October, 2011 - Teacher Resources - Tucson Unified School District

“Notan Design” by Brenda Sanchez
FINE ARTS
It has been a busy and exciting start to the 2011-2012 Fine Arts
school year.
New Performing Arts classes are available to students this year.
These include Guitar with Ms. Stewart, Vocal Music with Ms. Dluehosh
and more Drama classes with Mr. Fout. The completion of the Auditorium
and Little Theater remodeling will allow all Performing Arts
students wonderful new venues to display their talents.
In Mr. Faroulo’s Beginning Art classes, students began the year
with the goal of learning how to sketch observed objects. They did this
by first breaking down the subject into geometric shapes while keeping
in mind the ratio of those shapes. Along with this skill, students
learned to make block letters, cartoon characters, Trojan posters and
Frankenstein portraits. They did non-fiction reading about Catalina’s history and read biographies about Walt
Disney and Mary Shelly.
Ms. Bastin’s Clay and Ceramics classes have been concentrating on hand-built clay masks and hand sculptures.
Paper mache masks currently are the focus for her Beginning Art students.
Digital Photography/Printmaking classes with Mrs. Ketchum are currently working on a reduction process
linoleum block print utilizing four colors. Planning is important because the block is reduced for each color
printed resulting in an edition multi-color prints. In Crafts classes, students are working with the Elements of Art
in variety of multicultural folk art and craft applications. They are working with negative, positive space by designing
and making a Notan design. Notan is based in Japanese culture and focuses on balancing light and dark.
Value and shading have been worked with in Advanced Art classes resulting in lovely Celtic Monogram designs.
The Catalina High School Foundation has asked that all interested students design a logo for their organization.
During their October 12 th meeting a design will be selected. The winning entrant will be awarded $50.00
by the Foundation.
- Mary-Claire Ketchum, Fine Arts Dept. Chair
Mom, Can I Have It Please??!
Is this a common question when you take the kids to the grocery store with you?
I know it is for me. I have been talking to your students about the importance of
healthy eating, and encouraging them to try new things when possible. I’ve encouraged
the students to ask you for fresh fruit and vegetables and more healthy
options for snacks when you shop. With the understanding that they are a bit
more expensive, I’ve told them to choose wisely. We know that it is important to
have a varied diet that has many fruits and vegetables included and it is vital to
the growth and development of happy, healthy kids. I know that your student has
probably asked you a million times for those special yogurts or applesauce, that
they swore to you they would eat and you ended up throwing it away in a week’s
Erica Addison,
Health Educator
time because they “forgot” how much they wanted it. My hope is that you’ll recognize the maturity that your
student is showing by asking for the “good stuff” and that you will give them the chance to follow through with
the choice to try to eat right. It sure beats them driving you crazy for chips, cookies and candy.
TROJAN UPDATE October, 2011 Page 6