Strange Schedule Week 2

This week, I did not get to see several of my classes in the Art Room. We, of course, had music program practice this week for the 2nd graders (Congrats on a wonderful performance kiddos!!!). We also had testing on Wednesday and an awesome assembly on Tuesday.

Very much like last week, the students that did receive an opportunity to come to Art and work did a wonderful job! Here's what happened this week...

Kindergarten:
Many students have now completed putting the basic components of their backgrounds together...the "sand" and the "water". A couple of classes this week moved on to the next step, adding the top and bottom of the "tank" and adding their plants. I cannot wait until we add our fish next class!

1st:
While most first grade classes just started painting this week, some students in the classes that are a little ahead finished their third project! I am only going to share a few of these with you for now. Check back after Christmas Break for everyone's wonderful paintings :)

2nd:
Because of music program practice, I did not see the 2nd graders this week. Again, CONGRATS! on a wonderful musical! I'm a very proud Art teacher :)

3rd:
Many of the third graders started assembling their artworks this week. Much of class was spent organizing all of the different components, transforming our value scales into buildings and deciding how the value scale buildings needed to be arranged on the background. Many students did not get to glue anything yet. Luckily, I will be able to see most of my third grade classes next week, so check back to see some awesome cityscapes!

4th:
Only one of my fourth grade classes came to Art this week. They continued working on their collages, and participated in a progress critique to talk about how things are going. As promised, I took lots of pictures to share with you this week.

Strange Schedule Week 1

First, sorry for anyone who checked last week for an update and did not find one. I did not arrive home until late last Sunday night from a fun filled Thanksgiving break and was unable to get a post created.

As the title of this post implies, this is the first of some odd scheduling affecting the Art Room. From now until this upcoming Thursday, I will not see the 2nd graders. They will be practicing for their music program. I also missed a third grade class this week (Mrs. H) because of a field trip to see the Nutcracker. Where you might think that there would not be a lot to post this week, I actually have a ton!

This is what we have been up to...

Kindergarten:
Students have just recently started their newest project focusing on shape. This week, students learned about my very favorite artist, Charley Harper!!! Harper uses very geometric designs in the creation of his paintings and prints, typically of animals. Students were able to analyze several of his artworks and identify many of the shapes he used, including circles, triangles, and diamonds.
After looking at Harper's art, students colored different shapes that will become fish for a fish tank collage.

Students also practiced creating plants that would typically be seen under water. When students return to Art this week, they will be working on creating their backgrounds (water, sand, plants, and tank features).

1st:
After learning about the primary colors and of the works of Michelle Forsyth, students have now began creating their artworks! Students began by tracing 3, 4, or 5 circles onto a large piece of paper. After drawing designs inside of the circles, students drew lines to create the background. Students then traced all of their marks with a black crayon (a key step to creating a crayon resist). Some classes have even started the painting process! Using only primary colors, the students are painting the inside of their circles with watercolors.

2nd:
I was lucky enough to see two second grade classes this week. They have continued working on creating their self-portraits. They are really coming along! I am really starting to see the resemblances!!!

3rd:
Third grade students are continuing to do a little prep for their cityscapes. After creating a watercolor wash for their background using two different colors, students practiced drawing their cities. Students considered what buildings to include, sidewalks, roads, signs, and other elements. The word for the day was definitely "variety"!

4th:
I cannot even explain how excited I am about the bird collages! This is why I am surprised that I have no pictures to share with you this week. :( Good news is, collage is a slow process. Students have not created any major changes to their artworks, just minor touches. But, these minor changes have been completing amazing! I am so happy with how these are turning out and promise to have LOTS of pictures next week!!!

2nd Rococo Paintings

The Old and the New

As promised now for the last couple of weeks, this post will be an explanation of the upcoming year.

Starting off with the 1st-6th grades. Students this week have been reviewing the Elements of Art. As most of you know, the Elements of Art are the building blocks of art. In other words, artists use the elements, mixing them together to compose a work of art. Knowing the elements of art helps us to not only compose a great work of art, but it also helps us to describe and analyze the work of others. Students will need to understand this information in order to fully participate in the projects we create this year because we will exploring Art History ABC's!!!

