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6th Grade Art
Welcome to Art at Mount Everett!
Important links:
Welcome letter and grading rubric
Reference imagery
More reference imagery
Online art activities
Week 1
Bell ringers
Assignments
Bellringers are short "warm-up" assignments--5 minutes long, that will be waiting for you as you arrive.
The curriculum for 6th graders focuses on a portion of the elements and principles of design. The elements that are explored in class will help to create the backbone of student's middle school art experience. This first project will explore the elements as we create group sculptures.
We will be using padlet to create online galleries for documentation and critique.
Padlet link:
Assignment: Create a sculpture made up seven parts that each represent an element of art: Line, Color, Texture, Shape, Value, Form, and Space.
Steps:
1. Draw fat bubble letters on paper provided.
2. Illustrate the meaning of each element on the designated letter.
3. Use all materials and media provided!
Click HERE for elements and principles poster video. Let's identify the elements.
Week 2
Bell ringers
Assignments
1. 'Rules' posters; seats
2. Portfolios, sketchbooks
3. Sketchbook prompts
Media Exploration
Warm up:
This week you will spend time exploring different materials. On your table, you will find supplies and a list of techniques. You must use at least 3. Feel free to use any technique that isn't listed!
Project: Name Design
Use the letters of your name to illustrate your personality and things that are important to you.
Week 3
Bell ringers
Assignments
1. Exquisite Corpse
2. Sketchbook prompts
Assemblage Art
Assemblage art inspired by Lousie Nevelson
Click on the computer for more information!
Week 4
Bell ringers
Assignments
Follow sketchbook prompts in class
Printmaking
Option 2:
We will look at Andy Warhol's Endangered Species series as inspiration for our printmaking unit, which will focus on SDG #15: Life of Land.
Click on the tiger to your right for information and instructions.
Week 5
Option 3:
Using art to address current events and the United Nations SDGs.
When we face problems or crisis, it's always good to think about solutions. Following the devestating fire in Lahaina last year, my attention was drawn to the power of art and it's ability to raise awareness to issues.
The hibiscus project brought attention to the events in Lahaina and how they effected the people of Hawaii. Students created drawings and prints of native Hawaiian flowers, arrange them in composition, and develop a concept about the need for a response to the climate crisis.
Subsequent projects will also be designed in response to an event or crisis.
Bell ringers
Assignments
Draw swap
For this project, we will learn about pop art, neo-expressionism, and the collaborative artworks of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Click the envelope to the right for slides.
Click the hand for the exhibition trailer for their final collaboration.
Project options: Mail art, partner collaborations, and artist trading cards
Basquiat Painting — Gold Griot, 1984
‘I’ve never been to Africa. I’m an artist who has been influenced by his New York environment. But I have a cultural memory. I don’t need to look for it; it exists. It’s over there, in Africa. That doesn’t mean I have to go live there. Our cultural memory follows us everywhere, wherever you live.’
– Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1981
A griot was a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa. Without a doubt, Basquiat saw himself as a griot of Manhattan.
The Basquiat painting above, completed on a series of wooden slats, represents a strong dose of his graffiti background in his mainstream pieces.
-From Hamilton-Selway Fine Art
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Collaboration: the action of working with someone to produce or create something.
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Graffiti and street art: often used interchangeably, both terms refer to “art on the street”. However, significant differences separate the two. Graffiti predates street art and is often text-based and painted without permission, whereas street art is often image-based and painted on commission or with permission.
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Neo-Expressionism: an art movement that emerged in the late 1970s and 80s in Germany and America. Neo-Expressionists depicted their subjects in an almost raw and brutish manner, using highly textural and expressive brushwork and intense colors that had been rejected by preceding art movements.
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Pop Art: an art movement that emerged in the 1950s and 60s in Britain and America. Pop artists appropriated imagery and techniques from popular and commercial culture, such as advertisements, product packaging, pop music, comic books and Hollywood movies.
Week 6
Bell ringers
Assignments
1. Contour drawing
2. Gesture drawing
3. Blind contour drawing
The Human Figure
Click on the Hand!
For this project we will be learning how to draw from observation using the contour drawing technique.
