LINK TO BERLIN FOR 5TH & 6TH GRADERS

Here is an amazing link to information about Berlin and the Wall...

Make sure to check it out---It will help when you are formulating your ideas about the piece of wall you are creating for our art project!

www.newseum.org/berlinwall

ART JOURNAL RUBRIC FOR 5th & 6th GRADERS....

This same rubric will be taped into your child's art journal.

If you click on this image you should see a larger sized version.

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR MY CHILD?

THIS IS THE PLACE TO FIND OUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR CHILD'S CLASSROOM!

Here is what is in store for your grade...

K will be focusing in on the elements of art, including lines, colors, and shapes. They will be utilizing crayons, colored pencils, and markers to start off with. Gradually they will be moving into watercolor paints when they begin their study of autumn leaves.

Grades 1 & 2 are beginning their school year off with a study in lines and color schemes. They will then be utilizing that knowledge to transition into self portraiture.

Grades 5 & 6 have kicked off the year with an in depth study of the Berlin Wall. Through discussion of artistic symbolism and the history of the wall, they will be able to formulate their own ideas and create an end project--- their own pieces of the Berlin Wall. Their theme will be freedom and what it means to them.  I am working closely with Mr. Moss our social studies teacher to work hand in hand with his curriculum.

I'm very excited for a new school year and look forward to seeing you all around the neighborhood.
Don't forget to check your child's ARTSONIA account regularly as there will be many updates as we complete art projects. If you need their account name and/or password, let me know and I will foward it to you as soon as possible.

Feel free to contact me if you need anything at MSawicki@schools.nyc.gov

WHAT DO THE ARTS TEACH OUR CHILDREN?

10 Lessons the Arts Teach

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.
Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.
One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.


5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers, exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experiences we can have from no other source
and through such experience, discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

WELCOME BACK!

Hey All!!!

Hope your summer was fantastic!

I've already heard about some of the incredible worldly travels and

exciting adventures all of the children have had.

I'm really excited to start the new school year!

This year grades pre-k through 2 and grades 5 & 6 will be having visual arts instruction.

Keep an eye on this blog for upcoming units of study, updates on student work, exciting art based events and much more!

Don't forget about Artsonia,

where each child has their own personal,

online digital portfolio of the artwork they create during the school year!

If you have any questions, suggestions or just want to talk, feel free the email me at MSawicki@schools.nyc.gov

See you soon.....

Melissa Sawicki-Mallien