May
may 17-21
We also made a tin can big wind chime! it’s still needs to be assembled.
may 3-14
April 12-16!
we are having a busy month of art! More final projects to come.
Earth day is this Thursday the 22nd so I had my husband cut this wood for my k-2nd graders. We will be making Nature Wands!
My student said this and her belief in me was so sweet I had to share. best students ever! See the video below :
Happy birthday!
3-5th graders in art class made a mixed media portrait of their home teacher. Love love love!!
March - April
All about COLOR
It has been a while since I've updated this blog and we have done even more art. We've had Saint Patrick's Day, Dr. Seuss Day, start of Spring, and have been playing with color A LOT.
3-5th graders have been learning about Native American history, so in art I have been incorporating this curriculum. We have done teepees, portraits, and now we have done totem poles (PNW).
Paper Mache Updates!
Feb 22: Students are working this week on painting their paper mache projects. Here are some updates of what they've been doing each week:
Week 1:
Students designed their characters. Gave them names and wrote details about them x2.
Week 2:
Students built their box structures. Some made out of wood sticks while others made from hard cardstock paper and cardboard for anything that stuck out of the boxes, like ears or tails. All structures were wrapped in tin foil.
*K-2nd made donuts! *3-5th grade was given choice
Week 3:
Students made paper mache paste. IF you do this at home make sure to add a TON of SALT! Otherwise they'll mold, and nobody likes a moldy sculpture.
Week 4:
This week! Students will paint their characters following their designs they did in the first week. (They will make the Mine Craft ones look pixelated.)
Valentine's Day Card Making !
I just love this holiday (mostly for arts and craft purposes)! We had a FABULOUS week of making custom Valentine's Day cards.
Bouquet Cards: I wanted students to create paper for their cards that was interesting, so we whipped out the shaving cream and food dye and had a ball! I had all students wear gloves and we had stations. One station students would dip their paper into the shaving cream and food dye mixture, scrap it off the paper and have these beautiful red/pink marbled papers for their cards. The second station students made the flowers by crumpling coffee filters up and painting them with watercolors. We then glued them into a "bouquet wrap" and hot glued them to the marbled paper card. For a finishing touch we added glue and gold glitter to the flowers for a nice POP!
Geometric Heart Cards: LOVED this one! We traced out a heart first, then we created points all around the heart's border. Then using a straight edge we connected the dots to make geometric shapes. After that students traced their pencil lines with ink and used gouache to paint inside the shapes. The stamps were a fun way to play with text. Will do this again one day!
Mine Craft Paper Mache Sculptures
This winter we have been working on creating sculptures from paper mache. It's been a great process where students are taking there time to plan out their custom mine craft creatures. From sketching their design, building the structure and eventually doing the paper mache process, it has been a true learning experience of how artists work with intentionality. We will be doing paper mache the week of February 15th and I cannot wait! It will be a messy week for sure, but for sure one of fun! For students who may not enjoy the texture for sensory purposes I will be providing gloves or they may do Modge Podge collage work over the top instead.
In addition: Some students do not play Mine craft or are not allowed to, so I gave them an option to create animals/food. :)
Photos coming soon!!
Space: Creating Illusion of 3D Mug - paper
Who else loves a cup of hot cocoa during winter? I know I do! While we learn about space and how to use space, in terms of art, I saw this project online and thought "that is perfect!" It still ties into our artist Rene Magritte and how he made art with ordinary objects in unordinary settings.
Space: 1 Point Perspective- Using Space
Artist: Rene Magritte
Inspired by artwork: The Listening Room, 1952
Rene Magritte is famous for making art of normal everyday objects in strange settings. The Listening Room is one of the most well known art pieces of his. It is a painting of an apple, a HUGE apple I should say, set inside a small room. His artwork is surreal and makes people stop and wonder what could be hiding behind the oversize apple. He loved the idea of surprise in artwork and making people question what is real.
The way he plays with space in his work has inspired this week's art lesson. Since we are learning about perspective, why not create oversized everyday objects in our own rooms. As we have learned, space can feel tight and squished, open and wide, small or big, far or close, etc.
Students were asked to take a normal object and place it in a room. Drawing big is our goal!
Title: The Drawing Room, 2021
Artist: Ms.Lacey (example)
"R" is for Robot Puppet
K-2nd grade is learning about the letter R this week, so we made Robot Puppets! Using a template, crayons, scissors, glue and a paper lunch bag, we had a great time creating our robots.
Photos to come!
SPACE: 1 Point Perspective Landscapes
We talked about space, looked at lots of artist examples and did a directed drawing on how to make 1 point perspective land and city scapes.
Teacher examples above
Our lesson (shown above)
"Q" is for Quail Quilt!
We created a class paper quilt and learned how to draw a quail that we colored.
