GSIS 10 Year Anniversary Yearbook: Memories | Page 30

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Visual Arts

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Third grader Ihor Vasyltsov mixes red and blue to produce purple,
then colors his background orange. The message of his painting was
that he loves playing sports but enjoys playing basketball the most.
He used oil pastels, tempera paint, and paper collage to make his
artwork.

The third-grade students
created paintings of still-life
objects in a box during a unit
called “How We Express Ourselves.”

The central idea for this
collaborative unit was that
people express themselves
through different forms of
communication.

The students brought in
belongings that represented
themselves. Through their
choice of personal objects in
their paintings the students
communicated to the viewer
their likes and interests. They
learned about color mixing,
shading, collage and ways to
create a pleasing composition. 

Art teacher Mrs. Kim said,
“Students will express their
interests through their choice
of objects and communicate
to the viewer  their point of
view through their choice of
colors and personal style of
painting.”  

The students began this
unit by exploring colors and

how they can be used to express emotions. The students
then learned how to create
secondary colors by mixing
combinations of primary
colors.   

The third graders examined still life paintings created
by Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo
Picasso, and Henri Matisse
to sort out and understand
their unique styles and ways
of self-expression.  Some
students also added pasted
papers to their paintings to
create more texture.

During the process of
making their paintings, students were able to learn new
things about art. 
Konstantin Shulga said,

“I learned how to make flags
and backgrounds in different
colors and patterns and that
we needed to do the colors
first before making patterns in
the background.” Reflecting on
the outcome of his artwork,
Konstantin said, “I feel pretty
good about my artwork.”

Luke Jang said, “I learned
how to overlap pictures in
art.” He continued, “Maybe
I could become an artist and
use this skill to help me in the
future.” 

Sameeksha Vashishtha
said, “I learned how to use
some colors and I feel good
about it because I could draw
better.” Her favorite part
of making this artwork was
“making lines and coloring the
paper. I could use this art skill
when I’m drawing, coloring, or
painting for fun at home.”

Mrs. Kim said she hopes
that this unit will impact
students’ lives beyond the
classroom and that they will
be able to see and appreciate
art all around them. Hopefully
they will appreciate the different types of art as a personal
expression of each artist. She
hopes her students will “be
able to think about the power
art has as a communication
tool.”

Sameeksha Vashishtha paints
the flag of India
and writes ‘I love
dancing’ on her
artwork. She also
drew flowers and
a person dancing. Sameeksha
wrote in her
reflection that
her artwork expresses the value
of dance.
Fourth grader Ivy Hahnbee Kim
paints on a set of colors that
express her feelings for her visual
poem. The painting was part of
her inquiry on poetry as a universal form of expression for the unit
“How We Express Ourselves.”

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4/16/16 10:35 PM