6th Grade Plates

Better late than never. Look what 6th grade made! This was the 6th grades favorite project of the year. Mine too 🙂

Farm Animals

Look what Kindergarten and 1st grade made. Kindergarten focused on texture and space, while creating these fluffy chicks. We talked about how to use a paintbrush to create texture, as well as space and how tall the chick should be compared to actual flowers.

1st grade created the beautiful cows. We discussed space and point of view. These cows were definitely in our personal space 🙂

3-D Flowers!

Look what the 2nd grade made for Mother’s Day! They worked very hard to create these beautiful 3-dimensional flowers. They definitely brighten up the halls. Special thanks to one of my 2nd grade student who brought in all of the peanut butter jars used for vases.

Window Flower Boxes

1st grade made these awesome window boxes. We talked about the element of art: Space, and what that means within a composition. Then we discussed different types of flowers and how we could layer them to make our artwork look like it has dept. As always they did great. I hope their mothers love them!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the 1st grade students wrote a nice note to their mothers on the back. It was pretty special getting to read the beautiful things they have to say about their moms.

6th Grade Dragon Eyes

6th grade students just finished up a lesson focusing on their ability to demonstrate value (which is one of the Elements of Art). We started by talking about scales, and looking at a few different images of creatures that have scales. Then they jumped right into the ideation process. They came up with a sketch, and use that sketch as a guide through every step of this lesson. One of the main objectives with this lesson was that the student could demonstrate value within their work (going from light to dark). We also focused on space, which is another element of art. The students had to decide how to crop their eye to show enough scales for the viewer to understand the subject, but also provide emphasis in the desired area of their artwork. As always, I was impressed with the dedication and perseverance these students demonstrated throughout the completion of this project! You rock 6th grade!

 

 

 

2nd Grade Dancing Giraffes!

One of my favorite children’s books is Giraffes Can’t Dance, by Giles Andreae. We read the story together, and then watched this awesome video:

First 2nd grade started by creating their night scene. They painted white for the moon, and then added a little bit of blue, and used that color to paint a ring around their moon. Then they added a little more blue, and painted another ring, and kept going until the sky was full. They also added red and magenta into their night sky to create different values. next they mixed yellow and blue (primary colors) to create their green grass (secondary color). After they learned a little about giraffes and then they created their own version with colored pencils.

The best part of this project was how the students immediately picked up on the moral of the story.

2nd Grade Peacocks

2nd grade just finished up working on these beauties. They demonstrated their abilities to do so much during this project. The first thing they did was use tape to create a frame. We talked about the element of art: Space, and how they could arrange their peacock within the frame to make it look like the frame is in front of the bird. Then they used watercolor to paint the background a value of green (value is another element of art). Next they used different blues and purples to create the bird’s body, as well as greens to create the “eye” feathers. After they used different cool colors (green, blue, purple) to create the abstract lines that represent feathers within the background. As always, I was super impressed with the outcome of this project. My 2nd graders rock!

We watched this video a few times within the completion of this project. It was definitely a crowd pleaser!

 

Words and Words

Well word walls are inportant for many reasons, and according to readingrockets.org here are 3.

• They provide a permanent model for high frequency words
• They help students see patterns and relationship in words, thus building phonics and spelling skills
• They provide reference support for children during reading and writing activities.

This is what the Word Wall looks like in the Art room!

Kindergarten’s Brown Bears

As part of reading week, Kindergarten kids read the book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” By Eric Carle. After, they used their knowledge of color mixing to create different shades of brown to create their bears (which is what Eric Carle does in his Illustrations). After their bear was cut out and assembled, they practiced their best handwriting to write the title of the book on their artwork.

James and the Giant Peach

Besides teaching K-6 Art, I also teach 3rd and 4th grade reading interventions. My 4th grade group read James and the Giant Peach, so we figured we might as well make some art to go with it. Each student did a character study on one of the insects/characters from the story, and then came up with an idea on how to make a 3-dimensional figure. To make the giant peach, we used a yoga ball and paper mache… Yes, it was a mess. I needed to share this since my 4th grade group worked so hard on this installation. It will definitely stay up the rest of the school year.