Athens Elementary School

March 12th- Leila Winter Leila is an incredibly sweet and thoughtful girl who gives earnest attention to both her classmates and her artwork. She is careful and always tries her very best with her artwork. She is a pleasure to work with!

March 13th Arwyn Stewart Arwyn was voted Art Club President this year. She has a work in the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau currently for the Marawood Conference Art Show, depicting a gridded silhouette of herself and a tumultuous ocean scene within it. She is a diligent worker in the art room. Her fun, creative spirit, as well as her willingness to lead make her a great asset in our corner of Athens High School.

Tonight's meeting is streaming live on our YouTube Channel. Meeting starts at 6. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySxG14MiDgv85XYQM3tFPw

Be a part of the decision. The School District of Athens has one referendum question on the April 4 general election ballot. There is an information meeting tonight at Athens Elementary, 6 PM. If you can't make it, there are more meetings scheduled. Please check the website! Also, watch your mailboxes for more information about this critical vote.

March 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th- Madalyn Draper, 6th Wes Ochodnicky, 6th Bryn Erickson, 5th Jacob Cleveland, 5th These four students had works chosen to be displayed the Woodson Art Museum in Wausau. The show was for 5th-8th graders. I had not had 7th and 8th graders yet at the time of selection, but these students stood out to me in their work. Madalyn and Wes were students who were new to me this year, but both showed great amounts of grit and attention to detail in their work. Bryn has always doubted her abilities, but shows here in her landscape that she is so very capable of making fabulous work! Jacob is a creative mind who moves forward quickly and always has lots of details in his work. Great work, fifth and sixth graders! You have shown you are motivated, creative, and capable!

Do you want to learn how writing can be used at home? Well, you're in "luck" in this leprechauns and shamrocks month! Plan to attend the next Bedazzling Blue Jay Family Fun Night on Monday, March 27, 2023. The AES third graders will even be sharing their annual published book. The event begins at 6:00pm in the AES gym and ends at 7:00pm.

March 7th- Savannah Gyrion Savannah comes in my room excited to work every time. Here she makes a giant heart that focuses on a symmetrical design with both line and color. It is well balanced and lovely to look at! She has so many great artworks! I am looking forward to seeing her finished Monet Waterlilies in the near future.

March 6th- Marissa Byrd I have had Marissa since she was in Pre-K, and she has always shown great interest in art. Now a second grader, she has grown so much in just a few years! I love watching them advance over the years! In the Jim Dine Heart, she did a great job separating the positive space from the negative space with color changes instead of outline (much harder to do than one would think) and blending colors within and outside of the heart. Her Theibaud Donuts showed phenomenal value (lights and darks) to create realistic looking donuts. Don't you want to just eat them right off the page? Look up the artists we looked at to make these pieces and see if you can find the similarities!

Registration is now open for the 2023-24 school year. Go to the registration page to begin. https://www.athens1.org/page/online-registration

March 5th-Emily Kingsbury Emily is a member of the art club. This beautiful piece shows attention to detail and color. The warmth of the sunset colors contrasted by the cool blue waves creates quite an inviting artwork. Wonderful job, Emily!

The future of the School District of Athens is in the hands of voters. Casting your informed vote is important! Are you voting absentee? Timing is everything. Visit myvote.wi.gov to register, request a ballot, or find polling places.

March 4th Lila Giese Lila is a 5th grader who just LOVES to create art! She always comes in my room with enthusiasm and joy and focuses so well on her work. Here is featured her Op Art (art created to make an optical illusion) where she made the appearance of a ball pushing through the wall. Students were given many choices for creating Op Art and had to do much of their own problem solving skills to figure out how to make it. They also needed to include value (changes from light to dark) in their work. Lila did an exceptional job while still finishing early enough to make a secondary background. Great job, Lila!

March 3- Angelica Aragon Vargas Angelica has always been ahead of the curve in her art. This fourth grader has such attention to detail and does such fine, careful work. Here, in the ornament done with scratch art paper, she shows such attention to detail, being sure the highlights, midtones, and shadows were carefully rendered using appropriate directional lines to create the form. In her Analogous complementary portrait, she not only understood the analogous colors (close on the color wheel) and complementary colors (across from each other on the color wheel), but the detailed work with varied lines and careful edges made her work really stand out from the crowd! I am excited to see where her art skills and creativity take her!

Glow Day fun!

NHS students, Jennifer Espinoza & Jazelle Hartwig, read books to the fifth grade during Read Across America week!

March is Youth Art Month! I will be featuring an artist a day. There will be Elementary, Middle, and High School art students showcased this month. These students put forth great effort and display grit in their artmaking. They challenge themselves and are better for it. I'm excited to show you some of what they have accomplished!

Youth Art Month March 2- Helen Kingsbury Helen is a senior art student who has become an avid art advocate in the classroom and in 2D Studio, which she is currently enrolled. The work here shows great attention to detail, as well as creativity, taking a route that most other students did not opt to explore- the world being that of fantasy. Beautiful work, Helen!

Why is Your Informed Vote Critically Important? A voter-approved operational referendum seeks to rebuild financial stability for our district. Learn more on the athens1.org website & attend a community information meeting March 8 at the Town of Johnson or March 13 at Maple Grove Charter School. Meetings start at 6 PM.

March 1st: Hunter Hawley Hunter is in 2D Studio and created this inner self-portrait displaying depth of color as well as depth of meaning. Within his silhouette, he created a full body silhouette and a cityscape background, in which the warm colors contrast the deep, cool colors that hold our attention in the foreground. Hunter is also very active in the art club, helping with a mural, jewelry making, and selling concessions whenever he can to help raise money for special trips. Beautiful work, Hunter!

Did you know? The School District of Athens has the lowest school mill rate in Marathon County, fifth lowest in CESA 9, and 20th lowest in the entire state of Wisconsin. On the April 4 general election ballot, the School District of Athens is asking voters to approve a non-recurring operational referendum question to sustain the operation of our School District. Please cast an informed vote. Watch for the community-wide postcard coming to mailboxes soon.