Oak Knoll’s art
program was designed to be developmentally appropriate for students in first
through fifth grade. Our overarching goal is to create a program, which
encompassed the California Content Standards for the Visual Arts, while
providing opportunities for all students to develop their personal artistic
skills with emphasis on the creative process as well as the product.
Students explore the four components of Visual Arts Education:
Artistic Perception, Creative Expression, Historical and Cultural
Context and Aesthetics. Students
learn to incorporate into their artwork such elements of art as line, form,
value, texture, space and color, and explore the principles of design:
repetition, emphasis, balance, contrast and harmony.
Each year students are given assignments that build on and expand prior knowledge and expertise. In
first and second grades, emphasis is given to projects that will enhance small
motor development and encourage perception. Process is regarded to be as
important as the finished artwork. Students also begin to develop skills with
new tools and materials and are encouraged to develop their own personal style.
In the upper grades, students are introduced to more complex mediums and techniques. They are
encouraged to find their own solutions to artistic challenges by expanding
their knowledge of color theory and composition and by implementing the rules
of linear and aerial perspective when required. Students in all grades create
artwork in two and three dimensions, experiment with different printmaking
processes, and work in watercolor, chalk and oil pastel, inks and charcoal. Whenever possible, projects created in
the art room are linked to areas of study in the core curriculum, including
social studies, math, science and literature. For the past several years the
music and art department have collaborated on theater productions at various
grade levels.
Students receive art instruction once a week for either 30 or 40 minutes depending on grade level.
