Second Grade Coil Sea Animals

First the students drew an animal of their choosing. One long coil was used for the outline or perimeter.  Then the inside was filled with smaller coils. This was smoothed, then flipped over to add details. The coils show on the top. I think they are adorable.

Third grade Clay knee masks painted

The objective here was to create a mask  showing expression. These are great!

Kinder "Glamsters" with Collaged Glamorous Hats

                                            Kinders drew buttons, feathers, bows, pencils
                                                     to make their Hamsters glamorous!

                                                     

Kinder Clay Animals Painted

Most of the  kinder clay animals are packed away awaiting a future display art our Spring Art Show.
Here are a few that were made late and were painted today. I gave them bright tempera puck paints. The  students loved the colors and wanted to use all of them.

Check out this polka dot bunny tail!

                                                                And polka dot legs!

                                                                          Big paws!

                                                                      Sweet face!

First Grade Animal Crackers Complete!

Today my little first graders glued their animal cracker drawings to their painted backgrounds. In my art room we use these great  lids called tappy lids. I tell the children that they have a "magic button".  When turned over and pressed onto the paper, they make a discreet glue dot.

No spills, puddles, and ruined artwork. The children know to wipe off the buttons with a wet paper towel when finished. No clogged lids!

Tehy are so cute!

This boy wanted and ocean back ground for his Fish Cracker!

Surprise!

Of course we had to have a snack of actual Animal Crackers!

Yummy!

Fourth grade Clay Pueblo Storytellers

After showing my fourth graders a power point on the  Pueblo Native Americans, we look at their fabulous clay storytellers. These began with potter Helen Cordero. She fashioned little figures after memories of her grandfather telling stories to the children in her family. For this assignment,the Storyteller must be a seated figure, human or animal. It must have an open mouth, and have at least 2 children attached.
First the students draw idea,s and  then I show the process. We then use the next  45 minute class to create! The clay figure must be hollow. The score and slip process must be used to attach pieces and babies. Texture and designs may be added right into the soft clay. It will be a few weeks before these are dry and fired. Come back for a look at finished Storytellers.

Third grade Falling Back Self Portraits

I always do some kind of self portrait each year with third grade. I saw this idea on Pinterest. It is a great way to talk about perspective, and how objects are drawn smaller  to show distance. We traced our hands and shoes.Our shoes were larger than we thought so we had to make some smaller to fit the picture. They had to study the patterns on the bottoms of their shoes too. Details!!

Another fun part is deciding where we are falling into..

The African  jungle?

Paris?

Sheep Dogs, Grade 2

My husband and I traveled to Meeker, Colorado again last September to watch the Sheep Dog Trials. Like in the movie "Babe" a handler uses a border collie to herd and maneuver sheep for a competition. I love to watch these dogs work. It is a fun event with booths and food venders. At one vender I found this neat book about Floss the dog who learns to work on a ranch.

I also found a hand painted greeting card by Emma Horne featuring 2 sheep dogs in a mountain setting.

Here is a first try at a guided drawing by one of the second graders.

A second graders paints with watercolors.

Stay tuned for the final copy. 

Continuing First Grade Animal Crackers

First grade began drawing and painting the backgrounds where their animal crackers are running.

Don't you love the color mixing starting here?

Finished First Grade MInions

Can you guess their careers by the tiny objects in their hands and pockets?

Kinder Glamsters continue

Here is the darling book I am using with Kinders about just being "you."  It is our spring board for Neutral Colors.

Here is the poster I made many years ago to use with the Neutral Color song, that I wrote out on a previous post.

I have these great magazine posters for when we sing,"Gray for an elephant, Brown for a Bear".