What are you doing?

I asked that very question to one of my first grade students this week as he worked on sketching his animal for our first project. After asking him what he was doing, I expected an answer like, you know, "drawing" or "making a horse". Nope...he replied "Disco" and began to dance right there in his seat. So random...made me smile.

For most classes this week, they were introduced to their first projects. I typically introduce projects by showing a PowerPoint of at least 10-15 images. I like bringing in a wide variety of things to show them, especially since we are studying art history this year. I want students to get a wide perspective on the topics we are studying. It is not uncommon for me to also show students videos or to bring in objects to pass around to examine individually. All classes, 1st-6th, are starting projects that focus on art styles/periods during or before the Middle Ages.

WARNING: This post will be long and full of information and pictures. :)

The 1st grade is starting off with a project about cave painting. I introduced students to a variety of cave paintings located throughout the world. I mainly shared images with them this week, however next week, I will be reading several short picture books to them as a reminder of what we talked about this week. After the introduction, students created sketches of the animals they will be drawing on their cave painting artwork.

The 2nd grade started stained glass windows. We focused mainly on the windows of the Middle Ages, but I could not resist showing them how stained glass windows have evolved from being seen solely on churches throughout the world, to being in households and businesses today. They thought the modern examples were great, especially those that show characters from cartoons. Sadly, they were unable to start working on the sketches this week, although I did hear them discussing some really awesome possibilities!

The 3rd grade started Romanesque jewelry. I don't think jewelry is covered enough in elementary art classes. The entire time I was in school, I don't remember doing a jewelry project. It was something you didn't do because the "boys might not like it". I'll admit, when I said we were doing jewelry for our first project all of the boys let out this sigh. There face said, "Really Mrs. Chance?" However, I was extremely happy to see that by the end of my presentation, the boys were totally into it. They loved the examples I showed them, especially the portraits. I asked students to try to sketch 5 designs for the medallion we will be creating and they had no problem doing that. In fact, most of the boys exceeded my suggestion.

The 4th grade started Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is funny how things work out. Little did I know, the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade went on a field trip the day after I introduced hieroglyphics to the 4th grade. They went and saw the King Tut exhibit at the State Museum. This week, students practiced writing their name using the hieroglyph handout I gave them. We will be creating these hieroglyphs next week in a cartouche that will be surrounded by ancient Egyptian symbols.

The 5th grade started Sumi-e landscapes. Sumi-e artworks are ink wash based paintings from Japan. I briefly introduced this type of artwork with students, however, for our first day we mainly focused on defining and identifying landscapes, as well as discussing composition.

The 6th grade started Greek Vases, in particular black-figure pottery. I am hoping that I will be able to take students to our local art museum to see a few of their Greek vases. It is one thing to see these objects on a screen and another to see them in real life. I explained to students that these vases primarily depicted images of Greek mythology and daily Greek life. For our projects, I assigned students to create a vase that depicts something that is personally important to them.

 Sadly, I did not get any pictures of the K4 this week. We created paintings that show the results of mixing the primary colors together. We will be finishing this project on Wednesday, so I will try to post pictures then.

The K5 students also worked with primary colors this week. Using red, blue, and yellow watercolor paints, students painted three of their ice cream scoops.

Last but not least, Art Club continued to work on their Romero Britto inspired artworks. This week, they finished laying down the tape that will create their thick black lines, and drew one pattern into the different sections that were created by placing the tape on the canvas.

Wow! We did a ton this week! I'll have even more to share with you next week, including the first finished project of the year!!!! Hooray!

Finished Landscapes

5th grade students finished their watercolor landscapes of the 5 different regions of South Carolina this week. Sadly, due to it being the last day of art for this school year, some students did not get to complete all three of their mini landscapes. However, every student did create at least two. For it being their first time using watercolors, I think they have done a fabulous job! Congrats 5th!!!

Do you have a cold?

Yes...

I have been asked that question a lot this week. It started Thursday morning and got progressively worse. Yesterday, I woke up with a 100 degree fever and was so sore. Not fun. I couldn't even bring myself to post this week's update. Thankfully, I am feeling a lot better today :)

Despite my cold, I still had a great time in the Art room this week. Students are so disappointed in the fact that we only have three more weeks of art this school year. Because time is running out, they are working hard to finish their projects and even harder to have fun creating their works before summer arrives.

The K5 started the day on Thursday working on their Pattern Dragons. This week they began adding color using markers.

I love how these are turning out so far! Students are having a lot of fun imagining how their dragon will look. They have really been creative!

The 1st graders this week are continuing to work on their face jug artworks. This week, we added a very thin layer of tempera paint to our drawings to give it a dusty clay look.

On a side note, the 3rd grade finished their puppets this week (check out their creations in the post below). Since they have not had a free draw opportunity in a while, I decided to see what they could come up with. One student created the drawing below. I loved how much character this little guy had. He called him "Drew" because he "drew him on his paper".

