Polser's 2nd Annual Art Show Fundraiser

     Our 2nd annual art show fundraiser was a great success!  We had awesome feedback and our students enjoyed showing off all their hard work.  Every art student from kindergarten through 5th grade had an original artwork framed for viewing.  This fundraiser will allow us to purchase the needed supplies to consistently fuel our artistic expression and creativity.
     Along with our individual art pieces, our collaborative art pieces created quite a stir.  Artists and their families were able to interact with our artwork and take pictures of themselves as a winged figure.  Many "birds" took flight at our show!

Lots and Lots of Dots

Dot week brought about various dot artworks throughout our school.  Third grade created dot fish, using the book, You be You by Linda Krantz, for inspiration.  We demonstrated line, pattern, space, shape and color in our unique fish.  Our Kinder and Firsties explored printmaking by using various sizes of circle stampers (lids, caps, rolls, etc.) and creating wonderful abstract artworks.  4th & 5th grade collaborated by created a 1/4 dot to join into giant dots.  All of our creations were dot-tastic!

A New School Year

It's good to be back in the art room!  It was a busy summer with packing, unpacking, and sending both my boys off on new adventures.  Now I'm ready to start new adventures with my Polser kiddos in the art room.  We are starting off the year with a collaborative art work completed by all the students from Kindergarten through 5th grade.  The students worked hard and even included the PreK kiddos that don't come to art classes but are still part of the Polser family. Props to fellow art teacher Cassie Stephens at cassiestephens.blogspot.com for the wonderful idea.

M"art"ch Madness Champion!

We finally have a M"art"ch Madness Champion!  Some of the races were close and some were pretty one sided.  To be honest, the winners were not the ones I expected the students to choose.  It just shows how much our artistic opinions can vary, which was an awesome twist to this lesson.  Students gave very specific reasons they chose their favorites, from color choice, realism, connection to a personal memory/activity, ways the art made them feel and everything in between.  They reached a lot further than I ever imagined.  I also want to thank all the artists that took their time to respond through Email, Facebook and/or Twitter.  The students connected to their community and even learned where some Texas towns were located that we didn't know.  It's going to be hard to top this years M"art"ch Madness, but we have some great ideas for next year... Stay Tuned!  

If you would like to review the brackets and results please select the link below.
Martch Madness 2016 final

M"art"ch Madness Update!!

We are getting down to the wire on our M"art"ch Madness bracket. We have made it to the final four and the voting is getting tough.  The Championship Finals voting will start Monday! Check out our updated presentation below to see the breakdown of the results.  There aren't any winners or losers because all of the artwork is awesome and we have learned so much about the artists themselves, observing, critiquing, admiring, sorting types/styles, decomposing and composing and many more!  Stay tuned for the results next week!!!
Martch Madness 2016 Final Four

M"art"ch Madness in Full Swing

This is our second year to have our M"art"ch Madness bracket full of artwork.  This year the art for our sweet sixteen were all completed by Texas artists.  For our first round we had some really close contests with one coming down with votes at 50.3% to 49.7%!  We will vote down from our elite eight starting next week. On an even more positive note, if that were even possible, we decided to email all the artists from our brackets to let them know we were learning about them and their art works.  We have already received emails back from 7 of our 16 artists within the first day!!!  As the emails were read to all the classes, the excitement was built even higher.  We looked at a map of Texas to locate all of the towns in which the artists lived as well as looked at some of their other art. It has been a learning experience beyond any we could have imagined. The presentation the students used to vote and learn about the artists is linked below.  Feel free to learn along with our Polser students. Can't wait to see which of the Texas artworks will be the final 2016 M"art"ch Madness winner! Stay tuned.....
M"art"ch Madness Presentation

Japanese Lanterns Light Up Fifth Grade

Fifth graders focused on the artwork of Japanese artist and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).  They learned about...

ü creating a sculpture/form with paper

ü printing blocks and how they are used in layers

ü landscapes of nature

ü blending/shading with colored pencils to create texture

ü writing Japanese symbols that have personal meaning

ü reinforcing our artwork for stability

ü creating a square top/base using precise measurements

ü using tabs, folding and nets to create 3D shape

ü light reflection through paper

ü the artists series, “Thirty Six Views of Mt. Fuji”

Weaving Wonders in Second

      Second grade created some wonderful weavings this month! First we painted two abstract paintings, one in cool colors and the other in warm using watercolors.  Then we learned how to make our own looms by creating the warp with one of our paintings, then making our weft pieces with the other. We then wove them together to create a beautiful tapestry of color. Finally we took our weaving and turned it into a unique design.  We used collage techniques to add interesting details, turning our original artwork into something entirely different.  Our imaginations got quite the work out! 

Kimono Kids in First

We created self portrait Kimonos in first grade using our giant dots we made during dot week earlier in the year.  First graders learned how clothing can be art and designers are artists.  We learned all about the parts of Japanese kimonos: geta (shoes), tabi (split-toed socks), haneri (collar), obi (fabric sash), obijime (belt) and the kimono (main wrap) itself.  The students created a portrait of themselves to put inside their kimono and added several Japanese symbols that had personal meaning.  We finished by adding unique details and accessories.  Don't we look ready for a celebration?!