Kinder Sleeping Quilts

This project has been lots of fun and lots of stages. We have read a lot of quilt stories, and gained
" I Love to Read" minutes. I have shown one of my own baby's quilts.  Finally we have assembled the sleeping self portrait quilt picture.

Second Grade Woven Animal Heads

These are just the cutest kids, and cutest projects. No more needs to be said.

Third grade paints barns

Third grade viewed a slide show about the history of Barns in rural America. They can even tell you why barns are painted red, and what was originally used to paint them.  They learned about several types of architechural roofs on barns. They were sad to realize how barns are disappearing as land gets developed. So we drew our own barns and are in the process of painting them. keep checking back to see the finished results.

5th grade Van Gogh Irises

5th Grade viewed a brief award-animated movie about the artful, but tragic life of Vincent Van Gogh. We studied his Irises painting and drew the flowers and leaves. Today I showed them the tempera painting  technique of double dipping. The brush goes into 2 colors. Then the colors are painted right onto the paper. This gave the look of Van Gogh's thick brush strokes and color mixing. So far we have started flowers and a few leaves. The children's paintings are  just stunning. It was a rather quiet and hushed classroom as students focused on this beautiful method of painting.Thank you Deep Space Sparkle for the idea!

Kinders Quilt Portraits

Finders are learning about Quilts, and the artist Gustave Klimt. I am a fabric artist, so quilts are dear to my heart. I showed them one quilt that I made for one of my sons when he was born.  We talked about all of the tiny pieces of fabric, and many stitches.We have Read several story books about quilts. (I Love to Read Month!) We drew a bundled quilt and crayoned patterns on it. Next we are watercoloring over the patterns to create a crayon resist. It seems like magic to see the crayon color glow through the paint! Come back for more!

K

Second Grade Paper Weaving

Second Grade has learned about the art of weaving in cultures throughout the world. They have seen pictures of types of looms, I have shown them actual woven items. They are reading through the book "Abuela's Weave" each week as they come into art.( I Love to Read minutes!) Week one we measured with rulers and cut the paper looms of "warp" strings, and paper strips of "weft"  strings.  Week two I taught them how to weave. I have a little saying to help them,"the secret to weaving is how you start". Each strip switches starting on top of or under the first warp loom strip. This back-and-forth gives the weaving its checkerboard look. This can be a difficult cognitive skill for some. Many finishers helped others who were struggling. It was nice to see their Compassion, which is our Crew Habit this month!
They will have more to do with this weaving, so check back!

Fifth Grade Paper Castles

As Fifth graders are finishing their chalk Family pictures, they are moving on to Castles. The are first drawing castles in their sketch books, from pictures I printed out, to learn what architecture defines a castle. Then they get paper, glue and scissors. Without any instruction, they are problem solving to create a 3-D castle, and keep it standing. Some students are working in pairs. There is much collaboration and learning from each other! These students will progress to clay castles in a week or two.