Birds of a Feather in 3rd grade

3rd graders explored a new medium, claycrete, for their 3-dimensional birds & eggs.  Claycrete is an instant paper mache product that uses shredded paper and water that dries hard and light weight. We began with creating an armature using recycled newspaper and tape to form our bird shapes.  Our next class period found us adding the clay create to our armatures and letting them dry for several days.  Lastly we looked at various styles to paint our bird such as folk art, abstract, minimal realistic and realistic.  Students choice their own unique style, painted their bird and eggs if made.  Our birds were then placed in the woven nests that we can completed prior to this project.

Cool/Warm Weaving in 1st

1st graders practiced their knowledge of warm and cool color families to create 2 abstract paintings. We then reviewed our weaving vocabulary and procedures, then created the warp structure using one of our paintings.  The remaining painting became the weft pieces and we began weaving.  Over under, over under, over under, became the mantra of the day.  The final weavings were very colorful and unique to every artist.

Monsters & Mosaics in Kindergarten

Kindergarten students are always so excited to create art and it definitely shows in their work! After learning about the different styles/types of lines and using those lines to create implied texure, our monsters were created with those various types of lines and textures using oil pastels.  Finally we used paint as a resist to the oil pastels to fill our monsters, background & foreground with color. Aren't they just the cutest little monsters?

Our next project was self portraits.  Students used multicultural paper to find their unique skin color and head shape.  After learning the proportions of the face and practicing our self portraits on sketch paper, we added our own unique features to our heads, yarn for hair and colored in any accents.  To frame our wonderful faces we learned about mosaics and symmetry.  To finish out the project, students cut shapes out of their papers of choice and created a mosaic design on their frame.

Conversation Hearts in 4th

4th grade students explored a new medium, plaster casting or rigid wrap.  Much like the material that is used for making casts for broken bones, it hardens around any form (appendage) you create.  We created a heart form using posterboard and tape in one session and wrapped in plaster casting next.  Our final session was to choose a heart color and saying to make a unique form that looked good enough to eat. Special thanks to Cassie Stephens for the lesson idea. The final artworks looked great and the kids were very proud of their work!

Point of View in 4th & 5th

4th and 5th grade students worked on demonstrating point of view by selecting a subject and portraying that subject from 3 distinct points of view.  We had quite a few "snowpeople', but some of us ventured out with unique subjects.

Kinder Color Wheels

We get to mix our own paint???  Every kindergartener could not wait to get their brushes moving on this project.  First we talked about symmetry and how to make a heart with our paper folded.  Next we used a ruler to create six sections on our heart.  We learned about primary and secondary colors and painted each section a color from the color wheel.  When our paint was dry, we took our new beautiful color wheels and turned them into an animal of our choice.  So many creative ideas; fish, groundhogs, dogs, cats, raccoons, elephants, snails & tigers just to name a few.

Pop Art in Second

2nd grade began their study of Pop Art with the Brazilian-born artist, Romero Britto. We all practiced with hearts as our focal point, then branched off with our own unique designs.  We drew our subject, separated the background into sections and filled the sections with interesting patterns.  Finally, the bright colors were added using tempera cakes.  The students did such a great job! The finished paintings make you happy just looking at them.

Positive Negative Zentangles in 4th & 5th

After reviewing positive and negative space, students chose their own subject matter and created a basic sketch on white paper.  The sketch was then cut out and reflected to the opposite side of the black paper.  The artists used inspiration zentangles and created original designs to fill the positive spaces, leaving the negative space to outline and accentuate their designs.  Every design was unique and meaningful to the artist, which made them even more wonderful!

Ben Day Dots in 4th & 5th

4th and 5th graders learned about Ben-Day dots as a printing process.  The process was named after the printer and illustrator Benjamin Henry Day, Jr.  The technique used dots of color and varied spacing to create effects like we can see now in some comic strips. We learned about Roy Lichtenstein, a pop artist, that was well know for using Ben-Day dots in some of his artworks. For our try at using Ben-Day dots, the students started with an original design and used the dots to create the varied color necessary for their chosen effect.  They were dot-a-rific! 

Ornaments for Days.......

Clay is one of those mediums that almost all students can't wait to try.  We decided on a quick, school wide, clay project to review procedures and practice some of our previously learned skills.
Students in all grades created several unique ornaments with clay, then after firing painted them in many interesting color combinations. They were all proud of their work and some even had time to create a few more for gifts.  The kiln was going crazy for a week, but the results were awesome!