Guest Artists

By Anonymous -
In writing class, we've been working hard on a project for the past couple months.  Students are writing and illustrating a historical fiction picture books set in the time of the Civil War.  Students learned the power of drafting as they carefully composed stories.  After spring break, they were finally ready to begin the illustrating phase.  

We invited experts from our own community to share their artistic knowledge with students to help them get started with their own illustrations. Students learned many important lessons, tips, and techniques that have inspired them greatly.  

Here is just a small fraction of the wisdom our guest artists shared with us:
  • Sometimes mistakes are "happy accidents" that enhance an illustration.
  • Color combinations can create feelings of peace and conflict.
  • Artists can create their own media if they aren't satisfied with those that already exist.
  • Changing the angle or perspective of an illustration can make a huge difference.
  • Illustrators can create a picture that is inspired from only one word on a page.
  • It can take a very very long time to get an illustration right.  Don't give up!
Here are some moments from the artist visits:











Popular posts from this blog

Recently...

By Anonymous -
Image
Students studied the rules for possessive nouns.  The placement of that little apostrophe changes everything! Students created cartoons that demonstrate the difference between singular and plural possessives. Here are a couple things we noticed about their work: The students' drawings are creative. Each student's idea is unique. Students have been completing projects in math. Fourth grade students are ordering fractions on a number line.   The fifth graders are working hard, too. Fifth graders are learning good note taking skills and are using that skill to inform their understand of reciprocals and the inverse property. All of this is part of their study of fraction multiplication and division. Students went to free cone day!
Read more

More than One Way to Solve a Problem

By -
Image
Have you ever used the Egyptian method for large digit multiplication? How about the Mayan? Did you know there were different algorithms and methods for solving these types of problems? Fifth grade math students did some research and created displays on algorithms from around the world. Students have been refining and improving their accuracy and efficiency with the United States standard algorithm   During our course of study, the Investigations curriculum asks the students to use at least two ways to solve multi digit multiplication problems. Many have relied on the box method. Because of this study of world algorithms, we have seen the students pick up more strategies to bring to their mathematical problem solving.
Read more

Summary by Justus

By -
Nicholas Benedict is an orphan. When he finds out about a treasure, he starts hunting. But Mr. Collum, the orphanage director, is searching too. Who will find it first? Or will they find it at all? Find out in The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict .
Read more