Mr. Brown’s Blog

Hi All,

I hope that everyone had a relaxing, happy holiday with family and friends. Here is what we have coming up this week:

PreK- The students in these classes will look at examples of postcards created by artists as a way of making art that ca travel. Then, each student will create a post card and we will them mail these post cards home to their parents.

Kindergarten- Students will look at examples of Cave Drawings created during the Neolithic Period. We will discuss how these drawings show pictures of animals that were used for food and clothing. Then, each student will use brown paper and charcoal to create an animal drawing inspired by the Neolithic Cave Drawings.

1^st Grade- Students in these classes will continue learning about Greek mythology. This time, each student will be given a short description of a monster from Greek mythology. Then, each student will use clay to make a representation of his / her monster.

2^nd Grade- Students in this class will continue learning about Joan Miro. Miro was a painter who made abstract representations of animals. Each student will make 4 thumbnail drawings that show abstract representations of animals. Then, each student will choose one of these drawings and use it as the basis for a larger drawing.

3^rd Grade- Students in these classes will continue making sculptures inspired by the artist Isamu Noguchi. Each student will use Styrofoam to make at least 5 biomorphic shapes (shapes with no straight lines and no sharp angles). Then, each student will cut these shapes out and cut notches in them to join them together.

4^th Grade- Students will continue working on Inuit-inspired relief prints. This week, they will continue making prints from their printing plates.

5^th Grade- Students in 218 are learning about Graphic Design and they are working in groups to make movie posters for the video projects they are creating in Mr. Mills’ class.

6^th Grade- This week, students will finish covering their masks in paper mache and then they will begin painting their masks.

As always, I welcome any questions or comments.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

Here’s what we have in store for this week’s art classes:

PreK: Students in these classes are reviewing collage techniques by creating collages that use 2D shapes and 3D shapes

Kindergarten: These students will be looking at examples of cave drawings created during the Neolithic Period and they will then create their own Neolithic-inspired “cave drawings.”

1^st Grade: We will begin a unit on ancient Greek art by looking at examples of Greek art that shows characters from Greek mythology. We will then hear the story of Pandora’s Box and each student will draw a picture of what he/she thinks the story would look like.

2^nd Grade: We will learn about the artist Joan Miró and talk about how he made abstract images of animals by taking something from real life and simplifying it. Each student will then make thumbnail drawings of Miró-inspired animals.

3^rd Grade: Students in these classes will begin a lesson on animation. After discussing how the animation process works, we will then begin by making storyboards for our animations.

4^th Grade: Student in these classes are in the middle of a unit on printmaking. Each student will finish his / her printing plate and then use ink and a brayer to make prints from that printing plate.

5^th Grade: Students in Room 219 will complete their sculptures, while students in 218 will work on a video project for the Adobe Youth Voices project (stay tuned for more details! :-).

6^th Grade: We will continue working on our paper maché animal masks. This week, we will finish covering our masks in newspaper dipped in paper maché.

As always, please contact me with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

As we prepare to close out the first marking period, here’s what we have planned for the week ahead:

PreK- students will continue to learn how to use oil pastels to mix primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and create secondary colors (orange, purple, and green).

Kindergarten: students will learn about the artist Frida Kahlo, who got ideas for some of her paintings from her dreams. The students will use their dreams as inspiration for their own drawings.

1st Grade and Second Grade: The first graders and second graders will learn about mixing the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) to create secondary colors (orange, green, and purple). They will also learn how to use white and black to change the value (lightness or darkness) of a color.

3rd Grade: because of supply constraints, we had to reschedule the animation project we were set to begin last week. In the mean time, these students will also learn about color. In addition to learning about primary colors, secondary colors, and value, they will also learn about tertiary colors, which are made by mixing primary colors with secondary colors.

4^th Grade: students will continue learning about Inuit art and they will complete their Inuit-inspired animal drawings.

5th Grade: students will continue working on their portrait sculptures.

6th Grade: students will continue working on their animal masks.

As always, feel free to call me at the school or to email me at dbrown10@cps.edu if there are any questions or comments.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

Wow, I can’t believe it is already Week 8. Here’s what we’ll be working on this week:

PreK- students will learn how to use oil pastels to mix primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and create secondary colors (orange, purple, and green).

