Welcome to the ICMS Art Classroom!

Welcome to the Irvington Community Middle School Art blog! This blog began in 2010 when ICMS began it's first year separate from the elementary school. I wanted to begin this year with a 'virtual tour blog' of  classroom to introduce the 'what's' and 'why's' of the ICMS art room.

One of the first things we did in art class last year was to come up with a list, in each class, of "Why Art Matters!". I combined all the lists from every class as well as used some information from educational research studies to come up with a core list of sixteen reasons for "Why Art Matters!" as you will see below.

1. It's FUN!

2. You can express yourself

3. Art makes life entertaining

4. It's a DE-stressor

5. Art designs and defines our world

6. It can help us remember the past

7. Art promotes kinesthetic learning

8. Art helps us create and construct from our imagination

9. Art aids in discovery and research

10. Schools with art programs do better on standardized tests

11. Art gives us skills like self-criticism and self-correction that readies us for the workforce

12. Art is emotionally satisfying

13. Art can help you have an open mind so that you can see things differently

14. It's humanizing in a technological society

15. Art helps us with our spatial perception

16. It uses higher level thinking skills that can help us in other subjects

One thing we like to do at ICMS is recycle. Recycled materials, such as newspapers, magazines, old books, paper towel rolls and even laundry detergent caps can be used for creating works of art!

If a student gets finished with a project earlier than the rest of the class, they have the option of coloring an Art History coloring sheet of their favorite paintings through time.

Every month, we learn about a different art style or 'ism'. September's art style was 'Art Nouveau'. We look at the images of the art on the overhead, reflecting, analyzing and critically thinking about their meanings. These images also stay up on our 'Ism Board' for the entire month.

 

Students have the opportunity to win a prize from the prize box if they can tell me the name of the Artist of the Month at the end of each month. September's Artist of the Month was Katsushika Hokusai.