Welcome to Quarter 2 Art!
Welcome parents and guardians of TCU Monty K8 7th and 8th graders! My name is Amanda Mesenbring. I am the K-8 art specialist within our school. This is my second year with TCU and in this exact position so I am very happy to have returned for the 2017-2018 school year. I have a lot of fun things planned this quarter for the middle school students.
We have already had a great first week together, filled with some fun activities. On our first class day, we learned about the rules, expectations, and general happenings within the art room and then decorated our portfolio folders that we will store projects in throughout the quarter. On our second day, we created 3D paper roller coasters as a warm up to the art room.
After we had an early release day, we returned to a sketching boot camp where students learned some tips and techniques for what artists do to sketch. We learned how to break a human body down into simple lines and shapes in gesture drawings, how to break objects down into shapes, and how to do blind contour drawings, where we weren't allowed to look at our papers while drawing! It was a fun filled first week.
Coming in to the second week, we are starting our first big project. On Monday, we got the chance to explore six different drawing materials in a Draw Around the Room activity. Students had to create a small drawing with the materials and then use at least three adjectives to describe the materials. It was a quick way to be exposed to new drawing supplies.
Our first big project will be starting soon. We are going to draw our tennis shoes in class, repeat the shoe four times into paper, divide the paper into fourths, then use four of our six drawing materials to color in our shoes. It'll be an interesting project that starts out realistic, but will appear more abstract at the end.
Overall, there is a lot to pack into just nine weeks. I look forward to getting to know your students! Please don't hesitate to email me with questions!
Amanda Mesenbring
amesenbring@tcu2905.us