Christmas Crafts
Snow Globe Ornaments
Ugly Christmas Sweaters
Bottle of Winter with a tiny letter in the back
Japanese Koi Fish Ornaments
Around the World: Worry Dolls from Mexico (Jr High & 4-6th)
We learned about Worry Dolls and how these "magical" yarn dolls can take your worries away. Children would put them under their pillows after whispering their worries to the dolls. As they slept the dolls would take their worries away.
If you ever need a relaxing and easy project to do, this is THAT project. Students worked eagerly on these and worked past class time excited to finish their dolls. Some kept them in their pockets at school the rest of the week saying it helped with their fears.
Around the World: God's Eyes, from Mexico (Jr High)
Around the World: Japan (3-5th)
Students learned about
Japan in their home class. In art, I brought in beautiful, authentic porcelain Japanese dolls to show the children the intricate
kimonos. We looked at art I purchased in Tokyo and talked about the different parts of a kimono.
For our project, stu
dents did self portrait collages of themselves in Japanese kimonos. By far, one of my favorite projects this year!
Around the World: Poland (k-2nd) Polish Nesting Dolls
Value Pastel Chalk Art
We are learning a little about Value in the Elementary and Junior High grades. We created a value scale chalk art of fall trees. Some students chose to create a cityscape or outer space.
Thanksgiving Arts:
Thankful drawings, turkey bowls and Turkey Crowns (for the littles)
Yayoi Kusama, Her Famous Polka Dot Pumpkins
What better way to celebrate Halloween and make pumpkin art than with Kusama's famous polka dot pumpkins. Known for her LARGE pumpkins decorated in intricate dots, this project was different. We learned to draw pumpkins like her and design them using dots. Students found her wacky style and unique lifestyle interesting. Students experimented with splatter techniques using dot markers on their own which made really cool marks!
Silhouettes- Negative and Positive Space/shapes
Students learned about negative and positive space. We mixed this with our Halloween theme of the month and they made some really great art pieces that demonstrate their understanding of positive and negative space/shapes.
Sugar Skulls- Day of the Dead
Learning about Dia De Los Muertos was very enlightening for the students. We learned about the history of this Mexican Holiday, how it differs from Halloween, about the cartoonist Posada who influenced the skeleton artwork in the holiday, and how to create our own art made sugar skulls.
Silhouettes- Negative and Positive Space/shapes
Students learned about negative and positive space. We mixed this with our Halloween theme of the month and they made some really great art pieces that demonstrate their understanding of positive and negative space/shapes.
Wacky Hair Day!
We had a blast during Spirit Week!
Still life painting inspired by Paul Cézanne
We learned about the famous artist, Paul Cézanne, who created hundreds of still life paintings in his lifetime. Using an actual still life set up of a bowl of apples and a watermelon, we drew these using observational skills and some directed drawing for some of our youngsters. I just love all the colors, details and variety that the students used to make their still life watercolor paintings.
Concentric Circles Inspired By Kandinsky
In celebration of International DOT DAY, a holiday us art teacher's love, we created concentric circles just like the master artist, Wassily Kandinsky. We touched on the topic of primary and complimentary colors as we dived into the box of oil pastels.
Concentric Circles, 1913, Wassily Kandinsky
Cityscapes, inspired by Paul Klee
Students created their own cityscapes with the use markers on book paper, glued to construction paper. They learned all about Paul Klee, an Expressionist artist, who used shapes and colors to create these lovely surreal cityscapes.
Paul Klee
Tin Foil - Musical Art- Inspired by Kandinsky
Inspired by Wassily Kandinsky, known as the Father of Abstract Art. Kandinsky had synesthesia which allowed him to hear a sound and see a color immediately. Students listened to classical music creating lines and designs to the rhythm of the music. We called it dancing with our pen!
Students enjoyed this process. They were soothed by the music to near silence as they thoughtfully created their art works. During presentation time, a few students stood up and said "I made this from the love in my heart. The music made me feel so good inside."
Composition X, 1939 , Wassily Kandinsky
Exquisite Corpse- Surrealism Activity
Students learned about Salvador Dali, a Surrealist artist. We played a Surrealist game called Exquisite Corpse (funny name) but it is the Mad Libs of Drawing.
Each student would create a different part of the body of their creature (head, torso, legs). They hide each section they work on so nobody sees what the other has drawn. When finished, we revealed their creatures. Collaboration at it's finest!
Behind My Mask Selfie
Credit to Cassie Stephens
I just loved this project! We did this for our very first art ice breaker. It was a directed drawing which means students followed along step by step as I taught them how to draw a cartoon like portrait of themselves. Watch the video I made to see the demo!
Name Symmetry Creatures
Students wrote their names along the vertical crease. They traced it to the opposite side so it was a reflection/symmetrical. Then they turned them into creatures with eyes and weirdly shaped bodies. This was one of our ice breaker art activities.