BSD Art Show at Crossroads Mall

The Bellevue School District's art show is currently showing at the Crossroads Mall. It would be great if you could stop by and look at all the amazing art Newport Height's artists have on display. If you plan on going, it's on the end of the mall that's by Party City. The show will be up until May 23rd.

4th grade kinetic sculptures

The fourth grade students recently participated in a STEAM project by creating kinetic sculptures. They learned about technology by using Littlebits to create circuits, and used engineering to create the armature of their sculptures. The sculptures were inspired by either earth, wind, fire, or water. Each group of students worked together to imagine, plan, create, and constantly improve their sculpture. To see all of the sculptures head over to my YouTube channel so you can see them in action. artrocksbsd

Happy Children's Day

The kindergarten and 1st grade artists recently learned about children's day (Kodomo no hi) in Japan. Every May 5th Japanese families celebrate children's day by hanging Koinobori (carp windsock) outside. The carp is chosen because it is a symbol of strength and vigor due to the struggles they face during their swim upriver. These are some of the qualities that the parents hope their children acquire.

5th grade origami boxes

The 5th grade artists have recently completed their origami boxes. After learning about the history of origami, students learned how to fold a box. Then we discussed how artists use different ways to call a viewers attention to a specific place on their artwork. This is know as Emphasis. Students then decided on a symbol that they would want to use as a decoration on their box. They drew and then painted their design using water color paint making sure that they emphasized their symbol. A few of the finished boxes are below. They turned out great.

Starry Night

The second and third grade artists have recently created a Vincent Van Gogh inspired cityscape. We learned how to use overlapping to make buildings look like they are behind or in front of each other. This helps show depth and the illusion of space on a two dimensional piece of paper. We then learned about Vincent Van Gogh and used his Starry Night painting to inspire the night sky we created.

Organic Shaped Monsters

The kindergarten and first grade artists have just finished creating an organic shaped monster. During this lesson we discussed the difference between human created geometric shapes and natural occurring shapes, called organic shapes. Students have learned that geometric shapes (triangles, squares, rectangles) were created by mathematicians using geometry and organic shapes occur in nature.

Origami boxes

The fifth graders are starting their next lesson which is to fold and decorate an origami box. Here is a link to the instructions that I created on Prezi. There is also the video that I created and put on YouTube. Come to the art room if you need origami paper to practice with. Remember my two tips for origami success. 1. Make your folds a precise as possible because it will lead to a nice square box. 2. After you fold it once use your fingernail to go over it again to make it a really crisp fold.