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!

Printmaking in 1st

In first grade we explored printmaking as an artistic technique. Students used various sized printmakers to create circles with black paint.  We learned about filling space, overlapping and balance. Finally we painted inside, between and around all of our printed circles in our abstract design. The final works turned out wonderfully colorful and unique!

Polser's 2nd Annual Art Show Fundraiser

     Our 2nd annual art show fundraiser was a great success!  We had awesome feedback and our students enjoyed showing off all their hard work.  Every art student from kindergarten through 5th grade had an original artwork framed for viewing.  This fundraiser will allow us to purchase the needed supplies to consistently fuel our artistic expression and creativity.
     Along with our individual art pieces, our collaborative art pieces created quite a stir.  Artists and their families were able to interact with our artwork and take pictures of themselves as a winged figure.  Many "birds" took flight at our show!

Lots and Lots of Dots

Dot week brought about various dot artworks throughout our school.  Third grade created dot fish, using the book, You be You by Linda Krantz, for inspiration.  We demonstrated line, pattern, space, shape and color in our unique fish.  Our Kinder and Firsties explored printmaking by using various sizes of circle stampers (lids, caps, rolls, etc.) and creating wonderful abstract artworks.  4th & 5th grade collaborated by created a 1/4 dot to join into giant dots.  All of our creations were dot-tastic!

A New School Year

It's good to be back in the art room!  It was a busy summer with packing, unpacking, and sending both my boys off on new adventures.  Now I'm ready to start new adventures with my Polser kiddos in the art room.  We are starting off the year with a collaborative art work completed by all the students from Kindergarten through 5th grade.  The students worked hard and even included the PreK kiddos that don't come to art classes but are still part of the Polser family. Props to fellow art teacher Cassie Stephens at cassiestephens.blogspot.com for the wonderful idea.

M"art"ch Madness Champion!

We finally have a M"art"ch Madness Champion!  Some of the races were close and some were pretty one sided.  To be honest, the winners were not the ones I expected the students to choose.  It just shows how much our artistic opinions can vary, which was an awesome twist to this lesson.  Students gave very specific reasons they chose their favorites, from color choice, realism, connection to a personal memory/activity, ways the art made them feel and everything in between.  They reached a lot further than I ever imagined.  I also want to thank all the artists that took their time to respond through Email, Facebook and/or Twitter.  The students connected to their community and even learned where some Texas towns were located that we didn't know.  It's going to be hard to top this years M"art"ch Madness, but we have some great ideas for next year... Stay Tuned!  

If you would like to review the brackets and results please select the link below.
Martch Madness 2016 final

M"art"ch Madness Update!!

We are getting down to the wire on our M"art"ch Madness bracket. We have made it to the final four and the voting is getting tough.  The Championship Finals voting will start Monday! Check out our updated presentation below to see the breakdown of the results.  There aren't any winners or losers because all of the artwork is awesome and we have learned so much about the artists themselves, observing, critiquing, admiring, sorting types/styles, decomposing and composing and many more!  Stay tuned for the results next week!!!
Martch Madness 2016 Final Four

M"art"ch Madness in Full Swing

This is our second year to have our M"art"ch Madness bracket full of artwork.  This year the art for our sweet sixteen were all completed by Texas artists.  For our first round we had some really close contests with one coming down with votes at 50.3% to 49.7%!  We will vote down from our elite eight starting next week. On an even more positive note, if that were even possible, we decided to email all the artists from our brackets to let them know we were learning about them and their art works.  We have already received emails back from 7 of our 16 artists within the first day!!!  As the emails were read to all the classes, the excitement was built even higher.  We looked at a map of Texas to locate all of the towns in which the artists lived as well as looked at some of their other art. It has been a learning experience beyond any we could have imagined. The presentation the students used to vote and learn about the artists is linked below.  Feel free to learn along with our Polser students. Can't wait to see which of the Texas artworks will be the final 2016 M"art"ch Madness winner! Stay tuned.....
M"art"ch Madness Presentation

Japanese Lanterns Light Up Fifth Grade

Fifth graders focused on the artwork of Japanese artist and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).  They learned about...

ü creating a sculpture/form with paper

ü printing blocks and how they are used in layers

ü landscapes of nature

ü blending/shading with colored pencils to create texture

ü writing Japanese symbols that have personal meaning

ü reinforcing our artwork for stability

ü creating a square top/base using precise measurements

ü using tabs, folding and nets to create 3D shape

ü light reflection through paper

ü the artists series, “Thirty Six Views of Mt. Fuji”

Weaving Wonders in Second

      Second grade created some wonderful weavings this month! First we painted two abstract paintings, one in cool colors and the other in warm using watercolors.  Then we learned how to make our own looms by creating the warp with one of our paintings, then making our weft pieces with the other. We then wove them together to create a beautiful tapestry of color. Finally we took our weaving and turned it into a unique design.  We used collage techniques to add interesting details, turning our original artwork into something entirely different.  Our imaginations got quite the work out! 

Kimono Kids in First

We created self portrait Kimonos in first grade using our giant dots we made during dot week earlier in the year.  First graders learned how clothing can be art and designers are artists.  We learned all about the parts of Japanese kimonos: geta (shoes), tabi (split-toed socks), haneri (collar), obi (fabric sash), obijime (belt) and the kimono (main wrap) itself.  The students created a portrait of themselves to put inside their kimono and added several Japanese symbols that had personal meaning.  We finished by adding unique details and accessories.  Don't we look ready for a celebration?!