Art

Teacher: Lucy Ames
lucyames@berkeley.net

The Emerson PTA supports weekly art classes, taught by our accredited art teacher Lucy Ames. The art program offers students time to learn, time to express themselves creatively, and the opportunity to enjoy colors, shapes, and a wide range of media. Each year, the kids build on what they’ve learned the year before. Standards-based instruction includes learning about a wide range of media, styles, and subject matters.

• Kindergarteners learn more about line and shape families.
• First graders learn how to mix colors, and second graders learn to use warm and cool colors to create mood in a work of art.
• Third graders mix white and black with colors to create different values.
• Fourth and fifth graders review the elements of art and create artworks with contrast or harmony.

And that’s just the beginning! Art projects often support the core curriculum being studied in the classrooms. For example, second graders create mosiac masks while studying the Aztecs. Fourth and fifth graders create pictographs while learning about Native Californians. First graders observe and replicate animal patterns while studying the animal kingdom. Kindergarteners make “pattern necklaces” to support their study of mathematical patterns.