Georgetown Elementary School

Don’t forget our Art Fair is Tuesday, December 1st from 4-7 PM in the Gym!

It’s not too late to send in your RSVP to the Art Fair, so please let us know if you plan on coming!

This week your children will be bringing home an Art Fair flier that contains a DOOR PRIZE TICKET – save this and bring it along when you come on December 1st!  We’ll have drawings for art supplies and sketchbooks during the Art Fair.

MORE VOLUNTEERS TO HELP DURING THE EVENT WOULD BE APPRECIATED AND WELCOME!

The following shifts and jobs are available – please email or call Mrs. Brouwer!  (jbrouwer@hpseagles.net or 797-9797, ext 22412)

Tuesday, December 1st Art Fair volunteer shifts:
1:30 – 4:00 – put artwork in frames and set up for event
3:30 – 6:00 – cashiers, framing station, greeter
5:30 – 8:00 – cashiers, framing station, take unsold frames out and clean up

You have another opportunity to RSVP for our upcoming December 1st Kids Art Fair! An RSVP form and Art Fair information will be sent home with students this week.

Please note that returning your RSVP to Mrs. Brouwer does NOT mean that you must purchase your child’s framed artwork.  The RSVP just lets the Kids Art Fair people know how many frames to ship to Georgetown for the event.  So please RSVP if you plan to attend and celebrate your child’s creativity, enjoy a fun make-n-take art project, and register for some cool door prizes to be given away during the evening.

Also – Georgetown’s December Kids Art Fair does not take the place of the annual district-wide Student Art Show, which will be held as usual in April 2010.

We hope to see you at Georgetown’s Art Fair on December 1st between 4-7 PM!  Volunteers are still needed to help out – please contact Mrs. Brouwer!

Email:  jbrouwer@hpseagles.net

Phone: 616.797.9797 ext. 22412
Art Blog http://josettebrouwer.edublogs.org

Our art students have been working hard to create spectacular artwork for this fun event.  Your child’s artwork will be displayed in a beautiful mat and frame which can be purchased in the frame during the art fair.

There will be a make-n-take craft table with holiday cards and door prizes too!

Your child will be bringing home an Art Fair invitation soon – please return the RSVP card to school, since this will indicate the number of frames and supplies we need to order for the event.

For the past three years, Mrs. Brouwer has selected art pieces to be housed in our permanent collection.  One art piece is selected for each grade—and these artists do not have a piece in the district art show.  In addition, Mrs. Brouwer selects pieces to honor particular artists each year.

During the 2006 year, eight art framed works were hung on our walls.   We honored Grace Thatcher–our heroic and artist third grades student in this collection.   Our second year (2007), we grew our permanent collection by nine pieces.  This past week, we were thrilled to hang a piece for each grade plus honorary pieces for our two “international artists” and a celebratory collage honoring our 2008 fifth grade students.

It is important to note that Mrs. Brouwer makes a professional color copy of each art piece and creates a name plate complete with artist name, grade and photo.  Our PTC funds the matting and framing work — an investment that makes this collection possible.  Kandu Industries framed this year’s work and we are thrilled with the results.

I would like to encourage you to tour our building and browse our permanent collection.  We look forward to growing this for many years to come.

In April of 2009, Mrs. DeWeerd invited our school to enter an international art exhibition in China.   Our  sister school  Raey Guang is in Pingtung, Taiwan, and  she felt this would be a natural connection for our students.

Mrs. Brouwer, our art teacher, selected five works of student art and submitted them to the 40th Annual World School Children’s Art Exhibition. This exhibition is held each August at the National Taiwan Arts Education Center in Taipei, Republic of China, and features children’s artwork from all over the world.

TWO of our student pieces were selected for display in the exhibition – Aubrey’s “Happy Robot” and Shari’s “Winter Pine”.

Selection for the Taiwan exhibition is a great honor and our Georgetown artists deserve congratulations for their hard work!  Their pieces were selected from over 30,000 submissions (yes, thirty thousand!) from 53 countries. Aubrey and Shari will be given a “Certificate of Merit” sent to me from the Republic of China for their participation in the Exhibition. Congratulations, Georgetown Artists!

We received a beautiful catalog that contains color images of the World School pieces that were awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals in the competition. It will be on display in the art room….stop in for a look at the award winning artwork created by children living in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Bolivia, Brunei….and 47 other countries!

Both pieces of art will now be added to our permanent collection so that they can be appreciated and honored for years to come.

Many thanks to Mrs. DeWeerd for encouraging us to submit work, to Mrs. Brouwer for taking the time to safety pack and ship this work to China, and to our artists (Shari & Aubrey) for creating the work that showcased our wonderful school and country!

Fourth grade artists guitartists rocked out at the talent show with their rockin’ awesome art teacher, Mrs. Brouwer!

Mark your calendars for our Ninth Annual Elementary Student Art Show!  This will be held in the  Park Elementary Community Room  Monday, April 27 through Thursday, April 30th.  The show is open daily from 9 AM – 3 PM.

Mrs. Brouwer, our incredible and wonderful art teacher, will host a special reception for our Georgetown Elementary artists on WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM.

It is once again time to spotlight a Georgetown Blog, also known as an opportunity for me to brag about Georgetown’s to notch teaching staff. In early January, I highlight the specialist teacher blogs (art, music and PE). With the district wide Art Show approaching, would like to re-highlight Mrs. Brouwer’s incredible art blog.

Mrs. Brouwer is perhaps one of the most talented art teachers I have ever worked with. As a teacher, she is passionate about art, but equally passionate about doing whatever it takes to reach all learners!

Mrs. Brouwer follows an instructional format that opens with community building (2-3 minutes to learn about student’s day/interests), model teaching lesson (incorporating the objective for learning and connecting the learning to prior day’s learning), guided practice (let me show you how this can be done w/ student assistance) and release – the students artists now practice what they learned. The same instructional practice we ask of our general ed teachers is replicated in art class with Mrs. Brouwer! It should not come as a surprise to you that she is a National Board Certified Teacher. We are very proud to have her Georgetown!

Our sister school, Raey Guang Elementary, has a very important piece of student art work on display in their school. Mrs. Chung Wen Yu, the principal, came to Georgetown on October 22, 2008. Mrs. Yu was presented with the art work as a gift.  Upon her return, she presented this to the students and staff and has it on display at the school.  This special gift that was created by our students with Mrs. Brouwer’s assistance.  As we work to establish communication between the schools, I will update parents via the blog.

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