2019 Franklin County School Art Show

During the week of April 13th Franklin County art teachers and families celebrated our talented artists at the Collins Perley Sports Center.  Art Teachers from around Franklin County selected exemplary art done over the year in their art rooms for this show.  It is really great to see the work from our youngest students to our oldest students in a wide range of media and techniques.  

Many GEMS students had fun at the reception showing off their talents.

GEMS Art Show and Art Night 2019!

On Friday April 12th GEMS celebrated our student artists.  We hung art work from all the students from kindergarten to 6th grade and featured art from the 7th and 8th grade choice art classes.  The show was open for all the classes to enjoy during the day, then at night we held an art fair for families to enjoy the art show and make art together!

Kindergartners are drawing their favorite art work during art class.  

The GEMS art department would like to thank the GEMS community for making Art Night 2019 such a great success!  A big shout out to all the parents, staff, former staff, and student volunteers who helped set up, lead art activities, and clean up the entire show after all the fun.  And of course a big congratulations to all the student artists whose hard work was admired by all!

If you missed the art show and art night this year, I hope we see you next year!

Second grade welcomes spring with beautiful flower paintings!

This past fall the second grade studied flowers and pollination in STEM class.  In art class we learned how botanical illustrators do scientific drawings of flowers to learn more about them. We looked at examples of drawings by Vermont artist Bobbi Angell and practiced our own detailed drawings of flowers.

Illustration by Bobbi Angell

This winter, we learned how Georgia O'Keeffe looked at flowers in her paintings.  She made her paintings big so that people would have to slow down and see the beauty that she saw in them.

The White Flower, 1932 by Georgia O'Keeffe

"I found that I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn't say any other way- things I had no words for."  Georgia O'Keeffe 

The second graders were challenged to draw their flowers big so that the petals reached the edges of the paper.  We carefully observed the differences and similarities of each flower.

The students finished their flowers with their own colorful interpretations!

GEMS Kindergartners explore clay!

During the weeks leading up to the holiday vacation the kindergarten explored clay.  We had two clay explore days where the students made whatever they wanted with the understanding that the clay was going to be squished and made into something else.  Exploring clay without keeping the art work gives the students the freedom to really explore the properties of clay.  There are no expectations around completion, and the rules and restrictions around clay production don't apply.  They can make things that are very thin or very thick and there are no worries whether parts are joined properly or not.

At the end of the clay explore days, everyone made a coil to be added to a class coil pot (or pile of snakes, depending on who you talk to!).

After our explore time, each kindergartner worked on the basic hand building skills of making a pinch pot and rolling out a small slab.  Both of these techniques will be built on each year they are at GEMS.  

It was great to send each student home with such colorful and beautiful clay art! 

GEMS students study skeletons!

This past October GEMS students had fun studying skeleton models and practicing observation drawing.  We looked closely at the shapes of the bones and how they are joined together.

The third graders then drew dancing skeletons and used masking tape to create a tape stencil.  After their dancing skeleton was taped, they used pastel chalk to color in the paper.  They had fun blending the colors and exploring the chalk.  After they finished blending with the chalk, they removed the tape to expose the clean white paper underneath. 

Even the kindergarten and first graders did observation drawings of the skeletons.  

GEMS 4th Graders have Respectful, Responsible, and Safe Bodies!

The GEMS 4th graders show us what Respectful, Responsible, and Safe bodies look like:

During the first couple art classes this year, the 4th graders worked in groups to trace one of their bodies and then fill it full of phrases that will remind others what it looks like to be respectful, responsible, and safe.

Franklin County celebrated our schools' artists!

During the week of May 14- 20th Collins-Perly Sports Complex hosted our annual Franklin County School Art Show.  Students in K-12th grade from all over Franklin County were represented.  Art teachers from participating schools brought selected artwork to showcase their students' accomplishments over this past school year. 

On May 15th we had an opening reception for the community, students, and art teachers to gather and celebrate the amazing art of our students.

It was great to see so many people come out to support our art students and to see the amazing work from the smallest students in our county to the oldest students.  Well done everyone and we look forward to our 2019 county show next May!