2015 Ravinia District Office Display

Every year, the Board Room at the district office is festively adorned with beautiful art made by our home grown students.  

We love the opportunity to share their original art with administrators and the community.  

This year, Ravinia a select group of students displayed their art during the month of January.  

Weave Silk

Remember Spirograph?  Enjoy playing with symmetrical designs?  Check out Weave Silk to experience something amazing!

Yarn Basket

This year the fifth grade once again embarked on the challenge of creating a three-dimensional project using weaving techniques.  This project was challenging to those students who had never used a needle and yarn to create art.  Their results were amazing!

Students were encouraged to use unusual color combinations and problem solve as shape issues arose in the construction of their basket.  Some students enjoyed the project so much they came back to me for supplies to make more baskets!

It is rewarding to watch students embrace a new art concept with such energy and excitement.

Students enjoyed the basket project and overcame challenges by applying their problem solving skills.  To me, this is what makes a project a success.  They are currently displayed in the hallway leading to the treehouse.

Huichol Yarn Pillows

The Huichol (pronounced Wee-chol) people inhabit the most remote parts of north central Mexico.

These once nomadic descendants of the Aztecs are now an agrarian society farming in a difficult mountainous homeland.

Originally intended as ceremonial offerings to the Spirits to insure a bountiful harvest, yarn paintings continue today as a testament to thewhole of their religious and cultural beliefs. Filled with the iconography of their organizing mythology, these compositions are teeming with color and life. In simplest terms, these works document their life and relationships to the life forces of the spiritual world.

(http://www.dickblick.com/multicultural/huichol/)

Fourth grade students applied their newly acquired knowledge of Huichol art to create a personalized yarn painting.  They exercised their ability to sew on burlap and turned their two-dimensional sewing into a three-dimensional pillow!

Students were challenged to fill at least half of the area of their burlap with yarn-not an easy task.  These fourth graders stepped up to the plate and succeeded with flying colors!  Their beautiful pillows are currently on display in the treehouse.

Over the river and through the woods....

Third grade students studied the music set to Lydia Maria Child’s popular Thanksgiving poem, Over The River And Through The Wood.  The poem was divided into one sentence phrases and randomly distributed among the students.  Using their special line from the poem as inspiration, students created a drawing to reflect the poem’s phrase.  

Printmaking concepts and techniques such as positive and negative space, image transfer, reverse imaging, and inking/printing were applied to create their finished product. Their beautiful prints were enhanced with colored pencil to define special areas. Their poem print is currently displayed in the main hallway.

Lots of Socks!

BRRRRR!  There's nothing better than a warm pair of socks on a chilly winter day and what could be better than crazy socks?  Second grade students put on their creative thinking caps and designed some one-of-a-kind booties using line design as their inspiration.  

We examined some crazy socks to get the creative juices flowing and drew our socks free-hand with some guidance.  Once the sock was drawn, a heel, toe, and stretchy ribbed top was added.  Then the craziness began!  First, students drew in unusual lines to define different sections.  

Second, students filled in the various sections with a different line designs.  Lastly, glitter watercolor paints were applied to the different sections to bring out the "real" crazy in those crazy socks!   They are currently on display outside the second grade classrooms.

Carnival of the Animals

Camille Saint-Saëns, 1835 – 1921

When Camille Saint-Saëns was just a toddler, his mother and his great-aunt began teaching him music. He was only five years old when he gave his first public piano performance. When he was seven, he began to study with other teachers, and he had already begun composing his own music. He became one of the most famous French composers.

First Grade students were immersed into the world of Camille Saint-Saën’s Carnival of the Animals.  
We read poetry set to the music of Saint-Saën’s compositions and used our bodies to explore sounds through animal gestures and movement.  We carried this lesson into art where students learned and applied basic animal drawing techniques.  Using these skills, the first grade students created a train car containing their favorite animal.  The train is currently traveling down the main hallway as it makes it way to the Carnival!

One of Saint-Saëns’ most well known compositions, The Carnival of the Animals, is enjoyed by children all over the world for the pictures it paints of animals. (www.dsokids.com)