October Newsletter

Expressions Charter Chat: October 2015 from Mrs. Novello and Mrs. Shane

Plaster Sugar Skull Masks

This is the second year we have created plaster masks in Expressions and they have turned out amazing! The quality of the masks themselves is a testament to the patience, trust and time it took each student to plaster their partner. Once the masks dried the students brainstormed their design on a skull template. Then they pencil sketched their designs onto the plaster. A combination of Puffy Paint and Fabric Markers were used for creating the designs. I find that day 1 with any art process is rough while students are familiarizing themselves with the application of media. Once students know what to expect, they seem to come in Day 2 as experts and finish strong. If we had more time I would have liked to see more color variation in the mask itself, something to think about next year! For now, these are going to look great in the exhibit this Wednesday!

Collaborative Art Success with Accountability, Choice, and Understanding

The Collaborative Skeleton Project is always a favorite among students and it puzzles me. Group work is a topic students often complain about in middle school. Group work is not common in the art room but after this project I am ALWAYS convinced that adding more collaborative art projects is something to consider.

Why is this project so successful? I feel the success is due to 3 things: Accountability, Choice and Student Understanding. From the very first day of this project students within groups are held individually accountable for several art element benchmarks: brainstorming, collage materials, skeleton sketches, and coloring of skeleton sections. That's a lot of individual points added up! Student Choice (choosing peer groups, skeleton design theme, collage material, color scheme) is another componenet that has proven to be a successful strategy to hook students but is also and effective tool to provide differentiation in the classroom. Lastly, having already created 2 Day Of The Dead projects students have a very clear understanding of the theme and driving essential questions of the unit.

This project is a perfect example of how collaborative art projects can be successful in the art room. It's a keeper!

Embroidered Sugar Skulls

Got Sewing Skills? We do!

The 8th grade class revisited sewing once again to create an embroidered sugar skull. This high focus art project is one that encompasses all the qualities hands-on learners enjoy. With the subject being a skull the students are naturally hooked. Having previous sewing experience spiral back from the 7th grade the students start off this 8th grade project feeling comfortable and confident with the embroidery process. Add a big assortment of bright colored felt and embroidery floss for students to choose from invites the imagination to run will with sugar skull designs! These little skull ornaments ALWAYS turn out amazing!

Skull Printmaking Process

Printmaking with the 7th grade class is always a good time! For the most part, this art technique is a brand new experience and one that is very hands-one. We start by having students imprint a skull image onto a piece of foam to grasp the concept of a positive/negative space image. We used acrylic paint to simulate the printing process. Kids squealed with delight as they printed their image onto colorful paper.

From that experience the students then use their own skull image to transfer and carve into a lino block. Once their image is carved they do several practice stamps using speedball ink. They evaluate their print and revise their carving until jutst right. The last step is creating  a layered card using the elements of design- mixing patterns, colors and shapes for just the right balance then double stick tape their skull image onto the center of the card. These cards will be sold as Monster Mail during Halloween with the proceeds going towards the Leadership team. I love how student artwork contributes to NCS School Spirit!