Kinder Shape Birds

Kinders glued on their painted and cut out shape birds today. I absolutely love them. Thank you to Deep Space Sparkle for this fabulous lesson. It was a great way to learn about birds, and shapes, as well as drawing and painting skills.

First Grade Box Monsters

My first batch of tissue box monsters were completed today. I saw this idea on Pinterest. and loved the fun.  Teachers at school have been sending me their empty tissue boxes for months.The students had so much fun. I stressed that we were making silly monsters. No blood and gore! I would be way too scared!!  I demonstrated how to create 3-D parts for our monsters. By adding a little tab to the cut out  features, they could be glued on and folded to stand out.  I was amazed at their ingenuity. Then I encouraged the young artists to add their own spark by creating a "fun" feature. That produced a plethora of wings, horns, antennae, tails and sticky-out tongues! The final step was to find a partner who also finished, and tell each other  a story about their silly monster. The chatter was tremendous! They were so proud to  finally carry them back to class.

Second Graders Ink Cherry Blossom Branches

Second graders loved dropping India Ink onto their scrolls and using cut  straws to blow it into branches. I learned after several classes to limit how much they can drop on. Some enjoyed the "process" a little bit too much and created puddles of ink that had to be carried to the drying rack very carefully. Then they no longer looked like branches, but more like splayed out blobs. That is the beauty of my job. As I teach the same lesson to a grade all week, especially if it is a new lesson, I can tweak it and revise it to meet the needs of the children....

Sometimes throwing out artwork and starting over so I can teach it better. I believe all children can create lovely art. If not, my teaching is at fault!

The next week we used brand new pencil erasers to print dots of Cherry Blossoms. We learned about Tints. A color plus white equals a tint. One more week to finish up.

Second Grade Cherry Blossom Scrolls

The second graders entered the Art room this week to the music of Japan, and with a kimono-clad Mrs. Jackson. We read a book about a little boy who moves to Japan, and learns new customs.  We also learned about the Cherry Blossom Festival that is celebrated in Japan in April. Then to our tables to practice cherry blossom branches. We will make scrolls next week.

First Grade Box Monsters

First graders are listening to me read  aloud lots of  silly Monster books in Art. They will learn about
 3-D art as they create monsters out of tissue boxers. The tissue opening will be the mouth! Classrooms have been sending me their empty boxes all year. I may have enough.

                           First, though we spent a couple of weeks getting all 6 sides painted!

More Third Grade Clay Knee Masks

I can't resist adding a few more clay masks from third grade. The expressions on these little guys are wonderful!

Fourth Grade Foil

Fourth Graders are learning about continuous line, and pattern. They have had to make personal choices about their art as well.  The embossing of the foil produces actual texture. So 3 Art Elements are being used in this project. The variety of materials is exciting too; copper foil, metallic crayons...
The finished creations are great examples of learning in Art!

Fifth Grade linoleum printmaking

Fifth graders have drawn owls in trees. The next step has been to redraw the picture onto a piece of linoleum. Now this linoleum is way different than what I learned on in highschool. It is soft, flexible, and not backed with anything. First I had to introduce carving and printing with a powerpoint presentation. The kids need a visual so they know the goals and procedures. Then we read through the Safety Pledge. The carving tools are sharp, and need to be handled safely. Students each then signed and dated their Safety Pledge, which they have saved and reviewed at every class. I, of course, hover and nag, and roam the room, making sure all are cutting properly.  The carving process is going smoothly and accident free! I love this lesson because it teaches the students to apply positive and negative space in a real way. They must remove the negative space in order to make a printing block that will produce a picture.