by brushing on a coat of “glitter glaze” (which is really an acrylic paint rather than a clay glaze that needs to be fired a second time). These tiles can be used for display, but not for food since they are not glaze-fired, but are quite beautiful! Monday through Wednesday classes are complete and have been sent home, Thursday and Friday classes are still being fired and will go home after break. Fun fact:a bisque-fire cycle takes 1 day to ramp up slowly to the selected temperature for that clay body and a second day to cool down (that is 48 hours for each kiln load, usually one class fits in a load at a time). If we try to rush the clay, they will break, but very soon, all 220+ tiles will be home. If you want to use display on a table, I would recommend adding a felt bottom to the underside of the tile.

Third grade artists used their new knowledge of the landscape terms “foreground”, “middle ground”, “background”, and “horizon line” to create two types of landscapes, oil pastels (completed in Feb.) and “pattern” landscapes (completed in March). We discussed examples of those concepts in three American landscapes by Winslow Homer, Grant Woods, and Albert Bierstadt before doing rough drafts, then using water-soluble oil pastels. Many are currently in the hall leading down to third grade, and will be displayed until after break.

Fourth Grade art had a very busy month creating their “Flutter Books” (see http://digitalarts.bgsu.edu/faculty/bonniem/Fall06/artc331_2/bookBinding/flutterbook.pdf) and filling them with Manga-style cartoons based on their completed “plot mountains” This was a big integration with Language Arts to support our writing curriculum and vocabulary. These 3D books are currently in the large showcase leading down to the third grade hall and will be displayed through mid-April.


Fifth Grade artists had a lot of choice in designing their “Avatars”, which are images that generally are used to represent you online and protect your identity. Students could use the computers, do collage, but many chose to either paint their avatars or use colored pencils. The images were symbolic representations of the artists, so don’t be surprised to see “basketball heads” or “cupcake” cartoon people displayed in our hallways leading down to fifth grade very soon!

Third grade completed their Artist’ Trading Cards (A.T.C.’s) based on our mythology discussion. Each student collaged (careful cutting and gluing)on 5 cards, 2 were duplicates, which at the end of the unit, they traded with classmates. We also focused on writing 3 describing words for each card, which ties in nicely with the Language Arts concept of “character traits.”
Fourth grade completed their Linoleum Block Relief Prints, which were inspired by the woodblock print art of Walter Anderson. Each student chose an animal, and the letter that started the animal name. This way, they got more practice with the block carving and printing, with a focus on safety and careful balance of what is carved away and what prints.


Fifth grade students made radially designed “slot cards” with colored pencil and created rapid prototypes of a “slot shelter.” This project is based on a national design collaboration between artists, architects, and students to rethink what makes a good shelter. The rapid prototypes were a group effort in brainstorming and 3D building.

Rapid Prototypes Slot Shelters from L. Girbino on Vimeo.

Third grade students completed 3 projects since mid-March: 1) Greek Vases–(see many of them on our gallery on ARTSONIA)—learning about the 3 main Greek vase shapes as part of our “Form Follows Function” essential concept; 2) “musical chairs” thumbnail sketches, where students worked on their observational drawing skills by drawing one silly toy/object from 4 different angles; and 3) creating texture templates to take rubbings from with crayon.

Fourth Grade students learned about paisley history, then created paisley patterns using French curves as their tracers for the basic shape, called a “boteh”. Colored pencil patterns created beautiful and colorful compositions (many of these are also on Artsonia & displayed in the hallway). Also, all 4th grade clay cups/bowls have been set home this week (not to spoil any Mother’s Day surprises Currently, we are using shadow tracings as our inspiration for pastels.




Lastly, 5th grade completed their latest sketchbook exercise, “Op Art Shading Blobs”, and also their India ink drawings using reed ink pens and employing cross-hatching/stippling to create at least 4 values.