The Dusty Art Room

Each month I like to take a few moments to recognize those students who show exemplary work in the art room.  These students work hard, contribute to a positive and peaceful environment and challenge themselves to improve their work with each project.   December Art Students of the Month 6th Grade: Matilde Merlos 7th Grade: Jason Merino-Garcia 8th Grade: Dominika Dybas 6th Grade: Matilde Merlos Matilde has a natural inclination toward art, but she doesn't let that go to waste.  With each project, Matilde pushes herself to improve her art making skills, observe more carefully and make sure that her work is original and creative.   7th Grade: Jason Merino-Garcia Jason is new to Hester art this year, but that hasn't stopped him one bit!  He uses the classroom resources to guide him through the steps of his project, and takes the time to read his feedback and use it to learn and grow. He always sketches out multiple id...

In November, Art club students created portraits for 10 Colombian children through a wonderful non-profit organization, The Memory Project.  The organization helps bring joy to children all over the world by bringing these hand-made works of art to children who have been orphaned, neglected, abused or are living in extreme poverty.   In return for the artworks, the organization creates a video that captures the celebration of the children receiving their portraits.  This year, they partnered with students from the University who dressed up as superheroes to help deliver the portraits.   Here's the email we received after sending in our portraits:  Hi Carissa! Your portraits for the children in Colombia arrived in the mail, and they are wonderful!  Thank you so much.  These are such sweet gifts. Really precious keepsakes for these small kiddos. We'll be bringing these to the children in early December, and I'll look forward to sending you the ...

On the first day back to school after winter break, we had a ROAR (Responsibility, Organization, Attitude, Respect) activity themed around communication.  The idea of this challenge was for one group of students to use verbal communication - no visual - to direct the second group of students into the pose as described by the picture they were given.  Students quickly learned how challenging it can be to give instructions with only verbal communication.  The biggest challenge they encountered was how to instruct each person to arrange themselves in relation to one another. Here's how my homeroom did: