Art
GRADE FIVE | GRADE SIX | GRADE SEVEN | GRADE EIGHT
The goal of the Art program is to teach students how to be visually aware of their world. The curriculum seeks to teach students to express what they see and imagine though painting, drawing and collage. All completed work is displayed and discussed critically in class. This enables students to learn from each other and to learn how to verbally evaluate all kinds of art.
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A. |
Grade Five
Ideas concerning composition dominate the projects. Students engage in imaginative drawing and abstract drawing using positive and negative space. In the unit on color, students learn about the perceptual properties of color, techniques of collage and painting and how to mix colors. Creativity is encouraged and fostered in the unit on imaginative drawing. In other projects, students create masks and create designs using their names.
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B. |
Grade Six
In the sixth grade, perceptual skills and concepts dictate the projects for the year. Ideas about composition are refined and creativity is encouraged. Students work on symmetrical designs and three different modes of self-portraits: blind contour drawing, detailed pencil drawing and self-portrait collage. Through these projects students learn how to see and how to develop concepts of proportion and spatial elements. Self-portraits from art history are also studied. Students are also asked to draw and paint still lives, paying attention to shadow, reflection and order of presentation. In the final project, students copy, using the grid formula, an existing painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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C. |
Grade Seven
In contour drawing, students gain an understanding of the use of line and its ability to create a drawing. Students are taught how to coordinate the hand and eye to create what they see. Using line drawings from Matisse and Picasso as examples, students are shown how this technique has been employed by artists over time. In the unit on Design and Balance, students use collage to learn how to organize and compose a piece of work. Students study Matisse's cutouts and Kandinsky's abstractions as a point of reference. The manipulation of color is also discussed. In the unit on Impressionism, students study the works of Monet, Renoir and Pissaro. They receive instruction in the use of paint, how to hold a brush, how to mix paints and how to actually paint in the impressionist mode. Students return to the study of still life and are introduced to painting with watercolor.
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D. |
Grade Eight
The curriculum opens with a unit on contour drawing, enabling students to reacquaint themselves with the act of seeing and drawing perceptually. Students study cubist still life painting and are taught to paint objects in a cubist manner. In the unit on Design and Pattern, students create collages and paintings by employing many of the techniques they have learned: drawing, composition, use of color and unification of space. In the final project, students copy a painting. In the process, students are required to mix and create their own colors. Students also write a paper on the biography of the artist and the related art historical movement.
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