The Art Studio at PS 250: Ezra Jack Keats

Friday, February 14, 2014

Snowy Day Paintings!

Yesterday, New York City (and much of the East Coast) was blanketed by snow from one of the more impressive storms we have had this winter. Although many of us were surprised that schools were open, those of us that were able to make it to school had a pretty great day together...something about a storm going on outdoors always makes the indoors seem so much cozier!! Because so many teachers could not make it in to work, I was a Kindergarten teacher yesterday (along with my wonderful student teacher, Ms. Erika Garcy). Our music teacher, Mrs. Fulmore, was also a Kindergarten teacher and, because our classes were so small, we combined classes and had a day full of music and art! For the music portion of our day, students shared songs they love and Mrs. Fulmore taught us Valentine's Day songs that helped us spell different words, like "L-O-V-E" and "F-R-I-E-N-D-S". We even got to have a love dance party!
For the art portion of our day, we painted Snowy Day paintings. We started by reading books about snow and discussed how snow feels/looks (e.g., cold, wet, white, fluffy, etc.). Then we read the book "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats and discussed all the things we like to do when it snows (e.g., go sledding, make snow angels, have a snow ball fight, etc.).

Peter Making a Snow Angel from "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats

Students then were given large pieces of black paper, white paint and medium-sized paint brushes to create paintings of themselves doing their favorite snowy day activity.

Amanda, K-B02, working on her painting

Students considered brushstrokes they could make (e.g., dots, curves, long and short brushstrokes, brushstrokes to fill shapes in, etc.) in order to re-present themselves in their favorite snowy day activity.
Enjoy the snowy day paintings made by the brave children from K-B02 and K-B04 that ventured into the snow to get to school during yesterday's storm...the results were SNOW-TASTIC!

Amanda, K-B02

Osvaldo, K-B04

Breanna, K-B02

Melissa, K-B04

Melina, K-B02

Wilson, K-B02

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

5th Grade Books!!

5th Graders have been working hard for the past couple of months on picture books as part of a 2-D design unit. The project was inspired by a workshop I attended at the Jewish Museum and included a curatorial talk (and tour) of the Ezra Jack Keats Exhibit (http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-snowy-day-and-keats-exhibition).

The workshop also included a hands-on bookmaking workshop for educators that are committed to submitting a book (made by one of their students) to the Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking competition (click to go to website for competition).
A brief description of the foundation and the project, as stated on the website, is:
"The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is known for its pioneering support of bookmaking and storytelling programs. Over the years the annual bookmaking competition, a partnership between the The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and the New York City Department of Education, has resulted in the creation of thousands of student-made picture books.

Once again, we invite students to explore the creative opportunities that are offered to them when they write and illustrate their own picture books. Each school is allowed to submit one book into the competition."

I wanted students to work with informational text of some kind (because it is a component of the National Standards that naturally lends itself to many other disciplines, especially art), so I asked students to create a story based on a recipe that is important to their family or their culture; the recipe acted as the informational text. I showed students a variety of picture books, especially books related to food. After students decided on the recipe they would use (which they had to bring in for homework), they then decided to create a fictional story based on the recipe, or a how-to book that illustrated, step-by-step, how to put the dish together.

Students then created book maps to outline their story and images (via sketching in pencil).


Eva, 5-327, Book Map

After this, students learned how to create accordion books.

They then worked on illustrating their books (either in oil pastel or collage) for the next 8 (or so) weeks!

Kiara from 5-308 working from a reference photo

5-308 working from book maps and reference photos

Angela from HC-305 working from her book map to add illustrations in oil pastel

Gustavo from 5-308 illustrating in oil pastel and making sure all of his illustrations 'flow'

Matthew from HC-305 adding his illustrations in collage

Nora from HC-305 finishing her collage illustrations

Ota from HC-305 working on an illustration in oil pastel using his book map illustrations as a guide

After the images were mostly complete, students created covers for their books in collage (they needed to have the name of the recipe as the title and a picture of the food). Students worked with their classroom teacher to write out the sentences of their story onto strips of paper and glue them into their books. Finally, students spent a class creating back covers in collage and adding any final details they felt their books needed.

5-308 creating covers in collage

HC-305working on their covers

Please enjoy our picture books!! If you would like to see them in person, they will all be displayed at Evening of the Arts (May 27th) in our annual Student Art Exhibit. Until then, enjoy a few of them here!

Tony from HC-305 was chosen by the Principal, Ms. Barnes, as the school-wide winner for the competition! His book will be submitted to the Ezra Jack Keats 2012 book making competition and it will displayed in the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza!! WooHoo Tony!!

Pages 1-4

Pages 5-8

Nora from HC-305 was the runner-up. Her art (along with 6 other "semi-finalists) will have their art displayed in the library at school in an upcoming exhibition!