The New Year!

Happy New Year to all!
CSDA has been busy cartooning since before Thanksgiving break with a local NH artist, Marek Bennett. Students were able to work with Mr. Bennett for two class periods to start creating a comic based on the character traits we celebrate at CSDA! He was able to inspire all our students at CSDA as to how to start creating a successful comic story. Students applied  characters, setting, and text to a comic they created on their own. Some students went above and beyond with their stories and the length of their comics, they were really able to fly with their ideas on this project!

Take a look at the progression of the comics with Mr. Bennett!

Day One: Creating character blobs: How to turn a basic shape into a new character

We always pencil first, ink second, and erase last! 

Day Two: Starting the final comic. Create boarders and start your story in pencil! 

Mr. Bennett's Comics inspire us as we work! 

Day Three: Finish Inking and shrink the comics down

Day Four: Make booklets with shrunk down comics

Grade 4 is making one class booklet and each student gets one to share

Grade 5 is making indivdual booklets

Grade 6 is making  an individual and a class booklet

When the booklets are finished, we will have them on display at the upcoming art show in February and share them with our families and friends! 

Here is Marek's website, he sells his books on the website as well as other resources students might want to take a look at as they continue to create comics on their own: Marek Bennett's Comic Website

Fall Beginnings

Here are some of the creative pieces of art students at CSDA have been making the past couple of months. We have just wrapped up working in clay with each grade level and moving into an Artist and Residency program for two weeks in late November. We will be cartooning with artist Marek Bennett, a NH cartoonist who will focus on teaching CSDA artists who to create, design, and edit their own cartoons. I am personally VERY excited about this opportunity and thanks to our supportive and amazing PTO, we can run programs such as these!

Anyways....here is some art to enjoy:

5th Grade Theme Park Maps: 

Students are asked to create a map that offers various rides, amenities, and of course a creative theme while they invent their own theme park map. 

4th Grade: Clay Explorations

Artists were able to create anything in clay that they wanted to! They just had to use either the slab, coil, or pinch and pull method. It was a great way to introduce clay work in the art room at CSDA and practice the three basic  hand building methods. 

4th Grade Paint to Music!

4th graders were able to match lines to specific beats and rhythms as we listened to different songs. After students draw to the beat and rhythm, we use watercolors over the oil pastel lines they drew for a  wax resist effect. One of Mrs. Gagne's all time favorite methods to use!   

6th Grade Mandala Designs

Patterns that create unity and instill peace! These mandala designs are not only beautiful, but calming and centering. Great work 6th graders, they are stepping up to the plate with their effort overall in this specific project! 

6 Snoke Hallway Display

6th Grade Ugly Mugs

They had too much fun making these ugly pieces of artwork! I love walking around the room and here students say, "I hope it is ugly enough"! 

This lesson is based off of historical face jugs that slaves created during the Civil War era and were used as grave markers to scare away evil spirits! Right now, these mugs are drying for a couple more weeks and will be glazed after they are bisque fired. They will go into the art show for sure this February! 

6th Grade Field Trip: Currier Museum of Art!

The entire 6th grade was able to travel together for an epic experience to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH.  

On our trip up to the Currier Museum of Art, students sat on the bus anticipating what they might see in the museum.

“What kind of art will I see?”

“Will I be able to walk around the museum and explore?”

“ How big are some of the paintings?”

These were a few questions students asked me on the bus, which proved their interest and curiosity for this field trip.  Not all students I spoke with had been at an art museum before. Some students had been to the Currier, some had been to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and some had been to children’s museums around the New England area. The one thing all students from CSDA had not experienced before is going to a museum with their peers.

When we were walking around the museum, students observed and listened, but asked important questions to their guides.

     “What time period did the painting come from?”
    “Where was the sculpture made?”

    “Who was the artist?”

Teachers were able to tie students learning from the museum into their curriculum. In art, students have been able to reflect upon how to display artwork and where are the best places visually to put up work like we saw in the museum. Also, the students could observe and infer what they saw in the painting by thinking of the mood, the characters, the description, just like they do everyday with poetry. In social studies, students have explored Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and currently Ancient Greece. It was fantastic for the students to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of different artwork when it involved different parts of history they have learned about.
Currently in writing, teachers are using different pieces of artwork and having students create a story. Interpreting art with their own schema and thoughts has shown just how invested they were at the field trip and how full their imagination is!

Overall, our experience at the Currier was an outstanding one. Between the hands on art students were able to create, and the professionalism of the volunteer guides who took us around the museum, it was a successful field trip.The one common piece of feedback I heard students ask over and over since we have left the museum, is they wish they had more time to walk around the explore the museum.   One quote that stood out before we headed back to Brookline, “ I didn’t know a museum could be so much fun!”  Thank you to the Bank of New Hampshire and the Currier Museum of Art for offering a grant to help offset our bus costs so this experience could happen for CSDA!

5th Grade Henna Hands

Here are a few photos of our Henna Hand designs that 5th graders finished up last week. 

The first step was to trace five different hands on a 12 x18 white piece of paper. Then, the hard work goes into the hands with details inspired by traditional Henna Designs. Each student is so different about their approach to filling up their details. Some like to add details with symbols they love, others just relax and fill up the space with whatever comes to mind. It can become challenging by the last hand because ideas can run out, but it is a good test of perseverance.

The final step is to fill the background with watercolors to create contrast from the hands. The colors really make the picture final an add an extra pop!