Miro's Monsters

Joan Miro's name is pronounced hoän mro.

Joan Miro (1893-1983) was a Spanish painter and sculptor who produced vivid abstract and surrealistic works of art during much of the 1900s. 

Miro was born on April 20, 1893, in Montroig, Spain, which is near the city of Barcelona. His father was a goldsmith and watchmaker. 
In 1919, he traveled to Paris, France, which was then the center of the art world. He was friends with many surrealist and abstract painters, including Pablo Picasso, Andre Masson and Max Ernst. In France, Miro developed his individualistic and recognizable style and eventually became famous.

After Miro returned to Spain in 1940, he lived mostly in Majorca. He painted, sculpted, worked in ceramics, produced many mosaics and murals, and illustrated over 300 books. Miro lived to be 90 years old, dying on December 25, 1983.

First grade students learned about the surrealistic art movement by examining some of Miro's works. We played a fun game called "Roll a Miro" that provided students with fun Miro inspired shape options that allowed them to piece together a creature not unlike those found in Miro's whimsical artworks.

After drawing their creatures, they learned about the dynamic ways oil pastels could be combined and utilized to perform like paint on a paper. Mixing colors enabled students to explore color theory principles and discover new combinations. The composition was outlined with black oil pastel when completed and are currently hanging by the Treehouse and in the first grade hallway.

Moonlit Forest

This painting challenged students to prepare and execute an acrylic painting.  They learned how to create a palette and mix paints on their “canvas” to create a monochromatic glowing effect.  

The objective was to control the white paint, moving it from the center of the painting out to the corners.  The next step was to control the amount of black paint pulled in from the four corners of the painting.  

After the background was complete, students received a demonstration on how to paint a tree with a flat brush.  We discussed the importance of placing a small and large tree on one side of the composition and a medium tree on the other in order to create balance.  When the trees were completed, students used a splatter brush technique to create a snow effect across the painting.

A Walk Through The Woods

Ever take a walk through the woods on a brisk snowy day?  This snowman decided to take a stroll through a birch forest just as the sun was beginning to set and twilight was emerging from between the trees.  

Students created this whimsical piece by painting their background with glitter water color paints and added salt to create a crystallized effect.  We scraped black paint with tagboard onto paper to create the birch tree effect.  Once trees were dry, they were cut, glued onto a snowy hill, and shadows were added with pencil.  

Our snowman was embellished with chalk pastels and care was taken to create highlights on the same side of the snowman as the light source.  Once completed, students finalized their work with snowflakes and glitter snow.

Splat the Cat

Second grade students read Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton with Mrs. Lau in the Treehouse and came to art to make their own "Splat" out of clay.  They learned a slap technique where they rolled clay out into a consistent thickness and cut out their Splat using a tracer.

 After adding Splat's face with a score and slip technique, they placed their cats into bowls and allowed them to dry concave.  They smoothed the edges and after they were fired, gave their cats personalities with creative clothes and patterns using glaze.  Google eyes were added as a finishing touch.

The following week, we wove a blanket out of construction paper for our kittens.  They are currently relaxing in the display cases near the school lobby and Treehouse.


About the Book
It's Splat's first day of school and he's worried. What if he doesn't make any new friends? Just in case, Splat decides to bring along his pet mouse, Seymour, and hides him in his lunchbox.

The teacher, Mrs. Wimpydimple, introduces Splat to the class and he soon starts learning all his important cat lessons. But when Seymour escapes and the cats do what cats do (they chase mice!), Splat's worried again. Maybe now he'll lose all his friends, old and new! Just in time, wise Mrs. Wimpydimple takes charge and teaches everyone an important new lesson. Maybe Cat School is going to be okay after all!

Kindergarten Fruit Wreaths

Tracing, cutting, folding, gluing, and decorating can be very challenging for Kindergarten students.  This project challenged their fine motor skills and provided repetitive skill-building exercises that also allowed them to be creative.  

When students had made a necessary amount of fruits for their wreaths, they were encouraged to use realistic colors to enhance the appearance of their fruit.  They included brown spots on bananas and pears and highlights on the more shiny fruits like apples and grapes.  They are currently on display by the Treehouse at Ravinia and in the main hallway at Lincoln School.

Snowballs!

Have you ever heard of the book Snowballs by Lois Ehlert?  It's about a family of snow people and pets decorated with everything under the sun!  
In art, first grade Lincoln students created their own snow people through tracing and cutting a snow person form and decorating a background with snowflakes (we threw a little math and symmetry in there, of course).  


Once the forms were ready, they applied their creativity and imaginations to decorate their snowmen.  They used everything from colored papers, gift wrapping materials, buttons, sequins...everything we could find!
They turned out to be quite a unique community of snow people.  They are currently congregating in the main hallway.

The February Youth Art Month North Shore School District 112 Exhibit

This exhibit represented a selection of kindergarten through eighth grade art work created by students in North Shore School District 112.

The exhibit was on display from

February 19th through February 26th at

The Arts Center of Highland Park

1957 Sheridan Road, Highland Park

We were proud to share a small sampling of the outstanding work produced daily in the district schools with the community.

Artwork will be returned through school following the show.