Kindergarten has just completed little ceramic Fruit Centerpieces to grace their holiday tables. The process involved making drawings of their fruit sculptures making sure that the fruits played (peek a boo) behind each other (overlapping). Kindergarten kids now know their Elements of Design: Line, Color, Texture, Shape, Mass & Volume and Positive and Negative Space.
First Grade has made collages to learn about Back Ground, Mid Ground and Fore Ground. In follow up they learn how to apply this concept to drawing. Making animal BAS RELIEFS hone their skills of clay modeling which they first experienced in Kindergarten (fruit).
Second Grade made some remarkable sculptures of four-legged animals. These are on display in a window by the office in the Barranca lobby. Visitors to our school will be in awe when they see the polychromatic statues. The second grade is just beginning to understand PERSPECTIVE as they learn to draw houses and arrange them into a village composition.
Third Grade are learning the anatomy of the HUMAN HEAD/FACE as they made clay ( HEADS). They then used the heads which they fabricated as units of measure to learn that the human figure is 7 and 1/2 heads tall. Fabric, paint, fiber and other multimedia elements combined to produce a major work of art. Drawings incorporating anatomy and perspective followed. The major emphasis in the
Fourth Grade classes has been on Wood Sculptures. Students design their sculptures on paper and executed then in wood. The students honed their skills in wood cutting, carving, gluing and sanding. Examples of their work are on display at our school. Mr. Jandacek, carved a life-size wooden statue of a newfoundland dog to illustrate to his students that as you bring out the features of the dog, you must not sacrifice the beauty of the wood, but rather augment it to bring out the grain. The fourth grade classes cooperated to make Southwest storyteller sculptures. Mrs. Intrator's class project is on display at the LAPS administrative offices. The others will be displayed upon completion. Students are also making coil pottery to enrich their study of the American Southwest.
The Fifth Grade classes have studied PALEOLITHIC, MESOLITHIC and NEOLITHIC art. Most noteworthy are their classical sculptures of human figures with contrapposto and triangulation. Few of these are on display in the Barranca lobby. Students are currently creating Byzantine MOSAICS. Soon they will study Gothis stained glass windows, Renaissance perspective and chiaroscuro of Baroque art.
Sixth Grade has produced some remarkable IMPRESSIONIST painting. Some are on display in homes and some at our school. CUBISTIC painting were also very successful. SURREALISM is the lesson now. The community is encouraged to see the art works on display at Barranca Mesa Elementary.
