Masks and Artist of the Week

I am providing a link to our school's artsonia page to see more of the sixth grade masks.



I wasn't aware of it earlier in the week, but just today I noticed one of my students was randomly chosen as an artist of the week.  If you are interested and have a minute, perhaps you could vote for his cute little self portrait in a hand mirror.  



He is such a nice boy and I think he likes art class very much. It would give him a great boost if he would happen to win! He might even decide to say something if he learned that he was this week's winner in his age group. You see, he is selectively mute and we haven't figured out how to hear his voice at school. Apparently, he talks at home, but not with us. I have his older brother in my 5th grade homeroom and he doesn't even have any suggestions on how I might encourage him to speak. 

Paper Mache Masks

Here's a collection of some photos to help tell the story of how the sixth grade mask unit progressed.

made for Dare Officer Weaver

drying process took up lots of hallway space

painting and embellishment

Plastercraft stage

smoothing plaster over edges while it was off the plastic form

blended paint by Stephen

enamel paint pens were good for detail

snowman by Thomas

black poodle by josie

Owl by Liam

Aside from just a few masks that were a bit on the scary side, we had a successful mask making unit.  I tried to motivate the students away from the violence and blood theme, but was not entirely perfect at that.  Perhaps some of those types will want to display their mask propped among the Halloween pumpkins next fall. 

Lighthouse Sculpture

We used white earth clay to make these tiny little replica lighthouse scenes in the fourth grade.

They were painted using acrylic paints and a touch of water to get the paint to flow into the carved areas.

They were made sometime after we had done our sailboat monoprints and the light house collages with the turbulent oceans.

The bases were formed in a plastic lid that was about 5 inches across. and then the other details were formed and attached to the base with the slip.  Texture was carved into the water.  Finally a rocky cliff or shoreline could be added along the divide where the water met the shoreline.

Here is a sampling of the lighthouse collages that came before we made the little sculptures.