The 5th grade is continuing to work hard on their watercolor landscapes. A lot of students were surprised to see how different watercolors are than the typical tempera or acrylic paints that they use commonly. Many students had to do a little bit of practicing before they created their final artworks, but I think for their first time using watercolor, they are doing a fantastic job!

The K4, Friday afternoon, continued working on printmaking processes. This week, we created monoprints. A thin layer of black tempera paint was spread onto a piece of aluminum foil. Students drew their design in the tempera using a cotton swab. After students completed their design, we laid a piece of paper on the aluminum foil, the student rubbed the paper thoroughly and then gently pulled the paper up revealing their print.

Lastly, the Art Club Big students are finishing up their 8-bit quilts. They look amazing!!! Here is a sneak peek at how they are looking...

I will be posting pics of those finished quilts next week!

Now that I have been thinking about it while writing this post, it is hard for me to believe that we only have 3 weeks left! There is still so much that I wish that I could teach and sooo many projects I wish that my kiddos could work on! August will come back around before I know it though. In a few weeks, I will reveal the theme for the next school year. I can't wait to start!

Art Show and Updates!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the 2nd annual Art Night! It was incredibly successful! The artwork looked great on display and I was so happy to see students so excited about their art. I even had one student run up to me and say, "Mrs. Chance! I am a real artist!" :) I am so proud of all the work students accomplished this year. Congrats students!!!!

Even though the art show has come and gone, we will still be working hard until the end of the year. Many students will be starting new projects in the coming weeks (look for pics of their finished projects next week!) The K5 students just started a new project. We read the book Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin. I am in love with this book...very clever and funny and the illustrations by Daniel Salmieri are fantastic! After reading the book, students drew their own long dragons. We will be filling the dragons bodies with pattern, a Principle of Design. Along with their dragon, students drew a food that their dragon loves. My example loved cheeseburgers :)

The 5th grade students are working on their South Carolina landscapes. Students practiced using watercolor paints last week and applied their practice to one of their final artworks this week. Students will make three landscapes total. Here are some of the examples from Friday.

The K4 students are beginning a printmaking unit. They will be creating three different prints using three different techniques. This week we created prints with bubble wrap. Students painted the bubble wrap bubble side up using tempera paint. I helped the students hold the bubble wrap as they painted and I also helped them flip it onto the paper. The students pressed the bubble wrap onto the paper and gently lifted it up revealing their print. They were so excited! It was almost like magic to them :) Not to mention, the prints turned out really well! I will have pics of them next week.

As I said, make sure to check back next week. I am going to be posting a lot of finished projects and progress pics!

 

Singin' in the Art Room

We have had a great week in the art room, so great in fact that in almost every class someone erupted into song. I enjoyed a concert filled with everything from the Dora the Explorer theme song, to original compositions. One original song this week, in particular, brought a smile to my face...

If you mess up

that's okay!

Get your eraser 

hey, hey, hey!

With all the singing and good spirits, a lot of work was accomplished this week. Several grades, including the K4/K5, 1st, and 5th, finished their Art and Science related projects. I will be going to the art room this Tuesday to prepare for the upcoming Art Night (May 2!!!!), so I will be taking a lot of pictures of these artworks to share with you.

The K5 this week was treated with a surprise. After going to several pizza places around town, I was generously given enough pizza boxes for students to have one for their Texture Pizzas. Students were so excited! Their pizza was now "real". They were so proud that their hard work was going to be displayed this way. Not to mention, they look so awesome displayed in an actual box!

Before I include any more pictures in this post, I think that it is important to explain the meh quality of the pics. Last Friday, my camera decided that it would be fun to try free falling. Well, needless to say, my screen busted. Although my husband was able to fix it, I totally forgot to put my memory card back into my camera. So, these pictures are brought to you by my tablet, which I am still not use to taking pictures with.

Anyway, the 2nd grade is continuing to work on their poem illustrations. I really like how these are going so far.

The 5th grade just started a new project on landscapes. In the coming weeks, students are going to be creating three small watercolor landscapes about the different geographical regions of South Carolina. This week, they chose their regions and made some sketches.

The 6th grade project is going well, too. This week, students began the final version of their bone drawings. A lot of students came up with very interesting ideas, and many wanted to include flowers/plants like those they saw in O'Keeffe's paintings. The pictures below are from the artwork of one student, a before and after.

Most of the Art Club Bigs students are finally done creating all of their felt squares for their 8-bit quilts. Many of the students started working on assembling their quilts this week.

The Art Club Littles students are nearing completion on their mola artworks. I love all the colors and patterns they are using.

Again, I apologize for the meh quality pictures. I am able to report that my memory card is back in my camera and ready to go :)