It has been a busy month and October is looking full of promise as well. Here are some of the things that have been keeping us artfully engaged lately... Kinders have been painting fall leaves with crayon and watercolor resist - they love painting and are quickly getting used to routines like cleaning your brush, using a painting mat and placing work on the drying rack. We enjoyed listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons while painting, since we are celebrating the beauty of fall. First graders completed their collages from the book The Best Artist in the Ocean. Second grade began their still life study with a version of Matisse's Goldfish. We learned how different art materials can create different effects, like pencil/Sharpie and crayon/watercolor. Third graders prepared a background for our lesson based on the book The Dot - we used different materials to paint textures with neon colored paints - more on this next week! Fourth graders continued their Keith Haring inspired works by drawing contour line hands in the American Sign Language positions - this lesson was borrowed from Mr. DeWilde's class. I have been excited to try it since finding it on Pinterest. Fifth graders have finished their "Gemstones in a Surreal Setting" - a shading lesson that goes from reality into something beyond! Happy Fall, y'all!