Have a Great Summer!

Thank you, Hosmer students and families, for a fun, creative and artistic year! I am looking forward to making more art with you in September! A big congrats to all of our 5th graders as they move on to middle school -- I will miss you!

Have a fantastic summer and feel free to email me with updates: haein.kim@watertown.k12.ma.us

Animals with Tails

1st grade artists recently painted about animals with tails! Unlike humans, many animals have tails, which help them do a variety of different things. We brainstormed different animals that have different shaped tails, inspired by a variety of different colored and shaped tails. 

After our brainstorming session, students selected one animal and sketched it, breaking it down into shapes. After sketching, students got a felt tail to glue down on a larger piece of paper, and drew their animal's body around the tail. We considered composition, so there would be space for the animal's body parts and tail, and how different animals are taller or wider. 

The following class, students mixed colors to paint their animal's body. We thought about the texture and patterns on our animals, whether they are furry, scaly, or feathered. We tried to paint the body in layers, painting the largest parts and adding smaller details and patterns on top. 

During the last class, students painted the background for their animal, which included the animal's habitat or environment. Students mixed new colors and thought about how to show where the animal might live. 

Some students painted an outdoor environment, including the sky, water, grass and desert. Some students painted an indoor environment, like a barn or a living room. Here are some examples of our animals with tails!

Andy, 1st Grade (Mandile)

Dahlia, 1st Grade (Torchio)

Gus, 1st Grade (Torchio)

James, 1st Grade (Massa)

Kaiwan, 1st Grade (Mandile)

Leila, 1st Grade (Torchio)

Mason, 1st Grade (Massa)

Daniel, 1st Grade (Salvucci)

Tyler, 1st Grade (Massa)

Olivia, 1st Grade (Salvucci)

Naomi, 1st Grade (Landay)

Marie, 1st Grade (Salvucci)

Antonio, 1st Grade (Landay)

Alex, 1st Grade (Salvucci)

Tasty Texture Sandwiches

3rd grade artists recently explored texture by making delicious looking texture sandwiches! We began with a long piece of paper and glued pieces of wallpaper at the bottom to create a table top for our sandwich. We also added a plate or wrapper for our sandwich.

Using cardboard, students cut out a bottom bun and a top bun for the sandwich. We talked about different shapes we could use, like rectangles and semi circles. We made sure to leave a lot of space in between the bottom and top pieces of bread for lots of ingredients! 

Next class, we brainstormed a variety of sandwich ingredients, including tomatoes, cheese, salami, peanut butter, Nutella, pickles, bacon, etc. We made a long list on the board to use as reference. Students were able to choose from a variety of different materials with different colors and textures to represent sandwich ingredients. Students got very creative with how they used their materials. Sometimes, students searched for a specific material for a specific ingredient. Other times, we were inspired by the material and what ingredient it reminded us of. Here are some examples of our tall, textured sandwiches:

Alina, 3rd Grade (Lutz)

Ben S., 3rd Grade (Stone)

Destanie, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Ethan, 3rd Grade (Donato)

Gustavo, 3rd Grade (Fletcher Nickl)

Hunter, 3rd Grade (Lutz)

Lenna, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Mackenzie, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Manos, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Marina, 3rd Grade (Donato)

Priya, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Sam, 3rd Grade (Stone)

Name, 3rd Grade (Class)

Yulissa, 3rd Grade (Monfette)

Kinder"garden" Showcase

Congratulations to our PK and Kindergarten students on their concert performance today! Each class represented a different part of our Kinder-"Garden." During art class, students created masks according to their theme, such as the sun, trees, insects, flowers and rain. We made our own textured painted paper and used them to make our colorful masks!

Thank you to all the Hosmer families for coming to support & experience what the students made and learned this year!

Independent Ceramic Projects

Recently, 5th grade artists made an independent clay project. We discussed what we knew about clay, how it clay comes from the Earth and is made up of different minerals. We learned that clay goes through many stages to become a ceramic object, starting with wet clay, drying out in the air to become bone dry, then getting fired in the kiln the first time to become bisque. 

Options were a pinch pot or pinch pot figure, such as an animal; a coil pot; or a slab box. We sketched out our project idea and the following class, students got clay and got started. For pinch pot figures, students started with a pinch pot. First we put our thumb in the middle of the ball of clay. We pressed down to form a hole and then used our fingers to pinch the sides. We turned our clay as we pinched so that the sides of our pot would be even and in a circular shape. Then this could be transformed into the body of an animal. 

Another option was a coil pot, which begins with a circular bottom and rolling the clay into coils around the sides to form the walls of the pot. Students made sure to score and slip the coils. The third option was a slab box, which involved the most measuring and scoring all the pieces. To make the slab box, students rolled out the clay to create flat pieces or slabs and cut them using a template to form the bottom and sides of the box. They assembled the sides by scoring the base and each side and using slip to attach everything together and smooth all the edges. Some students created a lid for their coil pot or slab box, and added details, such as shapes or letters, on the outside. 

Projects were left to dry for a week and then put in the kiln, which is an oven for the clay to get heated and become hard. Students got to take a look at the kiln in small groups, to better understand what it looks like and what it does. Students got their clay projects back after they had been bisque fired in the kiln. The clay projects had turned white and had gotten a little smaller. 

Then we used glaze to add color. Different color stations were set up and students went to different stations to use the colors they wanted. Each color needs 3 coats, or layers, of glaze to show up true to color. 

We made sure to dab and pat our brush around to get all the areas and cover all the white spots, since the clay has a texture and is not always smooth or easy to paint. We got our projects back after they had been fired again, to melt the glaze and make it shiny. Below are examples of our 5th grade independent clay projects:

Ani, 5th Grade (Psychoghios)

Anna, 5th Grade (Psychoghios)

Ashlynne, 5th Grade (Bellis)

Bella, 5th Grade (Psychoghios)

Cicily, 5th Grade (Psychoghios)

Dorothy, 5th Grade (Psychoghios)

Joe, 5th Grade (Psychoghios)

Lalita, 5th Grade (Psychoghios)

Suhasini, 5th Grade (Bellis)

Grace, 5th Grade (Twomey)

Hashir, 5th Grade (Twomey)

Lily, 5th Grade (Twomey)

Elena, 5th Grade (Bellis)

Halle, 5th Grade (Bellis)

Chloe, 5th Grade (Domermuth)