Budding Artists

The grade 3 students have completed their summative assessments for our Paint Me a Picture unit of inquiry. They have collaboratively planned and painted an 80cm x 80cm acrylic painting entitled 'Sunset in the Country'. It demonstrates their ability to work as a team, as well as the many painting skills they have developed throughout the unit. They should be very proud of their finished piece of artwork! There are some future artists in our midst.

Acrylic on Canvas  80 x 80 cm    Grade 3 Class of 2012

 

The students have also painted individual pictures on a 40cm x 40cm canvas with acrylic paint showing their original ideas and incorporating the style(s) of the artists we have studied. Again, they have ‘passed this task with flying colors’, as they each created a painting that they can be proud of!

Their paintings are on display in the school until Friday and then they will hang in the stairwell once Mr. Bill gets a chance to exchange them with the paintings of the students from last year. If you didn't have the chance to see the art exhibition as a part of the student-led conferences, please feel free to drop by and see them first hand! It is worth the visit!

On Wednesday, March 21st the third grade class visited the Oskar Reinhart Museum am Römerholz in Winterthur. Mrs. Bitar greeted us and gave us a guided tour of the collection with a focus on animals in art. The students were engaged in discussions about the paintings and sculptures answering many questions about the artworks. The students also posed many excellent and thought provoking questions demonstrating their level of art knowledge which impressed Mrs. Bitar. We learned that Oskar Reinhart collected almost 800 paintings representing the genres of portrait, still life and landscape art. He was especially fond of the works of Renoir, van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, Cézanne, and Corot.

After the visit to the exhibition, we were taken to the workshop, where the students drew pictures of animals which they then turned into sculptures using air-drying clay. They had a great deal of fun and were very creative during this process.

Overall, it was a wonderful field trip and we all came away feeling we had learned something new and contributed to the art discussions in some way. Mrs. Bitar was very knowledgeable and fantastic with the children. She provided us with an extremely rewarding and memorable experience. It was a terrific contribution to our unit of inquiry.

After our visit, we enjoyed a lunch of salad, bread, and spaghetti Bolognese in the Oskar Reinhart Café where we sat outside on the patio and enjoyed the sun. Following the lunch, we walked through the forest to Nico’s house where the students had a chance to play together in the yard and were treated to ice-cream before catching the bus back to school. A wonderful field trip which was enjoyed by all!

A big thank you is extended to Mrs. Yavarone for accompanying us on the trip and to Mrs. Schmid for inviting us to her house for ice-cream. Your efforts contributed to the success of the day and are much appreciated!



On Monday, March 12th, Mrs. Häberle visited the third grade class to teach us about the Spanish painter Joan Miro. He liked to paint with bright colors and simple shapes. Some popular shapes that kept reappearing in Miro’s paintings were the sun, moon and stars. Mrs. Häberle discussed the life of Miro with the class. Then they were given three puzzles of famous paintings to assemble in their groups. After completing the puzzles they had to decide which of the paintings was painted by Miro. They were all successful with this! Finally she asked the children to think of a bright, hot sun and they were given acrylic paints and a palette knife to create an image of the sun as Miro might have done. They approached this task with much enthusiasm and creativity, as you can see below!



This week we inquired into the life and works of Georgia O’Keeffe, an American artist who was fascinated by nature, flowers, mountains, the sky, animal bones from the desert, cityscapes and such.  She painted these objects close up to help people see and experience these everyday objects the way she saw them.  Here are a few of the children’s’ creations in the style of Georgia O’Keeffe.

On Wednesday, March 7th, Mrs. Brunner came to our class and taught us about pointillism, the painting style used by the artist Georges Seurat. She demonstrated this technique first with a picture of a pear. She then asked the students to think of a place they really enjoy being and use pointillism to create a painting of this place. The students were very enthusiastic and worked creatively with the pointillism style. Here are the results of their efforts:

Art for Sale

The students of grade 3 have created 2 pieces of artwork in collaboration with Mrs. Brunner to be auctioned off at the Spring Benefit this weekend. They worked collaboratively in their groups and have produced two beautiful artworks that you can bid on to add some brilliant color to your home or office.

                            The girls work with warm colors.              The boys use cool colors.

                                                    The proud artists with their finished works!

For our Paint Me A Picture unit of inquiry the students have been doing a learning journey of artists. We read about and discuss the works of different prominent artists and then we record facts that we have learned about their lives. Following this, we copy a piece of art that they did before creating an original artwork in their style. We have already studied Picasso and Matisse.

Enjoy the pictures of the students original creations below! 

Portraits in the style of Pablo Picasso

Painting with Scissors in the style of Henri Matisse

Math Test: Wednesday, March 15th

We have completed another unit in math on the concepts of money, length, mass and volume, as well as solving word problems relating to the measurement concepts of length, mass and volume. This encompasses chapters 10, 11 and 12 in the math textbook from pages 6-54. The students are free to bring their math books home to practice for the test, but please remind them to bring them back to school each day as we will need it for class. Please review the concepts with them so they are better equipped to successfully complete the test independently.