Random Acts of Art! Zenz-tangles

4th grade has been practicing the art of Zentangles for the last several weeks.

We also have been following Aaron Zenz and his family's ArtPrize entry called Rock Around.

The students were so inspired by the idea of spreading Art happiness, that we created our own Zenz-tangle mini masterpieces to spread some Random Acts of Art in our Northview community.

If you find an artwork, you can scan the QR code to take you to our website. We would love it if you posted a comment, picture, or told us where you found it on our classroom blog. We will be waiting to hear if anyone found some of our artwork =)

Dot Day Shrinky-Dinks

All of North Oakview celebrated Dot Day, based on the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds, during the week of September 15th. This day was to celebrate creativity, can-do attitudes, and give students the opportunity to "make their mark".

Art classes created their own "shrinky-dink" dots that were made into bracelets for students to wear all year.

The kids had a riot watching their artwork shrink in our craft oven, that was generously donated by The Outlet. Thank you!

Monochromatic Self-Portraits

The whole school created monochromatic self-portraits for our first Art class project. They look so beautiful in our Unified Arts hallway. What a colorful start to our 2016-17 school year!

Crayon Artwork at the High School!

3rd & 4th graders started this month with a colorful performance of the book "Day the Crayons Quit" for their music concert. So to celebrate, their crayon self-portraits will be hanging in the display cases at the high school right outside of the performing arts auditorium through the month of December!

Celebrating November: Picture Book Month

All through the month of November, students are creating artwork based around popular children's stories to celebrate Picture Book Month. We are using each illustration style or story theme to incorporate the Elements of Art into our vocabulary. Below are just a few examples of our completed projects.

Kindergarten Cool Color Fish based on the story "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister

1st Grade Scheming Squirrels based on the book "Those Darn Squirrels" by Adam Rubin

DK Fall Warm Color Leaves based on "Leaves" by David Ezra Stein

Bottle Cap Mural!

North Oakview Bottle Cap Mural Project 2015

The Topic: Students at North Oakview learned about a variety of contemporary artists who use the theme of the 3 R's (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle) in their artwork.

Idea Generation: We learned about a Michigan native named Tyree Guyton who made over his neighborhood in the inner city of Detroit using "trash" to make beautiful Art.

      

We also studied the artist Michelle Stitzlein who gives trash a second life. She typically uses the butterfly as a symbol in her Art to represent that metamorphosis and harmony between material and Art.

 

Explore & Develop:

Artists were challenged to come up with design ideas that visually represented our school and what we stand for. Over 400 sketches were collected from students and a common "Dot Day" theme was represented. Many students also chose to use Kandinsky's (a previously studied artist) Concentric Circles for inspiration.

Refine: One Design

From these sketches a final sketch was created that tied many common ideas into one. We left our design very abstract so that the viewer could focus on the shapes and colors.

2nd grade worked with Mrs. Haugen to pick and finalize our color choices. They then painted the cardboard so that on field day other student would know where to put each bottle cap color.

Final Piece: The end product was completed on field day 2015 by 1st-4th grade artists. 4th & 3rd graders arranged and glued the caps into place during the first half of the day. Then 1st & 2nd graders added mini-masterpieces in the insides of the caps for extra detail. This project is an excellent display of our collaborative team work, creative problem solving, and the "can-do" attitudes of students here at North!

MAEA Honorable Mentions Show

4 students from North made it into the MAEA Honorable Mentions Show! These students will have their art on display at the HS next to the Performing Arts Center and will also be featured at the Festival of the Arts Youth Show in June at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Congratulations to Collin (KP), Murphy (2W), Xylia (2W), Emily (4B)!