Hello lovely parents!

 

My name is Mrs. Trout and I am the Middle School Art Teacher here at American Academy! I am incredibly excited to be teaching these students about the elements and principles of art and to watch their passion and skill grow throughout each trimester. 

 

Here is a quick run-down of what each grade level will be learning this year (23-24) according to the Core Knowledge Curriculum and CO state standards. 

 

6th Grade-

Middle school can be a hard time, when students are trying to find their place in the world and who they want to be. To make my students transition a little easier, we will be talking about Identity and who they are. To dive deeper into this idea, the students start by creating their own sketchbooks using Japanese book binding. The cover will include one quote that they believe represents them, and on the back cover they will be drawing self-portraits, learning how to create accurate proportions and realistic shading. We go over how to make it unique like you, learning how to draw different facial features and hair types. On the inside of the sketchbooks they will fill each page with a response (written or drawn) to a prompt. These prompts all revolve around helping them figure out who they are (ex. "Draw yourself as the main character in your favorite movie or show", and "Draw or write about your families religion/culture").

 

 

7th Grade-

We will be diving deep into 3D art. First, we will create a cake slice using paper mache and paint. These are super fun because the students get to be messy and make their cake slice as unique as they are. While creating these we go over the work of Wayne Thiebaud and his cake slice paintings. For their next project we will be going over Chinese dragon puppets by creating a version that includes the students Chinese zodiac sign based on their birth year. These get extremely detailed and the end product is amazing. For this project we use colored pencil, construction paper, and cardboard. The elements we go over include texture, form, value, and balance.

 

   

 

8th Grade-

In this unit we will go over the Pop Art era as well as pointillism. Some projects to look forward to are Pop art Candy posters using Andy Warhol as reference, and a pointillism piece of a fruit still life based on George Seurat's work. The pointillism also helps students learn more about Art Therapy and how they can use art-making to calm down (middle school can be stressful!). For the big final project, students get to create their own projects using a subject they choose. They always have tons of fun with this freedom, making some amazing artworks. Whether they use materials here at school like paint, or materials they bring from home like embroidery, they must demonstrate mastery of five elements of art. They choose whichever five they want, and they will defend their demonstration of them during our final 1-1 meetings where I grade their projects together with them.  

 

   

 

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to a lovely year ahead! 

 

-Mrs. Trout