Tuesday, June 28, 2016

celebration 2016!

We recently held the 29th addition of our annual Celebration of Art at Zamorano and it was a wonderful event as always! It's always a treat to see so many of our kids with their families touring the exhibit and participating in a variety of hands on art activities.

It also so interesting to see how the work done with our the different members of our art team comes together. Even though we have different styles and approaches and it is really cool to see how the groups of work complement and play off of one another when mixed together throughout our auditorium.

Our classroom teachers rocked their class displays like they always do and they led our school community through a great assortment of hands on activities during the Celebration.

Our music department shined bright by opening the night with performances from both our band and orchestra.

We had the honor of hosting a variety of VIPS including a couple members of the SDUSD school board, descendants of Agustin Zamorano (who our school is named after), directors of the Arts 4 Learning team, and the editor of Arts and Activities.

We even had, for the first time in my 15 years at Zamo, media coverage of our event, as 2 local news stations broadcasted from the event and interviewed members of our school community.

I say it a lot, and I'll say it again- I am so fortunate to teach at a school where everyone recognizes the importance of arts education. Zamo is such a special place! Big thanks to everyone that made this night the success it was, with a special shout out to our Karen Reyes and our PTF, parent volunteers, and Chris Bess for doing so much prep work leading up to the event.

Go Zamo!


 Repurposed Libs Elliott paper quilt project and the cubes that held our digital animation monitor.

I ran into some technical difficulties with showcasing our students' digital animations, but it was on display. Now I have a whole year to work out the kinks:)


I printed out some QR codes for projects at each grade level. If someone scanned the code with their phone it would take them to the blog post I wrote about the project.



 One of my favorite projects of the year! Done by Kathi Arinduque with a 5th grade class.
Albums, VHS tapes, and cassettes!

 Relief clay flowers done with Kathi and Danielle Guimond.


 Traditional & digital photos done with Danielle.


A variety of portraits, including digital self portraits done with computer teacher Susana Martinez.


 Delicious burgers done with Melony Vance.

 Paper mache birds done by Kathy Crawford and her class!


 Upcycled fashion items by 5th graders done with Danielle.




Arts integration work done by 2nd graders & 3rd graders that was co-taught by Brandie Maddalena and Danielle Guimond with our grade level teachers. This was the first year of our involvement with SDUSD's art integration grant. Our 2nd & 3rd grade teams worked with teaching artists Brandie and Danielle every week to integration art and ELA content. Next year our 4th grade students will be involved as well!


 Each teacher did a class display on our south campus, so that each student was represented. We had a wide variety of fabulous teacher led projects!




 Our exhibit is up for open for 3 days, so all classes come down to tour the exhibit 
with their teachers. 

This provides a quieter time to look at the work and to pick a favorite 
and write the responsible artist a fan letter!

TK students taking a tour with their teacher.


NBC San Diego interviewing one of our 5th grade artists.
A link to the coverage is right here:)
 
 Getting Cubist like Picasso.

 Making shrinky dink jewelry.

 The magic of relief prints!

 Collaborating on a mural with Ms. Vance!

 The longest line of the night, as usual, goes to button making! (we need to get 1 or 2 more of those makers, for real:)

 Spin art!


Old man Masse and Maryellen, the editor of Arts & Activities


Friday, June 10, 2016

moving lights.

 A couple weeks ago, the 3rd graders continued exploring motion, while also touching on symmetry and 3d space.

We started the lesson by looking at a commercial for adidas soccer cleats starring Leo Messi. Students had created a print that showed implied motion earlier, and we all agreed that the commercial was an example of actual motion in art. We also looked at how the ball looked 3d, even when only outlined in lights, because of the curved lines inside it.


After this I mentioned that the only pencil and paper work they would be doing was to put their name, room number... and ipad number on their ID paper. A moment of quiet was soon followed by giddy excitement:)

I explained that they would be using an app called Forge of Neon to build a short animation that showed movement. I shared a couple examples I put together and we looked at how the figures showed symmetry and that they looked 3d.

We also discussed that in order to make something look 3d, an artist needs to address height (y axis), width (x axis), and depth (z axis). I put together a how-to video that I shared in chunks, and once the ipads were passed out and they were sitting with their partners, we got down to playing.


As we went through the steps, I emphasized that they were to PLAY and experiment with the different features. Partners took turns drawing and then erasing their work, so they could see the many different visual possibilities.

The project has 2 requirements- a minimum of 3 colors and a minimum of 2 axis used. They kids had so much fun with this one. They exported at least one file to their camera roll and thsi aloowed me to upload to my computer and email them to their teachers.

At our Celebration of Art in a couple of weeks, we will have some of these and other digital projects shown on a smartboard in a classroom.

This is the first year that I've had the opportunity to include digital art in my curriculum and it's been a blast for both my students and myself!











Monday, June 6, 2016

It's almost showtime!

We are a mere 19 days away from our 29th annual Celebration of Art at Zamorano Fine Arts Academy!

If you are in the neighborhood and want to come out and support our amazing students, head over to Zamo on Wednesday June 22 from 5-7 pm. Thousands of works will be on display all over campus and there will be hands on activities for students and families to experiment with. Most of these activities will be ticketed at $1 or $2 to help raise funds to keep the arts alive.