We are very proud of our elementary school visual art department in Regional School District #10. Students receive art instruction once per week for forty-five minutes in grades K-4. Each of our two elementary schools boasts their own highly qualified art specialist who not only teaches art classes but also organizes at least one art show each year which features student work throughout the entire building. Enrichment activities are also offered in art. In grades K-4 students have art books, drawing paper, markers and crayons to use when they finish their work.
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The following concepts and skills are be covered in all K-4 art classes:
CONCEPTS
Texture, color, line, shape, space, self-awareness and self-awareness in their environment (K-1), balance (2-4), pattern (K-3), repetition/non-pattern (K-3), repetition/rhythm (4), landscape, seascape (2-4), interior (2-5), still life (2-4), human figure, portrait, non-objective, abstract (2-4), animals, illustration (K-3), 3-dimensional, art history, art criticism and aesthetics.
SKILLS
Drawing, painting, printmaking, weaving (K-4), sewing/stitchery (K-4), cutting, tearing, pasting/gluing, sculpting (2-4), hand building with clay, and creating art on the computer (4) are included among the skills that are taught our elementary art classes.
Art educators at Lake Garda and Harwinton Consolidated Schools encourage their students to express their creativity, solve problems, and be the best they can be. Students are exposed to famous artists and art work, discuss when in history the art was created and try to get the students thinking about the “essential questions” in art.
WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?
• Giving children a place to work at home (a place they can get messy without having to worry about it).
• Always encourage and be interested in what your children are doing. Children see things differently, so it is important that they can express themselves their way. Never work on your child’s artwork. You may want to help your child, but please do so by showing him/her on a scrap piece of paper how to improve their work, and leave it up to them if they use it or not.
• Get your children to talk about their artwork. Ask them to tell you about it, what they learned doing it, what they like and dislike about it, what famous artwork they looked at in class and what art words were used to discuss it.
• Give children a place they can display their artwork and a place they can save pieces that are important to them. (So you aren’t overwhelmed with a lot of work we recommend at the end of each year have the children pick their favorite 5 pieces and create a portfolio of their work at home.)
• Guide them to see art in all that they do and see each day. Take them to see art exhibits. Take rides and comment on the beauty of the countryside, the shape of the buildings, and the fashions that surround our lives.
Support for our elementary program by the parents administrators is evident, and the community as a whole is very aware of the importance of the arts in the education process as well as in the student’s daily lives.
REGION #10 VISUAL ART DEPARTMENT PHILOSOPHY
The visual arts play a key role in forming the educational experience of all children. Art is fundamental to developing the life skills of problem solving, thinking, and decision making. When students appreciate the importance of the arts in expressing human experiences, art becomes a fundamental part of the fabric of their lives. By developing an appreciation for past and present art forms, students acquire deeper understandings of our own and other cultures. Students learn through art how to describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate their own and others art work. Experiences in the visual arts nurture professional work ethics while helping students acquire communication skills. The visual arts create connections to our past and a path to our future.
REGION #10 K-4 VISUAL ART ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How can we select and apply media, techniques and processes?
How can we apply the elements and organizational principles of art?
How can we select and apply ranges of subject matter, symbols and ideas?
How do we come to understand art in relation to history and cultures?
How do we reflect upon, describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate our work and the work of others?
How do people make connections between art and daily life?