By Julie Slama | [email protected]

About 1,000 students and their families walked through an arch of bright-colored balloons and into the school with multiple displays of 3,000 pieces of artwork at the third annual Eastlake Art Show. Students greeted guests, handing them student-designed programs and directing them both to the artwork and the live piano music also performed by student musicians. 

The show was a culmination of the year as art specialist Jackie Webster met with teachers to hear what students were learning about and how her curriculum could enhance their learning.

“It’s part of the Beverly Taylor Sorensen grant where we integrate art into the core curriculum,” Webster said. “It reinforces what students are learning and at the same time, teaching them art skills and techniques and allowing them to explore and be creative.”

Webster, who has gotten her ideas from other teachers throughout the district and state as well as at conferences, classes, workshops and online, then created lesson plans to tie into each grade level’s specific study.

For example, second-graders used watercolor to learn about aspen trees during the seasons.

“We read a book called ‘Sky Tree’ and talked about the different seasons and talked about how trees change through the four seasons,” she said. “Students learned perspective as well as conceptualizing and refining their artwork while reinforcing their learning about earth science and space.” 

Second-graders also created animal collages after learning about their habitats and characteristics, which tied into both science and art curriculums. During the year, they also learned about positive and negative space using symbols where they identified symbols in the community from street signs to sports teams — and had to create its opposite, which tied into both art and social studies curriculum. 

Another example would be when sixth-graders created trading cards to reinforce their learning about moon phases and constellations in science and ancient civilizations in social studies. By using new methods in art — bleeding tissue paper technique as well as oil pastels, puffy paint and scratch art, they created 3D artwork that hung by strings decorating a hallway wall. 

Materials used for student pieces included watercolor, oil pastels, chalk, tempera, puffy paint, pen and pencil, permanent markers and creative approaches such as making paper collages from recycled books and magazines to create poetry. 

In kindergarten, students created bobble-head self-portraits.

“They had to learn about facial expressions as well as create their own face and skin color,” Webster said. “They also created 2D and 3D shapes using values.”

First-graders learned about Georgia O’Keefe’s style of artwork and had a chance to create their own using the same techniques.

“We zoomed in on flowers and looked at its size, shape and color, which challenged the students to look closer at what they are seeing,” she said, adding that they also created Starry Night artwork with chalk pastels and tried out shadow puppets. 

Third-graders tied in the science and social studies curriculum through making totem poles and sand paintings.

“Third-grade studies Native Americans, so we learned the importance of their culture — folktales, music, stories told through totem poles, and art, such as sand painting and learned how we could represent those through our art,” Webster said.

Third-grader Hailee Morten said she looked at pictures of different animals before she decided which ones to put on her totem pole and in her sand art.

“The sand art was really fun to do,” she said. “I was able to learn to draw the animals I wanted and put them into my art.”

In fifth grade, students used watercolor techniques to create their versions of the Mayflower, which then tied into their social studies, science, writing and art curriculum.

Fifth-grader Daxton Nelson said it was more difficult than he thought.

“It was harder blending the colors than anything we had done in the younger grades,” he said. “I like drawing and creating pictures, but with this, I was learning different techniques.”

Webster said not only did the art show allow parents to appreciate their students’ art but also their learning. 

“Students are making connections and are being taught more skills while they are cementing what they’ve learned in class,” she said. “These can become skills that integrate with their learning through all their school years and beyond.”