International Lions Club Peace Poster Contest

All grade six students at the middle school have spent September and October working on peace posters for the Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest.  The posters will be displayed at the Abington Public Library in mid-December and will remain on display until the end of January.  Below is a sneak peek of students working on their posters.  They turned out awesome.  The winning posters will be displayed on this blog in a few weeks.

October is Natioanl Arts and Humanities Month

What a great month to visit the Museum of Fine Arts and see some of the masterpieces in their collection such as the one below.

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, John Singer Sargent -1882

Interesting Video on the Work of Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen  is a Dutch artist. In 1990, he began building large mechanisms out of  PVC that are able to move on their own and, collectively, are entitled, Strandbeest. The kinetic sculpturesappear to walk. His animated works are intended to be a fusion of art and engineering.

Welcome Back

I hope everyone enjoyed their summer break.  One week from today we begin a new school year.  Even after many years of teaching, I still feel some anxiety as opening day approaches.  However, I am excited to start and begin doing the work I enjoy.  I hope you are also looking forward to coming back.  I have been at school getting the room ready and putting the final touches on some new projects.  Enjoy the last few day of summer vacation and see you on Wednesday the 29th.

Vincent Van Gogh, "Midday Rest"

62nd Annual Arts Festival Exhibit at Second Parish - Hingham, MA

The annual May exhibition at Second Parish in Hingham is always wonderful to visit because of the great variety of 2-D and 3-D work created by elementary, middle and high school students from schools in the South Shore.  The exhibition is made possible from a grant from the Hingham Cultural Council and the hard work of Lisa Shetty who coordinated the exhibit.  I would like to congratulate Jackie E.  Her drawing was awarded "First Place" for the middle school submissions.  Below are some photographs from the exhibit and some of the students who attended the Artist Reception.

Grade 6 Warm Cool Color Village Project

Recently grade 6 students learned about color and how color can create mood.  We learned how to draw a variety of house facades with attention to architectual detail and created our own villages and towns.  Finally we added warm and cool color washes using watercolor paint.  These are a few on display in the art room.

A few photographs from the Youth Art Month Exhibition 2018

To celebrate Youth Art Month,  almost 300 pieces of artwork, both 2-d and 3-d,  created by students in grades 1-12 were exhibited at the Abington Public Library.  Additionally, more than 450 people attended the Family Viewing Afternoon.  During the afternoon we awarded hundreds of certificates and ribbons to students whose work was on display.   Below are some photographs from the exhibition.  Next year we plan to make the exhibition even larger by including one piece of Artwork created by students in grade 1-4.  Unfortunately because of space limitation the grade 5-12 exhibit will be a juried event.    

YOUTH ART MONTH

 Youth Art Month is a national celebration promoting the value of art, the creative process and the importance of quality art education.  For this occasion, the Abington Art Department is currently exhibiting artwork from students in grades one through twelve throughout the Abington Public Library.  The show offers the viewer a broad range of art work in many different media and expressions.  The exhibition of over two hundred and fifty works of art will continue through March 31st.  Additionally, we will host a "Viewing Afternoon" on March 22 from 4:30 - 6:00 for students, their families and the community at large.  Please stop by the library and enjoy the creative efforts of our students.

Tetrahedral Kites

The STEAM Class just finished a unit on Air and Space Technology by constructing a large Tetrahedral Kite.  A tetrahedral kite is a multicelled rigid box kite composed of tetrahedral shaped cells to create a kind of tetrahedral cell. This type of kite was invented by Alexander Graham Bell on the road with experiments for manned flight.  One of Bell's larger Tetrahedral kite contained 3,393 cells and was 40'  long.

Congratulations

Congratulations to JG for being awarded an "Honorable Mention" for her "Self Portrait" Drawing at this year's Scholastic Art Awards

Grade 6 International Lions Clubs Peace Poster Contest

Back in September the grade 6 art classes participated in the International Lions Clubs Peace Poster contest. For the last 31 years Lions clubs around the world have proudly sponsored the Lions International Peace Poster Contest in local schools and youth groups. This art contest for kids encourages young people worldwide to express their visions of peace.

 All grade 6 students created a poster in response to this years theme "The Future of Peace".  Several teachers helped select the 4 top posters and those students were awarded gift certificates donated by the local Lions Club. All of the completed posters (150+) were displayed at the Abington Public Library during part of November and all of December.  With all of the violence we read about it was inspiring to see so many positive images displayed on the walls of the library.  Below are some photographs of the posters and the 4 winners.  

Looonnngggg Overdue Update

My apologies for such a long span between posts.  To make a long story short....lost phone, lost photographs.  New phone and it's time to show everyone what has been happening in Room 2021A.  We are in the middle of the second trimester and despite a few snow days students have been busy creating, problem solving and doing some critical thinking.  

Grade 6 art classes are currently working on a Radial Symmetry project which allows them to discover positive and negative space.  

Grade 7 art classes just completed a unit on Value.  They learned how to use shading and value to create light, shadows and forms.  They just started a unit on Watercolor Landscapes.

Grade 8 art classes are in the middle of a clay unit.  They are creating "Pinch Bowls" to explore a variety of clay hand building techniques.

Grade 7 STEAM classes are working on their "Structures" unit.  They are learning about the different types of structures and the loads and forces the structures are subjected to.  After building two types of paper structures, they moved on to constructing balsa wood towers.  Once completed the balsa wood towers will be stress tested.  
The photographs below illustrate some of the work described above.