Kinders box self portraits

Kinders have read several books featuring  youngsters, their uniqueness, and the variety of shades of brown that we all are.  We drew our self portraits. I have a beginning of the year portrait example, that was drawn without any instructions too. It is fun to look at these and see their growth and self awareness. The boxes  then were painted inside and out, last week. I also photographed kiddos so we can later add their heads. Today we used colored paper to create clothes, arms, legs, hands shoes. They learned to fold a little tab to attach the arms and legs. Come back next week to see the finished 3-D Box Self Portraits.

First Graders paint unique fish

Our First Graders have read the sweet book called, "Only One You" by Linda Kranz. They learned that they are unique, have their own interests and way of doing things.  They drew a fancy fish with crayons on cardboard. Today I gave them 4 colors of liquid tempera and let them paint their unique fish. Here are a few examples.

3rd Grade Dragonflies

I put together a slide show about Dragonflies. Did you know that a Dragonfly can fly up to 30 miles and hour? They eat hundreds of mosquitos a day? Can you tell the difference between a Dragonfly and a Damselfly? Our 3rd graders can!  After learning about these super cool insects, we drew them on black paper. I challenged them to draw a close up of a dragonfly, with parts going off of the paper, and diagonal.
These were redrawn with glue. After a week of drying,they were ready to be colored and blended with chalk pastels. This is a messy but beautiful process. Using either warm or cool colors, students began coloring their insects trying to glen a darker color around the edge of each shape. Fingers, and even faces got a little messy as we blended the chalks.  We were very careful to shake off dust into the trash can.

 Using the opposite color scheme, they colored and blended their backgrounds. The glue preserves a black line similar to a stained glass window. They are  very stunning! We had a little art show on my white board to admire all the finished art so far.

5th Grade Color Wheels

I  have one last art-experience with my 5th graders in these last few weeks before they head out to Summer and Middle School. So we are reviewing the color relationships in a color wheel.I gave them red,blue, and yellow tempera paints to mix to get all 12 colors. ( 3 primaries,3 secondaries, and 6 tertiaries)They are having fun and really using their "artists' eyes" to mix the colors correctly. The background will be filled in with Zentangles.  Check back to see more.

Kids enjoyed the art show

During the week of the art show, I captured people enjoying the art in the hallways. I took each class into the halls with clipboards and pencils. The little ones had an Art Show Scavenger Hunt. They had to find and draw items in the show. The older ones were assigned a grade to look at art and write a compliment to the artist. The only requirement was that the writer/viewer had to use  art vocabulary and be specific.

It is a fun week at Sopris Elementary. It truly feels like and art festival!

First Grade made some huge Asmat Shields showing the art of Papua New Guinea.

These decorated doors are to the Book Fair. A 5th grader dutifully checks kids coming and going.

One  student writing and extra compliment, called,"Fill my Bucket" slips.

A 3rd grader excited to see her huge mosaic mask hanging up.