Kindergarten: students will learn how to use tempera paints to mix primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and create secondary colors (orange, purple, and green).

1st Grade: like the kindergarten students, the first graders will be using tempera paint. In addition to mixing primary colors to make secondary colors, they will also learn how to use white and black to change the value (lightness or darkness) of a color.

2nd Grade: students will complete the writing assignments that go with their Keith Haring drawings.

3rd Grade: students will learn about animation as they create their own flip books.

4th Grade: Students will learn about Inuit art. We will pay special attention to the ways that Inuit artists use different kinds of lines to show textures and we will create our own Inuit-inspired animal drawings.

5th Grade: students will continue working on their portrait sculptures.

6th Grade: students will continue working on their animal masks.

As always, feel free to call me at the school or to email me at dbrown10@cps.edu if there are any questions or comments.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

Here’s what we’ll be working on for Week 7:

PreK- students will continue learning about how to use watercolor paints.

Kindergarten: students will learn how to use oil pastels to mix primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and create secondary colors (orange, purple, and green).

1^st Grade: students will finish their watercolor paintings.

2^nd Grade: students will complete the writing assignments that go with their Keith Haring drawings.

3^rd Grade: students will complete the writing assignments that go with their Aliens.

4^th Grade: Students will finish painting their Matisse-inspired interiors.

5^th Grade: students will continue working on their portrait sculptures.

6^th Grade: students will continue working on their animal masks.

Questions? Concerns? Comments? Please feel free to call me at the school or to email me at dbrown10@cps.edu.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

Here’s a look at what we’ll be working on this week:

-PreK- Students will continue working with watercolor paints.

-Kindergarten: We made a change from last week’s schedule. In class, we read the story Leonardo the Terrible Monster. Since the students loved the story so much, we decided that instead of using clay to make necklaces, we would use clay to make our very own monsters. Last week, each student used pencil to make a sketch of his / her monster. This week, we will use clay to make our monsters in three dimensions.

-First Grade: We also made an adjustment to their schedule. Instead of working with primary and secondary colors, they will be using watercolor paints this week. Since Halloween is coming up, many of the students have decided to make Halloween-themed paintings.

-Second Grade: This week, students will finish their Keith Haring Drawings and they will begin writing about their drawings. Each student must write about at least 4 different kinds of lines that he/she used and write about at least 4 things from his/her drawing that would never happen in real life.

-Third Grade: Students in these classes will continue writing about their aliens

-Fourth Grade: Students in fourth grade will continue working on their Matisse-inspired interiors.

-Fifth Grade: Students in fifth grade will be learning about portrait sculpture. After seeing examples of portrait sculptures created by various artists, each student will then use clay to create a self-portrait sculpture that shows that student doing his / her dream job.

-Sixth Grade: These students will begin a new project on mask-making. We will discuss the ancient belief in Mexico that each person has an animal counterpart and look at examples of animal masks that represent these animals. Each student will then use paper maché to make a mask of the animal that best represents him/her.

As always, if there are any questions, please feel free to call me or email me.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

Here is what we have in store for Week 5:
-Students in PreK will be working with watercolor paints.
-Students in Kindergarten will be working with clay. We will begin by experimenting with using clay to make various kinds of forms. We will then use clay to make shapes that we will use as pendants on necklaces.
-Students in 1st Grade will create drawings where they mix primary colors to create secondary colors.
-Students in Second Grade will learn about the artist Keith Haring and use his art as inspiration. They will create drawings that use various kinds of lines to show things that would never happen in real life.
-Students in 3rd grade will complete their aliens. They will also write about their aliens, telling at least 4 things about each alien and also telling about each alien’s home planet.
-Students in 4th grade will continue working on their Matisse-inspired interiors.
-Students in 5th grade will continue working on their manuscript illuminations. Please note that some students may need to take home their drawings to finish them if they are unable to finish them during class.
-Students in 6th grade will finish their Keith Haring Drawings. They will also continue writing about their drawings, with each student writing about at least 5 different kinds of lines that he/she used and writing about at least 5 things from his/her drawings that would never happen in real life. Please note that some students may need to take home their drawings to finish them if they are unable to finish them during class.

