Can't get enough of Shelby Oaks ArtsFest entries? Gaze upon these masterpieces!!

Malia Wright, 2nd Grade

Jania Greer, 4th Grade

Santiago Abrego, 4th Grade

Brand Rice, 4th Grade

Francis Meletz, 3rd Grade

Kindergarten Landscape

Angela Mata. 5th Grade

Chauncy Banks, 3rd Grade

Virtual ArtsFest

It's that time of year... and though we haven't been able to spend it together, Shelby County Schools Arts Department has worked hard to bring this year's ArtsFest to us virtually!  This year's ArtsFest is filled with amazing work from throughout the district from music, to performance, to Visual Art!  As always, Shelby Oaks Elementary has represented with awesome works of Art from throughout this past year!

Check out all of the young artists throughout Shelby County Schools...

And check out our very own Shelby Oaks Artists that are representing our school!

Fourth Grade Party Invitations...

What up, Fourth Grade!!!

It's extra credit time and you guys have been given the task of coordinating and organizing a party/celebration!!!

First up...

Make sure that your invitation is...

1. Creative
2. Free of Grammatical Errors
3. Includes the 5 W's:
1. What
2. Why
3. Who
4. When
5. Where

So, as the Art portion of your project, we're going to look into some ideas for designing and creating some awesome Party Invitations... BUT as always, I challenge you to be inspired to create something totally original and fantastic! 

Check out this video I made for you of a few ideas to get you started on your invites...

Also, check out these ideas for some cool fonts you can use in your designs...

(from http://simplybeautifulvinyl.blogspot.com/2010/04/fun-fonts.html)

Have fun with these and make sure to be creative and take your time.  We can't wait to see what you all come up with and we would love to see your invitations, so feel free to share them with us in the comments below!

Stay safe and stay creative!

Animal Habitats: It's a Zoo Out There!!!

So, we know that a lot of our students may be designing zoos or animal habitats.  Or maybe animal habitats in zoos.  Either way, there are several ways to create a habitat - drawing, painting, etc.  Our favorite way is to make a "mock up" or three-dimensional plan using papier-mâché. It sounds fancy because it's a French word, but it really means mashed paper and is used all over the world.
We decided to make a habitat for our toy dinosaurs and we were inspired by Jurassic Park!!  However, this process can work for any landform - deserts, mountains, rainforests, and more! Just remember this process takes a couple of days because of the drying time between processes.

Now let's break it down!

First, things, first - Make Your Own Paste!!!
You must use some type of glue to make your landform and this is an easy recipe using only water and flour.  Add a pinch of salt to keep your papier-mâché from growing mold in our humid climate.

Now begin your work on the landform:

While your paste is cooling, grab your base and start wadding up newspaper to create landforms such as mountains, hills, icebergs, river basins, etc.  If you are making a volcano, place it in the middle and surround it with crumpled paper.

Add even more paper and make sure to really squish it!

Now use some tape to put everything in place and keep it there!

            

Tear some additional paper into strips and grab that cooled paste.  Dip strips of paper into the paste and run the strip between two fingers to make sure you aren't using too much glue!!                  We've included a video below to help you out with this step because it's pretty important. 

When you have used at least 5 layers of paper all throughout your landform, you will need to let it dry for a day or so. If you leave it out in the sunshine it can dry out pretty quickly. When it is dry, start to paint your landform with tempera paint, acrylic paint, or even latex paint (house paint).

              

        After you've painted it, add some details that you would find in the habitat, like trees and rocks.

 

                              

                        We added sand because our habitat is an island!!

To finish our "mock up", we placed dinosaurs on our papier-mâché island and filled the bottle with baking soda, dish detergent, and vinegar to create an explosion.  
Check out this tutorial for more help or to just get an overview of the process.  Good luck and share your results!!!

The Value Song | Art Songs | Scratch Garden

Clouds All Around

Can you identify each type of cloud painted by these famous artists (nimbus, cumulus, stratus, cirrus)?

Berndnaut Smilde

JMW Turner

Rene Magritte

John Constable


In case you need some help...

Post your answers in the comments and we'll let you know if you got them right!!   

To make your clouds look even fluffier you will need to add some value.  "Value," you say, "what's that?".  It's an Art Element!!! Look for a video we posted that tells you all about it in a quick, catchy song!!

Go visit the Louvre!

This week we're going to get out and explore... (from the comforts of our own homes, that is)... to The Louvre Art museum in FRANCE!

The Louvre is one of the most famous Art Museums in the entire world and is filled with famous artworks, many of which you might recognize!  The museum itself is currently closed, but there are videos, virtual tours, and exhibitions available through their website.

One famous painting you may recognize there is "The Mona Lisa", by Leonardo Da Vinci.  Take a look....

Here she is up close...

But she's SO famous, that if you were to go to The Louvre to see her in person, you might be seeing her like this. 

So the Museum has created a virtual reality app that is free to download to see "The Mona Lisa" up close and personal.

If you don't have an apple iphone or ipad, get up close with this video!

Learn a little bit more about Leondardo Da Vinci himself with Mati and Dada...

And check out some more awesome artworks at The Louvre!

Do you dream of traveling to different countries?  Do you know or want to learn multiple languages?  Do you love a certain food (pizza, I'm looking at you) so much that you want to visit the country where it was invented to learn how to make it exactly how they do?

Learn about France from this little girl...

