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CCS students use recycled materials to create art

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Cora Stephan, 5, a kindergartner at Community Christian School, looks over the spare parts robots that were on display during the second annual CCS art show Thursday afternoon.

Recycling has been a theme at Community Christian School all year.

That theme continued during the school’s second annual art show Thursday afternoon as multiple projects were made using recycled items, such as plastic bottles.

Emily Chichester, 11; Alexa McHone, 11; both fifth-graders, and Kenneth Grey, 12, a sixth-grader, were busy looking at a Dale Chihuly-inspired chandelier completed by first-graders.

“I like how they used a lot of bottles,” Grey said.

“They recycled,” McHone said excitedly.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Aliyah Carlson, 11, a first-grader at Community Christian School, looks over the seventh-and-eighth grade paper mache animals during the second annual CCS art show Thursday afternoon.

“The colors are beautiful,” Chichester added. “I’m really confused how they stuck together.”

McHone had an idea for the piece.

“If you put a lightbulb in there, it would be so cool,” she said.

Aliyah Carlson, 11, a fifth-grader, said she enjoys seeing others create art.

“How different students create different art,” she said.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Lindsey Stephan, Community Christian School art teacher, at left, visits with Kristi Shields, of Fort Dodge, at right, about her son Josh Shield’s art project, Thursday afternoon during the second annual CCS art show. Shields, 10, is a fourth-grader at the school.

Her favorite project was the bee prints.

“It looks very different from all the others and realistic,” Carlson said.

Josh Shields, 10, a fourth-grader, created one of the many Picasso faces displayed.

“We got a slab of clay and used two rulers and a rolling pin,” Shields said. “Then we used more clay to make the features.”

Shields tried to attach ears to the face, but that didn’t go quite as planned.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson A Picasso face created by Josh Shields, 10, a fourth-grader is displayed here.

“I was one of the only ones to try to put on ears, but they were too fragile to stay on,” he said. “One fell off and I broke the other one off.”

He enjoyed the project, though.

“It was really fun,” he said. “Picasso is one of my favorite artists.”

He added, “I really like to do art because I’m really good at it.”

Dolidh Moffitt, 8, a second-grader, was looking at spare parts robots.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Seventh-and-eighth grade students recreated Monet’s water lillies using recycled bottle caps.

“I thought this one looked like a Barbie doll,” she said. “An old fashioned one.”

Another eye-catching project was a recreation of Claude Monet’s Water Lillies, using recycled bottle caps.

“It helps if you stand back a ways, and squint,” Lindsey Stephan, CCS art teacher, said.

Stephan said the materials used this year differed from last year.

“This year it seemed like we used more recycled materials and found objects,” she said.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Community Christian School students check out the Dale Chihuly inspired chandelier during the CCS art show Thursday afternoon. Pictured from front to back: Emily Chichester, 11, a fifth-grader, Kenneth Grey, 12, a sixth-grader, and Alexa McHone, 11, a fifth-grader.

Students were able to choose which masterpiece they would recreate.

“We chose something that would be recognizable,” she said. “We studied a lot of different artists.”

She added, “I base a lot of my projects on art history. We learned about more contemporary artists this year.”

Seeing students progress has been a plus.

“Being in year two it’s been fun to see them build on skills from last year, remembering some techniques with clay from last year,” she said. “To see that progress or recognize artists from last year.”

The bottle caps will be memorable, she said.

“It was fun to watch them create the piece,” she said. “They’d rip some off and put them back on. I don’t know what we’ll do next year.”

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Dolidh Moffitt, 8, a second-grader at Community Christian School, looks over a spare parts robot during the second annual CCS art show.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson A Dale Chihuly inspired chandelier is on display during the CCS art show Thursday afternoon.

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