Welcome to the Willow Art Studio!

At Willow School, students in Kindergarten, 1st Grade and 2nd Grade all receive art once a week with Mr. Slivka. Although our time is limited together during each week, the students get a formal introduction to art production, art criticism, art history and the development of art appreciation for a lifetime.

Since one of the current trends in art education is to connect the art curriculum with other disciplines (aka interdisciplinary connections), most of our projects will connect to other subjects the kids learn in school. We read stories to introduce art projects, experiment with art supplies to create something new and utilize techniques that would be used in a math lesson to help develop our art-making skills. Technology is also a growing component in early art education and we use the Smart Board and Elmo document camera to make each art lesson more effective. Students begin with a basic, yet appropriate art curriculum in kindergarten and we build upon those acquired skills and knowledge in first and second grade to become better artists!

A little bit about me...

This is my 16th year of teaching art at Willow!  It has been a dream job for me and I have a blast helping kids start their lifelong artistic journeys.  My wife, Jen and I have two young children at home, Calvin and Nora and I absolutely love being a dad!  In my spare time, I like to make paintings, build things in my garage and do fun things with my family.

Fun Fact about Mr. Slivka: I redesigned the district's logo and the mascots for each school as well!