Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Third landscapes

Now that our landscapes were dry, we could add details. Students painted sheep, flowers, and barns in the foreground. They added trees in the middle ground. It was hard to choose either a sunset or rainbow for the background, so most students painted both. I only gave them 3 primary colors plus black and white. They are really getting the hang of mixing colors!




Second grade Weaves

Today a second grade class looked at real woven baskets, a scarf from Nepal, and totes from Peru.  We reviewed Warp, Weft, and Loom. Then we recited a helpful saying," The secret to weaving is how you start." Alternating whether they began each row over or under the first warp, they quickly wove their baskets. Then they glued down the ends so as not to lose a weft strip later.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Kinder snails movin' on!

Kinders are completing their snail project. I just loved this project when I saw a similar one online. Kinders enjoy posing for photos, and seeing themselves in their artwork. Today's step entailed cutting a spiral on their paper plate shell and gluing everything onto their painted garden. They had to remember to  attach the shell to their backs, so they could be the snails! Very cute little critters, those kinder snails are!






Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Third Grade Landscapes

Third grade learned about tricks artists used to show space, or near and far, in a landscape. They viewed a power point that showed how overlapping, size and placement on the page can show near and far. They learned the parts of a landscape: foreground, middle ground and background.  Next they painted a simple hilly landscape on a paper plate. Next week we will add flowers, sheep, barns, sunsets or rainbows.  We will eventually weave a tree on this plate. Come back and see where we are at on this project each week. Thanks to Cassie Stephens for this inspiration.




Second grade Looms

It is true that one must understand math to be a good artist. Today second graders learned that, first hand, as they used rulers to measure and cut paper looms ( the warp in weaving) and strips, ( the weft in weaving). Next week we will learn the "over and unders" of weaving.

Painting flowers in Fourth Grade

Today a 4th grade class  used acrylic paints again to paint their flowers in their still life artworks.  I encouraged them to double dip paints and see the colors mix right as they painted. This prevented flat, all-one-color flowers. They also learned stippling on their posies. The students felt like advanced artists  while experimenting with color and texture! We were all pleased with the outcomes. Thanks to Patty Palmer for this inspiration.







Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Foruth Grade Still Life Acrylic Paintings

After taking an online e-course from Deep Space Sparkle, I became inspired to try this still life project with my 4th graders. Last week we viewed a power point about Still Life, and Vincent Van Gogh. We drew a vase full of flowers on a table. Today students were introduced to acrylic medium. They enjoyed its buttery texture, and ability to thin with water. They learned to layer highlights and shadows. We only painted the vase, table and wall. Next week we will paint the flowers.





Kinder Clay Mice

We have read a lot of books with mice as characters this year in Kindergarten. Mouse Paint, Mouse Shapes, A Garden for Miss Mouse, to name a few. It seemed perfect to teach Pinch Pot clay construction with the mouse theme in mind. Kinders love to play with playdough during free time. So they understand the 3-D form. But clay is a little stiffer, and it turns our hands gray for a little while!
Still clay is very exciting. Their little pinch pot mice turned out very sweet.  Now I have to live with mice in my classroom!  EEEEEK!

First Grade Bird Masks

We reviewed types of lines today; zigzag, spiral, wavy, castle. Our challenge was to figure out how to cut a paper line that we could attach to our birds' heads as an embellishment. They had to do a lot of problem solving to get the width figured out. The cutting was also a challenge as some students realized they could not cut out  the teeny tiny lines they drew.  It was hard work but the resulting masks are so much fun!  Everyone wanted their picture taken while holding their bird art mask.














Thursday, February 5, 2015

Third Grade African Masks

Today we added more paper cut patterns and used Qtips to paint patterns of dots on our masks.