My name is Melanie Stein and I am the art teacher at Cool Spring Elementary School.  I earned my bachelor’s degree from the University of West Florida in Pensacola Florida in Art Education K-12.  I have been teaching art in public schools for seven years, with 3 years of experience in middle school art and 4 years of experience in elementary art.  I love what I do and feel so lucky to get to come to school every day and “play” with paint and clay with students.

Art classes at Cool Spring ES are 50 minutes long and meet once a week.  Paint shirts (large men’s dress shirts) are provided to the students during “messy” lessons, however; accidents do happen so it is a good idea to check with your student’s schedule to see when they have art and try to dress your student appropriately.  Students are also welcome to bring their own paint smock to school on the days they have art.  Your student will not need any supplies for art because everything is provided in the class room.

The art curriculum is based on Loudoun County Public Schools’ Art Standards of Achievement (SOAs) LCPS Visual Arts Program. These standards were created from the Virginia State Standards of Learning (SOLs) in Art  Virginia State Standards of Learning in Art, which are based on the National Standards for Arts education National Standards for Arts Education. The curriculum focuses on art production, art history, art criticism and aesthetics.  Each grade level will learn a variety of art mediums including:  Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpting, Assembling and Imaging.  The curriculum has also been integrated with the grade level SOLs where ever possible in order to do cross curriculum teaching through social studies, math, science and reading.

Students are graded in art in three areas: Skill, Participation and Discipline.  In each of these areas, a student will achieve one of these three grades: O=Outstanding, S=Satisfaction and N=Needs Improvement.  It is my belief that each student will have their strengths and sometimes weaknesses in the different areas of art that we explore.  The program is well rounded so they are exposed to many different styles and types of art.  My main goal is to have each student actively participating in each class, completing the assignment in a timely manner, trying their own personal best and learning to love, understand and communicate through the visual arts.

Christy Miller will be our art itinerate and be at Cool Spring ES on Fridays from 12:20-2:20 to teach one 1^st grade class and one 4^th grade class.  The classes will rotate every nine weeks from being taught by her or being taught by Ms. Stein.