Vermont Art Teachers' Association Conference

Last Friday I was fortunate to be able to attend the 2014 VATA Conference at Shelburne Museum.  There were many aspects of this day that were inspiring and rejuvenating.  It was really exciting to be in a room full of art educators from around the state, knowing that we share many interests, passions and challenges.  The keynote speaker, Jessica Balsley of www.theartofed.com, is a noted art educator, blogger and leader in art education professional development.  She spoke about how to be an "Empowered Art Teacher."  I appreciated how she acknowledged the challenges that many art teachers face, while giving tools and suggestions for how to build successful, meaningful art programs.  Overall, this day served to remind me about why I love my job and why I feel that art is an essential element of education.  I am excited to bring some of Jessica's ideas for empowerment into my classroom and my practice and I look forward to continuing to empower students through the arts.  

The Shelburne Museum was the perfect location for this conference, and we were lucky enough to have some time to explore the exhibits and observe school children on field trips in action.  I visited the printing factory to watch as the Shelburne Museum alphabet was printed on an old printing press. 

Repetition in Art

What is repetition, pattern, and rhythm? How do they relate to each other?

Repetition refers to one object or shape repeated; pattern is a combination of elements or shapes repeated in a recurring and regular arrangement; rhythm--is a combination of elements repeated, but with variations.

Click here for another resource about REPETITION

Critique and Revision

This video shows how a student uses critique and revision to create multiple drafts of a piece of work and ultimately shows great progress.  These processes are sometimes hard to include in our limited art time, but are possibly the most important for artistic growth.


Austin's Butterfly: Building Excellence in Student Work - Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback from Expeditionary Learning on Vimeo.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival Luncheon

Thank you to all who attended and helped with set up and clean up of our first ever Mid-Autumn Moon Festival lunch at Fayston School!  Thank you to Cheryl for a delicious meal! 

Drawing Development in Children

This slideshow is adapted from Betty Edward's book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain."  This shows the different stages of development in children's artwork.  This can be useful information as a teacher or a parent when looking at a child's work.  We understand that every child's work looks different, but it can be interesting to examine and compare benchmarks.

Drawing development from Emily Valenza

imagination

Leaf printing and leaf rubbings

Mrs. Morse lead kindergartners and first and second graders in making leaf prints and leaf rubbings. 

Making lanterns for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Third and fourth graders made strings of paper lanterns to decorate for our school's celebration of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. 

Fifth and sixth graders made paper mâché lanterns using balloons and tissue. 

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Fayston School celebrates

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Monday, October 6th, 2014

Join us to give thanks, honor the full moon and celebrate the harvest with a special picnic lunch shared with friends and family.

Adult lunch $3.75

R.S.V.P. to cjoslin@wwsu.org

11:30 grades K-3 / 12:00 grades 4-6

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Harvest and Thanksgiving Festival celebrated in China, Vietnam, Taiwan and other Asian countries.  It takes place during the full moon in September or October.

During this festival, people gather with their families and friends, offer thanks for the harvest or other good fortune and send their wishes and prayers to the moon.  Other traditions include an outdoor nighttime picnic, with special treats called Mooncakes, and other traditional foods.  At the gathering, people display colorful lanterns to light up the night.

At the Fayston School, we will celebrate the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival on Monday, October 6.  Students will read Thanking the Moon, by Maya Lin, to learn about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and prepare for this event.

MENU

Potstickers with Stir-Fried Vegetables

Mooncakes

Sesame Noodles

Fortune cookies

Pears and Grapefruit

Tea

Mandalas!

In celebration of International Dot Day, all classes will create different types of "Dot Art."  Fifth and sixth grade artists will create circular artwork called Mandalas.  

Mandalas are created in many cultures as a support for meditation.  They can be drawings or painted or made from sand.  

What is a Mandala?

The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.

(from The Mandala Project)

Mandalas have Radial Symmetry:  the condition of having similar parts regularly arranged around a central axis 

Examples of Mandalas:

How to Grow a Mandala Video:

Video of the Dali Lama creating a Sand Mandala