1st Grade Artists 2011/2012

 1st grade artists made their second great trip to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum.  We especially enjoyed the new exhibit:

Charlie tries carving wax.

Reese and Adam build a trolley together.

 We also explored the museum's large collection of puppets.  We have been learning about COLLECTIONS as a way to understand the function of a museum.  We tried out many different types of puppets.  When we returned to Propel East, we made our own finger puppets in Studio 101!

It's the Mr. Rogers' puppets!

Lindsey tries a marionette.

Daionna watches Madison create her "Crazy Penguin" puppet.

Abby works on her "Happy Penguin".

Mia creates a "Friendly Cat".

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Wow!  I LOVE these penguin paintings 1st grade artists created for the Winter Concert!  We studied the different species of penguins and spent a whole period doing some practice drawings focusing on the familiar shapes we could find.  Next, we used a black oil pastel to draw the penguins and the ice, water and snow.  We painted the penguins, ice, water and snow with tempera cakes, but not the sky - for that we had a special plan!  The next class we talked about the Northern Lights and other times we see bright colors in the sky, such as sunset and sunrise.  We began using a technique called dry brushing, adding white paint to our ice and snow.  Then we learned how to double-load and triple-load our brushes and used fluorescent paints to create the colorful skies!  Finally, we couldn't resist adding some snowy glitter.  The results were so unique and so gorgeous!

Nathaniel

Anthony

Bryan

Misha

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Once again first grade artists will participate in a year-long partnership with the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.  We will visit the museum throughout the year and use it as an extension of our Propel East classrooms. As we did last year we began our year with a study of classical architecture.  1st grade artists learned to recognize, dome, arch, pediment and three types of columns, doric, ionic and corinthian.  We read one of our favorite books, Iggy Peck, Architect:

3rd grade artists used some of the same tools an architect uses, graph paper and rulers, an created a sort of "blueprint"of their dream house. 

Ian working hard on his design.

When we went to the museum for our first visit we explored the architecture of the museum itself and contrasted the old and the new.

We looked up and found a dome and arches in the Art Studio space at the museum!

During our exploration of architecture we began to talk about other careers as well.  In their homeroom classrooms, 1st graders wrote about what they might like to be when they grow up.  In Studio 101 we created self-portrait puppets, artists were encouraged to add the tools and clothes of their chosen profession.  We also created puppet stages with drawings of the buildings they might work in.  

Skyler and Abby look to their puppets for inspiration!

Nya and Cameron work on their puppet stages.

We created short videos with our puppets too!
(If the videos are not working try refreshing the page.  They seem to only work sometimes...I don't know why.)