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Kindergarten:
Kindergarten students have art instruction
every week for thirty minutes. During this time, the children are
introduced to a variety of media and processes such as drawing, painting,
printmaking, and three-dimensional art, such as clay and assemblage.
Through hands-on demonstrations, students learn the most basic elements
of art: Line, Color, and Shape. After the demonstration, children
apply this knowledge to their own creations.
For many students, art class is
the first place they get to see and talk about famous artworks throughout
history. Literature is often incorporated into each lesson.
Every child is encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings in their
work. All kindergartners must wear apron smocks to protect their
clothes.
First Grade:
First grade students receive art instruction for one hour each week. With twice the time as kindergarten students, first grade artists explore the elements and principles of design in greater depth. In first grade students learn about Line, Color, and Shape, while they are introduced to Texture, Value, Form, Contrast, and Composition. By using these elements and principles in their work, students demonstrate how and why they affect an image or a sculpture. First grade students develop their fine motor skills through tracing, cutting, and gluing. Students are asked to reflect on their own art through class critique. Students begin to work more independently at their assigned seats, and with less prompting.
Second Grade:
Second grade students are now familiar with a variety of media such as: tempera paint, finger paint, watercolor, kiln fired clay, air dry clay, oil pastels, chalks, crayons, and collage. They are beginning to mix media in their art making, to create more complicated imagery. Printmaking techniques are more advanced. Art vocabulary is more familiar and more accessible in second grade. Art in history is helping to explain our world and our ancestors to our second graders. Students in second grade understand color relationships and demonstrate this in their beautiful artwork.
Third Grade:
Third grade art students are asked to demonstrate their understanding of the basic elements and principles of design in their assignments. Third grade students demonstrate their understanding of elements and principles while they create posters for the Danvers Electric Company annual calendar. Students also demonstrate their knowledge of portraiture in creating their Biography Blast portrait. Art history is important in third grade as well. Students begin to emulate specific styles of art, such as impressionism, realism, and expressionism. Informal critiques help students to utilize and enhance their art vocabulary and to improve their own work!
Fourth Grade:
Fourth grade students use the same elements and principles of design, but on a more sophisticated level. These children are quite comfortable mixing media and understand the science of art making. They are introduced to materials and processes that require great dexterity and care, such as India Ink drawing (pen and ink) and coil construction (clay coil vessels). Fourth graders begin to create historical timelines, plotting general artistic movements and artists. They soon develop a familiarity with key artists of each movement. In addition to the annual art show, held here at Great Oak, fourth grade students often display their work at the Peabody Institute Library in Danvers.
Fifth Grade:
Fifth grade art students continue to use the foundational skills they learned in the earlier grades, but are now expected to create artwork with very little prompting or ìhand holding.î Lessons are still demonstrated at the demonstration area and children still have assigned seats, but fifth grade students have more autonomy in their artistic decisions. At this level, students are encouraged to really think ìoutside of the box.î They learn the conventional rules of perspective and color theory, but now they can use them or break them in a way that expresses what they want.