Art with Mrs. O'Neill

Third graders are busy working on Africa units to prepare for arts in school night. We have been busy with the paper mâché masks. It sure is a messy project, but we always have a lot of fun getting our hands dirty!

As part of our Van Gogh unit students recreate their own versions of Starry Night. It's an oldie but goody, who doesn't love the classic Starry Night?

My first graders are learning about European artists in preparation for arts in school night. We are in the middle of a great Vincent Van Gogh unit. There are some wonderful books out there like Van Gogh and the Sunflowers, and Starry Night. In this unit we explore Van Goghs tragic life history and what techniques he used in his art. We then create a still life of flowers in the same composition style as His famous sunflower painting. I encourage students to draw the flowers "floating at the top of the page, then draw the vase/container, then the stems. (This keeps them from drawing long skinny stalk like flowers). Then we outline in glue, which adds texture(similar to van Goghs use of texture). The next class is used to add finishing colors with oil and chalk pastels. It's a great lesson for learning pastel techniques & I always love the results!

This year the Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library is hosting a new read across America event in honor of Dr. Suess. I'm excited to be a part of this event! Rossview's art club has been working very hard on our green eggs and ham sculptures and paintings. We are also making a truffala forest for the craft room. It's going to be a fabulous community event with several guest readers, crafts, trivia, presentations in STEM, and Rossview's honor choir performing a 'suessical musical'. Here are some preview pics of the work leading to this event. Hope to see everyone there this Saturday March 2nd from 2-4!