Right now there are so many great museums and organizations all over the world that are opening their virtual doors so that we can explore and peer into their culture.  We'll introduce you to more in future posts!

In the meantime, if you feel inspired, perhaps you can invent something new, like Leonardo Da Vinci, draw a portrait of someone, like "The Mona Lisa", or create food portraits, like those of 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo.  Go ahead!  Get Creative and share your creations in the comments below!

The Rainbow Connection

Art Inspiration Challenge#2:

Today we will be inspired by some artists who live in Brooklyn.  They create rainbows out of whatever they have at home and place them in their windows.  As people walk through the neighborhood they play a game of "I Spy" to try to find as many rainbows as possible.  So many people have started making rainbows for their windows, the residences have even created a Google Map to track them.  Suddenly people in Chicago, Mumbai, and Montreal were also creating rainbows for their windows.  Why do you think all these people from all over the world are drawing the same thing? Why do you think they choose to draw a rainbow?  What do rainbows symbolize or mean?  When do we usually see them?

Read for Inspiration:

Rainbow-Spotting on the Quiet Streets of Brooklyn

By Charlotte Klein

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Photo: Photographs, from left to right: Nicole Sylianteng; Pamela Mock; Isabella Sperduto; Andrea Strong; Neva Alsheik; Martha Burzynski; Lerossboss; Antoinette Wannebo; Megan Crawley; Casey Roede; Nicole Cepeda; Martha Burzynski; Rebecca Maccurtain; Lauren Sharpe; Debra Robbins; Isabella Sperduto

On March 16, Marisa Migdal posted in her neighborhood Facebook group with a plea. “My two children were getting frustrated with not being able to go to playgrounds or touch anything when we went on walks,” says Migdal, who lives on the border of Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. “It wasn’t as fun as fresh air should be.” Someone suggested trying what families in other parts of the world were doing: hanging drawings of rainbows in their windows for kids to spot on their daily walks, like a neighborhoodwide I Spy game. “All of a sudden, I needed help to make a Google Map of everyone participating,” Migdal says.

Word got around to Anna Grotzky, another Brooklyn resident, who volunteered to map all the quarantine rainbows in the neighborhood. She created a spreadsheet for people to post their addresses and share the project with others as “a lovely reminder for all of us that, in a storm, there is still something to look forward to.” And Brooklyn’s Quarantine Rainbow Connection was born.

“We go on a treasure hunt for rainbows, and it’s made our days,” says Migdal. “You can hear people pass by a rainbow and say, ‘Oh look, a rainbow!,’ and they run to the window and wave.” She went out the other day with her children expecting to use the map to find rainbows, but they spotted five without even looking at the phone. The Quarantine Rainbow Connection has extended beyond Brooklyn — to Chicago, Oakland, Mumbai, Montreal. When Migdal saw that someone in South America had added themselves to the map, she used it as an opportunity for a geography lesson with her daughter. “I think the kids had a hard time understanding we’re not the only ones stuck in our house,” Migdal says. “Knowing people around the world are facing the same thing has helped.”

*This article appears in the March 30, 2020, issue of New York Magazine.

Now let's create some rainbows to put in our windows! There are so many ways to create a rainbow! But first you need to know a little about color.  Click on the videos below to groove out while learning about color and rainbow order:

Okay, so now get your supplies ready.  Maybe you don't have crayons at home or perhaps all your markers are dried out and old.  That's fine, we have you covered!  Look at the examples below to exercise your creativity and put some color in the world (and maybe in your window)!

Sort your Legos by color and create your rainbow.  Place it on your window sill for passerbys to see.

Use Play-Doh to experiment!

Use construction paper, or paper you've colored with crayons or markers, to make your rainbow.
Add some cotton balls for your clouds.  You could hang this one in your window like a mobile or ornament.

With fruit loops and marshmallows, arrange a rainbow and glue it onto a piece of paper.
Eat at least a handful of fruit loops as you make your artwork, you deserve it!

This rainbow was made from magazines.  Flip through some old magazines (ask your parents first!) and cut out colors from the pictures.  Organize into piles of colors and sort through the pieces to create an upside down "U" shape.  Glue it all down!!

Step it up a notch with markers or colored pencils!

This is really a challenge!! Using zentangles (which is a fancy word for doodling patterns), create an artwork in RAINBOW order!!

Plain Ol' "Grab your coloring utensils Rainbow"...

This one's easy!  Grab whatever coloring utensils you have around (crayons, markers, coloring pencils, pens, pencils, etc.) and draw a rainbow however you like!

Share your rainbow drawing by taking some tape and displaying it for everyone to see.  It's guaranteed to spark a smile!  

Painted Window Rainbows...

So this one definitely requires: 

1. Adult approval

2. Adult assistance and or supervision

3. Acrylic paint and/or window specific paint (acrylic washes off of windows)

First, grab your supplies...

• You'll need to clean your window surface, so grab some Windex and a paper towel and get that surface squeaky clean!
• Acrylic and/or window specific paint
• Paintbrush
• Water to rinse your paintbrush with from color to color

Once you have your supplies ready, paint your rainbow!

Chalk Art Rainbow...

Got some sidewalk chalk lying around?  Cheer up your home's exterior by doodling and coloring on the ground... bonus if you make a rainbow!

Please share with us your rainbows!  
Post a pic in the comment section and look out for rainbows from your window or  while you take a walk or a ride in your neighborhood.  If you find one let us know!

Remember to always ask your parents permission before loading your pictures!!