Fremont students top in state on online art museum

Fremont Intermediate School students are churning out the artwork. To date, 13,248 pieces of artwork have been published on artsonia.com, ranking the school first in Illinois and 19th in the nation on the Artsonia website, an online children's art museum.

Schools are ranked on the website based on the total number of art pieces submitted, the number of fans who view the artwork, and statements students make about their artwork. There are 208 schools participating in Illinois and 2,994 schools participating across the United States.

While Mundelein art teacher Dawn Heath is all about following the art state standards for her third- through fifth-grade students, she challenges students further by incorporating math and writing skills into her lessons.

For instance, in creating sunflowers, Ellen Wang, 9, explained her use of colors. "I used brown, yellow, green, and blue colors in my art. I selected these colors because I thought they would look cool together."

Camryn Litka, 10, said, "I used coral, scarlet, and navy colors in my art. I selected these colors because they are stunning."

Incorporating math into art lessons is another way for students to see first hand the connections between the two subjects.

Students recently created paper tessellations and then turned them into clay tessellations. A tessellation is a method of breaking down polygons, like taking a square and creating a triangle out of it. Students also develop optical art with spheres floating in space and three-dimensional objects.

"Students love seeing their artwork online. They get really excited about art when they know they are ranked number one on Artsonia," Heath said.