In this unit students learned about the art and craft of punched tin and worked in the style of Mexican and Central American artists. Punched tin art is usually used in home decor like lanterns, frames and ornaments and can be found in most import stores. Tin and aluminum are popular materials for artisans to work with because of their versatility and availability. Students used tools to pierce, emboss and cut the craft weight aluminum and created beautiful window hangings.

6th and 7th graders worked in the style of  Aboriginal Dot Painting to create these unique and colorful paintings. Aboriginal Dot Art originated in the desert of the Australian Outback, native Aborigines used natural substances like ochre, sand, blood, coal and plant material as ‘paint’. These raw materials were sometimes ground into a thick pasty paint or mixed with sand to color sand used in sand paintings. Our middle school students used tempera paint and q-tips to mimic the dotted style.

In October students had an introduction to European Art and made paintings and drawings inspired by European artists and architecture.  The 4th graders focused on medieval English castles and were inspired to create their own intricate castles with loads of texture.

European art is the focus in October, it gives students an oppertunity to work in familiar formats like landscapes, still lives and self portraits. Last month 2nd and 3rd grade class was introduced German artist, Albrect Durer one of the forefathers of self portraiture. In this assignment students used red, yellow, blue and white tempera paint to mix their own skin tones and paint swatches of color. Students used their swatches and construction paper to collage these self portraits.

I walked into my classroom this morning and discovered an old, mossy, chewed up cow skull on my desk, fantastic! More than a year ago a parent of one of the 7th grade students had offered me a skull that had been sitting outside his family cabin, thought I nearly forgot about it the skull arrived just in time. The next class coming in was set to study value and this was the perfect subject. Students used tempera and were asked to use black white and a mixture of the two to create at least three values.

In this assignment K-3rd graders explored Shape, one of the six elements of art. 2nd and 3rd graders created quilt inspired symmetrical squares and K-1 were free to used the shapes in any way they chose. All students used pre-cut geometric shapes to compose pictures.

Kindergarten through 4th graders drew their families as a way to share who they are and where they come from.

We’ve been working on our basic drawing skills over the past two weeks, primarily focusing on line and space.  Mr.Bones, our friendly classroom skeleton, was happy to sit for his portraits so students could practice their contour drawing and use negative space.

Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation project started in 2005 by two Art teachers from Florida as a way for their students to meditate on Peace and share their ideas about Peace with their communities.

This project serves as a visual reminder of World Peace Day, September 21st. This day of peace was first celebrated in 1981 and is now observed by people around the world. To inaugurate the day, the “Peace Bell” is rung at UN Headquarters. The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents…The inscription on its side reads: “Long live absolute world peace.”

This was Archway’s first year of participation and will undoubtedly become a tradition.