Kinder Warm/ Cool Cats Completed!

This week a few Kinder classes carefully cut and glued their cats onto their "cool" backgrounds. I am amazed at their progress  in cutting skills! The project is very large for Kinders. We painted on 24" by 18" green construction paper. I am proud that they used their whole arms to cover the papers with fences and stars.

First grade Giant Squids

While our apples are being glazed and loaded into the kiln, first graders are working on their giant squids. They were encouraged to choose their squid  paint color. It is a standard that early grade make choices as their art proceeds.  Now they are cutting lots of tentacles. Real squids have 10 but ours might be surviving on a few less. This project was drawn on 24" by 36" tag board. This was a stretch for these young artists. No matter what size paper the children receive, they usually draw a small object  smack dab in the center. This has been a good lesson in utilizing the entire art material provided. We have explored synonyms for "big" as  we complete this huge, enormous, gigantic, mighty, giant squid

5th grade botanical prints continued

Most 5th graders are busy using tempera paint to make 4 prints of each styrofoam printing plate.  These will be changed for the final project. I am telling them not to stress if parts of prints turn out less than stellar. Stay tuned.....

Glazing first grade clay apple pots

First graders glazed their  bisque apple pinch pots. it is hard for them to believe that these chalky glazes will become shiny after fired again. They were very good about not glazing the bottom so their pots won't stick to the kiln.

Fifth Grade Botanical Prints

Fifth Grade learned about the fine art of Botanical Drawings. They practiced them in their sketchbooks. These were "jazzed" up a bit for the final copies. The final copy was taped to a styrofoam plate, and traced over with pencil to "engrave" the image. Next, using tempera paints, students painted and printed 4 of each image. There are a lot more steps to this amazing project, so check back! See what we do with our prints!

Fourth grade Mexican Foil hangings

First Fourth grade practiced drawing tropical birds and plants for this project. They transferred these to a template. The templates were taped to a copper piece of foil. Laying this on a magazine for padding students drew over their images. This "embossed" the  designs onto the foil. The foil was  decorated with colored sharpies. Finally students punched holes, added wire, beads and feathers to embellish the bright foil hanging.

Third Grade Masks

Third graders viewed slides about masks in history and foreign cultures. They were very respectful as they learned about different cultures and types of masks.They learned that masks are made of all types of materials. They learned that masks are used for ceremonies, festivals, burials, story telling, and protection  in sports. They learned that  mosaic masks are made of tiny tiles. Then they had to choose whether to make a warm colored or cool colored mask.  Choices! We have paper tiles in metallic colors too, to embellish the eyes, mouth and ear pieces. They are off to a great start!