Each grade level will be creating a project, each based on four letters of the alphabet. Each of the four letters will represent a period or style from throughout time, including ancient art, art of the middle ages/renaissance, art of the 1500-1800’s and modern art. During our Art Show (typically held at the beginning of May), all work created by students will be displayed together to create the entire alphabet!

This week the 1st through 6th grades reviewed color, line, shape, and form. Next week, students will be reviewing texture, value, and space. In a couple of weeks, we will beginning our first projects. Each grade will start off by exploring ancient art!

The K4 and K5 will be exploring the Elements of Art all year. For our first project, we are exploring color, in particular primary and secondary colors.

The K4 read the book "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh. After reading the book, we conducted a "color experiment" to see how the primary colors mixed to create the secondary colors. K4 students also practiced sketching mice.

The K5 students also read the book "Mouse Paint". After we read the book, which was a review for many of the students, we sketched ice cream cones. For their first project, students will be drawing and painting scoops of ice cream, using the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) first, then mixing them to create the secondary color scoops (purple, green, and orange). After we paint all 6 scoops, students will stack their ice cream to create a giant ice cream cone. Here are some pictures of their sketches...

Next week marks the beginning of Art Club!!! This year, we will be studying contemporary artists...artist that are all working today. Art Club Littles will be on Thursdays this year and Art Club Bigs will be on Fridays. For our first project, we will be creating a large-scale painting based on the works of Romero Britto! Lots of pictures to come!

A Few Weeks to Go

Summer is a double-edged sword. Summer brings students freedom from school and long days of fun. However, summer also brings about the end of art classes for a couple of months. You can see it in students' faces that they are excited about the upcoming break, but when I mentioned that we only have 1 or 2 more art classes left this year, their expressions automatically changed.

As some of you know, I am currently planning a Summer Art Camp during the break. It is currently planned for June 17-21. I will be sending info home this week with a few more details. I am really excited about it! With this camp, students will not have to wait so long to have art again! 

This week, I have really packed a lot of fun things in for students. I want students to have as much fun and do as much as possible in the art room all the way up until the last week of school.

The K4 students completed their 3rd and final printmaking technique this week. Students created apple prints. Students dipped apple halves into acrylic paint and printed them onto card stock. I allowed students to print their apples how they saw fit. It was really interesting to see how students created their prints and to compare all of the differences in the artworks.

The K5 students finished up their Pattern Dragon artworks. I have a few to share with you today, but I will be posting all of them next week.

The 2nd students have been working with colored pencils during the last couple of weeks. Recently while looking around on Pinterest, I saw this little doodle of big eyed fuzzy creatures. I am not sure who the original source was, but I loved these little critters and thought they would be perfect for the 2nd grade to create, especially since it involves layering colors with colored pencils. Here are some of their artworks.

The 3rd grade also did a short project this week. After talking about portraits, as well as discussing folk art, students created clothes pin dolls. Students created two dolls, a self-portrait and one of a friend or family member. It was amazing to see students create this project. They were so enthusiastic and after they finished them, students were creating games with their doll, or were even acting out the remainder of the school day with friends.

The 4th grade students are creating gel glue batiks. Last week, students created sketches of what we are calling a family flag. Students had to design a symbol that would represent some aspect of their family. This week, students lightly drew their design onto a piece of cloth and carefully outlined their drawing with gel glue. Next week, we will be adding the color.

The 6th grade created gelatin prints this week. To create their print, students began by applying an even layer of tempera paint onto their gelatin plate. Students then used a variety of materials, including bubble wrap, combs, and paintbrushes, to create a texture on their plate. They then carefully laid a piece of card stock onto their plate, rubbed it gently, and lifted it up to reveal the first layer of their print. For the second layer, students again applied an even layer of paint to their plate. Students then placed cut out images onto the plate creating a resist. Students then placed the paper with the first layer on top of their plate, rubbed again gently and lifted it up to reveal their final print.

A few additional students in the Art Club Bigs finished up their 8-bit quilt. Here are their creations.

Lastly, the Art Club Littles students began a fun summery project. To celebrate the end of the school year, they are creating flip flop paintings. This week, students drew and painted their flip flop. Next week we will be adding the details, as well as the background.

Don't forget, if you like the things that you are seeing here, we have calendars for sale in the office of student artworks. The calendar includes an artwork from every student and also includes important dates for next school year!