This week kicked off the month of February which puts us in the contest window of the Mass Wildlife Junior Duck Stamp Contest. We integrate this artistic contest into our larger bird study as we look closely at a particular group of birds - namely waterfowl, to base our artworks on. This week, the kids studied a picture of a duck, goose or swan and then created a pencil drawing of their chosen bird. They traced over their final pencil lines with Sharpie marker and added colors with watercolor paints. We are very impressed with the results! Kids are trying on techniques like shadow, color blending, reflection, and perspective as they create their works of art.
Over the next two weeks they will try their hands at other art media including colored pencil drawings, oil pastels, and torn paper collage. From their final "portfolio" of work, they will select their very best to submit for the contest. We are up against kids from art schools in this competition, so we talk to the kids about not expecting to have their work selected among the top artworks; we have occasionally had one or two of our students snag an honorable mention and once a 2nd place award, so there is always a chance.
Their second best artwork will be displayed here at school for our in-house contest. We invite our principal, vice principal, school nurse, specialists and a few others to be our guest judges. In this way, we can make the contest element feel more real as each class will have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place award as well as an honorable mention. While kids tend to focus on their disappointment if they do not "win", this is actually a good life lesson about putting aside our feelings to congratulate a friend who fared well. This often takes the sting out of not winning and puts the focus on the joyful celebration of others.
Please enjoy the pictures below of their beautiful first works of art!
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