This week in art we are continuing our work with the element of color.  We are also discussing the "meanings" of color and how they affect our moods and the decisions we make.  Listed below are some of the colors and their meanings.

 Red= strong emotion, warmth, love, anger, danger, boldness, excitement, speed, strength, energy and passion.

Orange= cheerfulness, low cost affordability, enthusiasm, creativity, aggression, food and energy.

Yellow= attention-grabbbing, comfort, liveliness, optimism, Summer, intellect, happiness, and joy.

Green= safety, nature, money, stability, optimism, well-being, freshness, relaxation, and Spring.

Blue=peace, calm, coldness, Winter, loyalty, reliability, honor, and trust.

Purple= power, royalty, magic, elegance, sophistication, luxury and elegance.

Gray=intelligence, serious, dull, traditionalism, conservatism and uninteresting.

Brown= relaxing, solid, reliable, casual, nature,earthy, autumn and genuine.

Black= elegance, sophistication, formality, power, strength, evil, death, seriousness, importance and night.

White=Cleanliness, purity, newness,  peace, innocence, simplicity, and holiness.

Pink= love, friendship, sweetness and femininity.


     In addition to that, the 4th and 5th graders will take their first Summative Assessment in art for this year.  This will count as a major part of their 9 weeks grade. The test covers the elements of line, shape, color, form, texture, value, space, and the principle of balance.  It also draws upon their knowledge of the styles of art, the types of subject matter, and other cultural aspects of art.

      The 4th and 5th grade students will also be "critiquing" the artwork of many major artist.  They will use the following process.  D.A.I. J.     The children learn the following neumatic device to help them remember the steps of the critiquing process.  "Dad accumulates interesting junk".
"D" stands for the word "describe".  In this step the students will observe closely and describe all of the things in the artwork. This step focuses our attention and helps us not to overlook important objects, effects, and other things in the work.
       Step 2 is "A" or analyze.  In this step we analyze how the artist used the various elements of art and principles.  We look at the specific ways each element was handled.  This is a much more in depth observation then step one.
       Step 3 is "I" or interpret.  At the stage we ask the question ""What was the artist trying to say?"  What is the main idea, theme or mood?  How does this make you feel?  What does the artwork tell you about the artist? etc.
       Step 4 is "J" or judge.  In this step we are simply offering our own judgement of how successful we feel the artist was with this piece of artwork.  This is strictly your own opinion.  There are no wrong answers at this point.  However, we still need to bear in mind the observations we made in earlier steps.

       This whole idea of critiquing art is to help students see how much goes into creating a masterwork. It automatically helps us to appreciate all types of art whether they are our "favorite" or not.  It will also make students more aware of the choices they make when creating their own art.  We intend to spend a lot more time this year applying this process to other famous artists as well as our own artwork and the artwork of our peers.