Miss Beck's Art Class

01/31/2025

This texture-filled lesson by 3rd grade students had extra emphasis on creating depth through layers. We learned about and created the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. Creating the paint-scraped paper for the mountain was a tactile highlight for many students while others loved drawing their own Himalayan yak. We finished off the frigid scene with some distant hikers and a splattering of snow.

01/31/2024

In this lesson, students learned about famous impressionist, Claude Monet, and his use of paint to create beautiful landscapes. Monet loved painting outside (Plein Air) and was fascinated by how light affects color. Although famous for his series of paintings of haystacks and lily pads, Monet painted many waterscapes. This lesson used tempera paint on regular drawing paper and one of my favorite painting technique: double-loading.

10/20/2023

In this lesson that has been inspired by the real life hatching of baby sea turtles, 4th graders learned how to draw turtles. Students explored layering watercolor washes to create new colors. They also used overlapping to create a sense of space in their artwork in this multi-layered artwork. Look for the moon, that's how the baby sea turtles know where the ocean is.

08/28/2023

Fantastic artwork by Eli Samples and what an honor to be showcased among many talented artists in the area!

08/19/2023

Congratulations to 4th grader, Eli Samples, whose artwork is featured in a gallery at the Educational Service Unit (ESU) 9 in Hastings. Eli’s artwork was selected among students across multiple counties/grade levels and is the sole representative of art work for Aurora Elementary.

An art exhibit open house will be held at the ESU 9 on Monday, August 28th from 4:30-7pm where his artwork and others’ will be showcased.

All are welcome to attend the open house!

08/14/2023

Here’s to YEAR SEVEN!

I can’t wait to see all of the students this week as we begin another year in the art room!

04/07/2023

In this lesson, 2nd grade students imagined dinosaurs coming to big cities and walking among tiny cars and skyscrapers. Students started by freehand drawing tall buildings with windows and cars on the road. After drawing their dinosaur, students added value to their dino with stippling and chalk pastel to make their dino look 3D. Finally, the students chose either primary secondary colors to emphasize the sky and road with watercolor. This project was inspired by the book "If the Dinosaurs Came Back" by Bernard Most.

03/13/2023

5th graders designed a digital yearbook cover using an app called Sketchbook. After all of the designs were completed, those who wanted their design to be featured in the yearbook entered in a contest. In the contest the staff chose their favorite design that will be featured as the yearbook cover for 22-23.

02/20/2023

Is your child itching to create but doesn’t have anywhere to put his/her ideas on this day off? How about working on the doodle for google.

What is it?
Doodle for Google is an annual art contest open to students in grades K-12. Students are invited to create their own Google Doodle for the chance to have it featured on Google.com, as well as win some great scholarships and tech packages for their schools.

Who can enter?
Any student K-12 in the United States

How does it work?
1. Create a doodle with the mindset of this years theme: I am grateful for

2. Write a sentence or two explaining your doodle

3. Submit your doodle by sending it with your child to school (grades 2-5) or submit online below.

For more information on doodle4google, click this link: https://doodles.google.com/intl/en_us/d4g/

Doodle for Google's annual contest is accepting submissions for the Google logo to be featured on the local Google homepage. Submit yours today.

02/04/2023

In this lesson, 3rd graders reviewed the parts of a landscape: foreground, middle ground, and background as well as perspective and overlapping to show space. Inspired by Lawren Harris’ iconic mountain landscapes, students created value by using both watercolor to create light and dark washes and then chalk to create a colorful background.

01/06/2023

Fourth-grade students loved all of the processes involved in this lesson that focuses heavily on printmaking and is inspired by the turquoise Raqqa ware pottery found in Syria. After creating their own stamps that they used to make print patterned paper. After they cut a symmetrically shaped vase, switched stamps with a friend and then added a coat of liquid watercolor before assembling their composition with glue. Students added a colored piece of paper to act as the table and even use shading to make the pottery look realistic.

11/30/2022

{Folk art-inspired cityscapes}
5th grade students incorporated elements of folk art like expressive colors and a flatten sense of space, but still had plenty of room for creative choice as they drew their buildings, vehicles, and other details to create the city of their choice. Line and movement were the main focuses, and were emphasized with the road that works to lead the viewers eyes through the composition. Bright pops of color were added at the end with colored, pencil and watercolor.