As always, if there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me at the school or to email me at dbrown10@cps.edu.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

Starting this week, students will be taking home the first of this year’s art projects. For students in grades 1-6, each project will also be accompanied by a Project Evaluation that shows the grade for that project. You may wonder, “how the heck do you grade art?” I’d like to take this opportunity to explain the grading process for art class.

Let me begin by making clear what the grade does NOT mean. The grade is not an expression of whether I think a student is a “good” artist or “bad” artist and it isn’t a judgment of what kind of person the child is (because as far as I’m concerned, I don’t have any “bad” children or “bad” artists :-). The grade that each child receives on a particular project only reflects how well the student did at meeting the objectives of that project.

People have also asked me “How do you decide what to teach?” Each lesson is based on the Illinois Fine Learning Standards. You can view these goals online at http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/fine_arts/standards.htm. I base each lesson on one or more of these standards. I make sure to state clearly at the beginning of each lesson what we hope to accomplish (learning how to use markers to draw different types of lines, for example). I also make sure to check in with the students at several points in the lesson, reminding them of their objectives for the lesson. In addition, I show the students examples of projects that meet the objectives for the lesson, projects that exceed the standards, and projects that don’t meet the standards. When the lesson is completed, I use a rubric designed for that particular lesson to assess each student’s performance.

Hopefully, this gives everyone a clearer picture of how the grading process works for art class. If there are any questions about a particular grade on a particular project, please let me know.

-Duone Brown

Hi All,

Here is what we have planned for Week 4:

-Students in PreK and Kindergarten will finish their collages.

-Students in 1^st Grade will finish their 3-dimensional collages.

-Students in 2^nd grade will finish making collages that use positive shapes and negative shapes.

-Students in 3^rd grade will continue using symmetrical shapes to design their own aliens. This week, they will also add at least 3 asymmetrical shapes (shapes in which one side is NOT the mirror image of the other side) to their aliens.

-Students in 4^th grade will continue working on their Henri Matisse-inspired Interiors. Each student will finish his/her sketch and then begin making his/her painting.

-Students in 5^th grade will continue making their Initial Letters. This week, each student will continue planning his/her drawing in pencil and then use colored pencil to create the drawing.

-Students in 6^th grade will finish their Keith Haring Drawings. They will also begin writing about their drawings. Each student will tell about 5 different kinds of lines that he/she used and about 5 things from his/her drawing that would never happen in real life.

Please note that beginning on Tuesday, students will begin bringing home completed projects and Project Evaluations with grades for these projects. As always, if there are any questions, please feel free to email me at dbrown10@cps.edu.

Duone Brown

Hi All,

Here’s what we have planned for the week of 09/21/2009:

The students in PreK – Grade 3 will all be experimenting with collage. A collage is a work of art that is made by cutting shapes and gluing them. The PreK and kindergarten students will learn basic collage techniques.

The students in 1^st grade will create three-dimensional collages. We will begin by looking at examples of forms (shapes that are not flat) and the students will learn various ways of folding and gluing paper to make forms on their collages.

The 2^nd graders will learn learn about positive shapes and negative shapes. Positive shapes are shapes that are made by adding something and negative shapes are shapes that are made by leaving an empty space. Each student will make a collage that uses positive shapes and negative shapes.

Students in 3^rd grade will learn about bilateral symmetry. A work of art has bilateral symmetry when one side of the work of art is the mirror image of other side. Each student will use bilateral symmetry to design an alien.

Students in 4^th grade will learn about the work of Henri Matisse. He was a French painter who loved making paintings about rooms from his various homes. Each student will make a painting of his or her favorite room.

Students in 5^th Grade will learn about initial letters. This is a special type of decoration that was used in books from the middle ages. At the beginning of each section, the artist used the first letter of the first word to create a work of art. The artist could draw a border around the letter, use patterns and pictures inside and around the letters, or even turn the letter into something else. Each student will take the first letter of his/her name and use it to create an initial letter.

Students in 6^th Grade are learning about Keith Haring. He was a New York artist who liked to use different types of lines to create scenes showing weird events that would never happen in real life. After looking at examples of Haring’s work, each student will create a drawing inspired by that work.

Watch this space for updates on these projects as they progress.

Duone Brown