Week 7
Bell ringers
Assignments
1. Object renderings
2. Sketchbook prompts
Inside and out:
For this assignment, you will create an enormous eye. We will practice drawing the parts of an eye, and then render the outside of your eye realistically. Inside the eyeball you will choose to illustrate either your alter-ego or things about you below the surface (like your inner-most thoughts and ideas).
Steps:
1. Practice drawing a realistic eye.
2. Apply value techniques to create depth and volume.
3. Illustrate the eyeball with colored pencils or markers.
Week 8
Yayoi Kusama inspired eyes:
For this assignment, you will create an enormous eye in the style of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. We will use markers and watercolors.
Steps:
1. Use a light pencil to draw your eye. You may use a mirror or work from a photograph. Add abstract details and enclose all lines.
2. Apply watercolor to the drawing using abstract colors.
3. Use thick marker to line the drawing, and thin marker to fill in the spaces with patterns.
4. Use acrylic paint to stamp a dot pattern in the background.
Click on the eye to learn about Yayoi Kusama
Bell ringers
Assignments
1. Sketchbook prompts
Bottle creatures:
Click on the mermaid to learn about the art of Niki Saint Phalle.
Week 9
Bell ringers
Assignments
Ceramic Coil Pots
We will be creating small, clay vessels with exposed coils. This is an introductory hand-building lesson that will give students a basic understanding about clay properties. They will have an opportunity to take more ceramics hand-building and throwing classes in high school.
1. Sketchbook prompts
Week 10
Bell ringers
Assignments
Nebula Painting
In this assignment we will study the life cycle of a star, and create an acrylic painting of a nebula in the night sky. We will also learn about foreground and background, adding elements to the painting to create depth.
Get in touch so we can start working together.
I'd love to hear from you.
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About me
My name is Ms. Graham and I'm delighted to teach 6th Grade art this year! This is my 15th year teaching at Mount Everett. Check out my website for more information about me.
Contact me!
Stephanie Graham
491 Berkshire School Road
Sheffield, MA 01257
413-229-8734 x166
Mount Everett Art Room Land Acknowledgment
It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking, and gathering on the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people, who are the indigenous peoples of this land. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, today their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community.
We honor their ancestors by continuously aiming to better understand their history. We show respect to their descendants by engaging with their living culture, which has endured the repercussions of the westward diaspora. We acknowledge that the place names of our rivers, towns, roads, and landmarks have significant meaning to the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and we strive to know, understand, and respect their origin.
We understand that our privilege has allowed us to live and learn here as a result of broken promises, unfair negotiations, and racist mindsets, and we address the need for awareness, visibility, and advocacy. The Mount Everett Art Department has made and will continue to make progress regarding restorative justice practices in education. We commit to building connections, understandings, and partnerships to provide a more inclusive and equitable space for all.
Reconocimiento de tierras en la sala de arte de Mount Everett
Con gratitud y humildad reconocemos que estamos aprendiendo, hablando y reuniéndonos en las tierras ancestrales del pueblo mohicano, que son los pueblos indígenas de esta tierra. A pesar de las tremendas dificultades que supuso verse obligados a abandonar este lugar, hoy su comunidad reside en Wisconsin y se la conoce como la comunidad Stockbridge-Munsee.
Honramos a sus antepasados al intentar continuamente comprender mejor su historia. Mostramos respeto a sus descendientes al relacionarnos con su cultura viva, que ha soportado las repercusiones de la diáspora hacia el oeste. Reconocemos que los nombres de nuestros ríos, pueblos, carreteras y lugares emblemáticos tienen un significado importante para la comunidad Stockbridge-Munsee y nos esforzamos por conocer, comprender y respetar su origen.
Entendemos que nuestro privilegio nos ha permitido vivir y aprender aquí como resultado de promesas incumplidas, negociaciones injustas y mentalidades racistas, y abordamos la necesidad de concientización, visibilidad y defensa. El Departamento de Arte de Mount Everett ha logrado y seguirá logrando avances en lo que respecta a las prácticas de justicia restaurativa en la educación. Nos comprometemos a generar conexiones, entendimientos y alianzas para brindar un espacio más inclusivo y equitativo para todos.