Inside the Art Room

Kindergarten, first, and second grade will begin the 3rd quarter by exploring the traditions of New Year celebrations while learning more about the culture of our neighbors of Asian heritage! Students will compare and contrast the celebrations of the January 1st, Solar New Year and the Lunar New Year, often called Chinese New Year, which falls on January 22 this year.

Kindergarten and first grade students will review symmetry and be introduced to asymmetry while creating a good-luck Eastern-style dragon using a variety of materials.

Second grade artists will explore the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac, learn about the qualities personified in each animal and choose an animal they believe should be included on the wheel. After some animal research, students will write a friendly letter to the Jade Emperor explaining why they believe their chosen animal should be added to the wheel.

Here are additional resources:

Chinese Culture in Nashville

CAAN's 2022 Arts Break

The Story of the Lunar New Year

What the Rat Told Me read aloud

The Legend of the Chinese Dragon read aloud

To learn more or experience Nashville's Chinese culture, visit the Chinese Art Alliance of Nashville (CAAN) website for events and activities, purchase tickets to the Zoolumination at the Nashville Zoo. One January 21, CAAN will perform at Zoolumination so you can do both on the same day as a family!

This quarter 3rd grade artists will begin their journey into space, or creating the illusion of space. Students will review how to use value in the form of shadows, highlights, and cast shadows while painting simple objects to create a still life. Then the concept of creating the illusion of space will expand to review and build on fundamentals of atmospheric perspective by creating landscapes that show distance by using variations in scale throughout the foreground, middle ground, and background. This practice and review helps artists build spatial awareness while creating compositions that can zoom-in (still life) and zoom-out (landscape) with equal amounts of visual depth. Sounds kind of technical, but as students get older, they value the ability to draw in a more realistic style. Don't worry- Math Madness in March will serve up plenty of abstract challenges!

The Value Song

What is Still Life?

How artists create space

Before the break, our 4th grade artists began reviewing figure drawing. They were challenged to create an original character for any universe, real, fictional, or invented. Artists drew and diagramed the figures to illustrate as much information and details about them as possible. This quarter, students will choose how to fully express these characters. Perhaps they will sculpt the figures in miniature with a scaled environment, create an enlarged trading card with invented statistics, or craft an enlarged comic strip that will tell the story of the character in graphic novel panels. Students will choose the process and make a plan to complete the finish creation before time runs out!

Thank you for your support!! The turnout and enthusiasm for our all-school art show on December 1, 2022, was amazing! Special thanks to our community sponsors as well as Anne Andress, Nobu Junge and all the volunteers coordinated to help make art show night so organized and engaging for our artists and their families! We sold almost 300 of our 455 frames and raised $2,000 to help our students learn in innovative ways!

Artsonia.com is our online art gallery.

Students photograph and upload most of their finished art work. If you follow the link to our online art gallery and you do NOT see your child's art work, you may not be registered as a parent for your child. If you do not see your child's work in the gallery, please complete this form, and I will add your email to the site. You will receive an invitation from Artsonia to register as your child's parent or guardian. Registration is completed for each artist, not per family, so if you have more than one artist, you will receive and email and resister as the parent of each artist. Our goal is to resister 100% of our Tiger Artists, so please make sure you are seeing your child's work in your in-box as well as on the site! Like every good art museum, Artsonia has a gift shop which is great for creative Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts that feature your favorite artist's work! Faces and full names are not permitted on the site to protect your child's privacy.

Artsonia School link

Email: tina.atkinson@mnps.org
Website: percypriest.org
Location: Percy Priest Elementary School, Otter Creek Road, Nashville, TN, USA
Phone: 6152988416