Description of the Unit – Students will celebrate Día de los Muertos by sculpting and designing their own “sugar” skulls (with clay) and setting them onto a colorful patterned background.
4th Grade – Día de los Muertos “Sugar” Skulls!
Category: Grade Level
3rd Grade – Clay Aquarium Relief Sculpture
Description of the Unit – Students will create a kind of relief sculpture, an aquarium out of clay that will include sea creatures in a variety of organic and geometric shapes. Students will paint their aquariums, using bright, bold colors for emphasis.
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1st Grade – Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square
Description of the Unit – Students will explore Josef Albers’ series Homage to the Square, using his artwork and our discussion as a guide to creating their own series of squares, concentrating on contrast and depth.
Kindergarten – Warm Autumn Leaves
Description of the Unit – While outside on a beautiful fall day, students observed Autumn leaves, noticing the colors, shapes and textures of each leaf. Back in the art room, students used their observations to create their own vibrantly colored fall leaves.
8th Grade – Photography Unit, Lesson 3: Shutter Speed & Motion
Description of the Unit – Students learn about shutter speed manipulation, and how it affects motion and light. Students will experiment with using a variety of shutter speeds to capture still motion and motion blur. Our featured photographer this week is Sebastião Salgado.
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8th Grade – Photography Unit, Lesson 2: Aperture, Light and Depth-of-Field
Description of the Unit – This is the second lesson of a seven-lesson photography unit, and for this lesson we are focused on aperture, and its effect on exposure and depth of field.
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8th Grade – Photography Unit, Lesson 1: Composition and Intro to Your Camera Settings
Description of the Unit – Students will embark on a seven-lesson photography unit, getting to know the way a camera works and how to use their settings, as well as understanding the elements and principles of design to achieve specific shots. Additionally, students will be introduced to formative photographers, both past and present, as inspiration for the subject of each lesson.
7th Grade – Fashion Design
Description of the Unit – Students will create their own fashion line, featuring at least three different looks that share a unifying theme, be it color, pattern, line or particular article of clothing or accessory.
6th Grade – Nonprofit ads and reinforcing visual literacy
Description of the Unit – Building upon what students learned in 5th grade about product advertisement in print (https://anitasagastegui.com/2020/07/27/5th-grade-print-advertising-and-cultivating-visual-literacy/), students in 6th grade will look at ads from NGO, nonprofit and charitable organizations to examine how imagery and elements of design are used to sway people to a particular cause. It is interesting to go back and look at the 5th grade product advertisements, comparing them to the 6th grade NGO ads. Reinforcing and reviewing what they studied last year has helped to make the nonprofit ads all the more visually dynamic and sophisticated, as you can see. Students will work in groups to create a non-profit organization of their own, complete with mission statement and logo, and one advertisement aimed at convincing viewers to donate or work for their organization’s cause. To test the ads’ effectiveness, we will have a contest between the groups, with faculty, as well as students in 3rd-8th grades voting on the most eye-catching and persuasive ad.
5th Grade – Print Advertising (and cultivating visual literacy)
Description of the Unit – Students will take a critical look at a variety of award-winning print ads, exploring the ways in which the ads use elements and principles of design to sell a product, and as such cultivating visual literacy by understanding mechanism of persuasion. Using what they have learned, students will work in groups to create an ad (for a real-world product but imaginary brand) that works to catch the eye and persuade the viewer to buy the product they are selling. To test the ads’ effectiveness, we have a school-wide contest to choose the most effective, persuasive and visually interesting ad.
In the K-8 Art Studio with Anita Sagastegui 