Ocean Mural Finished!

Finally, after 2+ hours of installation, the ocean mural is complete :)  The students are in awe as they walk through the front foyer of the school.  They all point out, "That's my shark, turtle, fish, etc." I first hung up the large 2-D paintings and then attached animal cut-outs with foam core dividers so some of the animals pop-out.  Next, I hung the jellyfish and soda bottle fish from the ceiling.  The last thing I plan on doing is putting up samples of student 'academic' work above the mural, because my theme was "Come SEA what we've been learning".

Chalk & Oil Pastel Still-Life

Students in 4th Grade worked on still-life drawings for the Fine Arts Fair coming up in May.  These drawings are a big hit with parents and faculty because they are so vibrant.  It is a really simple project!  First, we look at and discuss still-life paintings, draw a simple vase and table, and add at least 4 simple flowers in the vase.  Some students got really creative with their vases and flowers!  We used an oil pastel to draw with and filled in the spaces with chalk because the chalk wipes right off of the oil, leaving a nice black line outlining the shapes.

Tinted Flower Paintings

This is a great lesson on color mixing, as well as teaching about tints, shades, hues, and even free-form shapes.  I make it super easy for the 3rd and 4th graders by walking them through painting free-form shapes to create a flower by placing one shape in the middle, and painting flower petals around the shape.  Next, I give each student one brush for their color, one for the white, and one mixing brush.  I had them paint the end of the petal white, the bottom of the petal with the color, and then in the middle, they put one dab of color and one dab of white and mixed it together with the mixing brush.  Breaking down the project like this, makes it simple enough for the younger kids to learn how to blend colors together.

4th Grade examples:

 

3rd Grade examples:

Recycled Magazine Flowers

I can use magazines in every season and for every occasion.  For this assignment, I had the students cut out colorful squares from magazine pages, fold them three times to get a small triangle, and cut a petal shape out of the top of the triangle.  We tried to find magazine pages that were contrasting in color, to make the layers really "pop".  Next, we rolled a whole page (preferably a green page) and glued it closed for the stem.  I had some jars that someone donated years ago that I thought would be the perfect place to showcase our boquets:

Deep Blue Sea Mural - Day 3

The glue dried on our jellyfish and we were ready to add the tentacles with tissue paper and ribbon.  The 6th graders did a great job with their creations!  I like the color variety in the jellyfish.

The 4th graders used construction paper to create some aquatic plants to glue down on our mural.  Here are some students working hard:

Mondrian Day

I decided my students needed to see and experience a simple art form, in the style of Piet Mondrian.  I put together a Powerpoint presentation showcasing some of his most famous compositions.  I started the day with the 6th graders, where we used rulers, broad tip permanent markers, and tempera paint:

Next, I had the 4th graders use pre-cut construction paper and strips of black paper to make theirs. I emphasized that their shapes need to be parallel to the sides of their paper, ensuring that the shapes are positioned correctly.  I also encouraged the students to outline each shape with strips of black paper to create the grid:

And lastly, for the 1st graders, I had them create a grid with the black paper strips and use primary colored crayons to color in the selected shapes.  We discussed Primary Colors and geometric shapes:

Rotational Symmetry

I am pulling out an old lesson post here because it was just so successful last year!

Students in grades 4-6 have been working on Rotational Symmetry drawings for the past three class periods.  This is one of the many math concepts that directly connects to the visual arts.  I love teaching this lesson because the results are stunning, the kids feel confident about their work, and they want to work hard for the final product (which is sometimes a challenge for the 6th graders).  I have the students create a simple drawing on 1/8 of their circle, then teach them how to "transfer" their drawing into all 8 parts of their circle by putting pencil led on the back of the piece of paper and tracing over the original drawing 8 times.  We also discuss some techniques of using colored pencils, like graduated coloring, shading, and blending colors together.

 

Step 1: Divide circle, Draw design onto separate 1/8th

  Step 2: Fill backside of design piece with pencil lead

Step 3: Trace over design into each piece on the circle, 

pressing hard to transfer the lead from the back onto the paper.

Bubble Painting

4th grade Art Club is so much fun.  The students are excited - yet controlled, talented, creative, responsible, and the list goes on.  This may be because there are only 10-12 of them, and any grade level where there is only 1/2 a class would be just the same...but I'm not questioning anything at this point.

We did bubble painting last night (for my very first time, might I add) and I think the results turned out really well:

Paper Mache Bowls

Well, the bowls turned out surprisingly well.  Too bad I have to take half of the credit for them.  Let's just say that if I had a 2 hour class, the students would have done 100% of the work.  But, don't you find that sometimes it's just better to help them reach the final product than have a load of unfinished projects?  Maybe if I would have saved this project for 6th graders, instead of 4th graders, I wouldn't have had to help them finish.  The 4th graders spent a good 10 minutes getting over the oooey-gooey Art Paste instead of getting right to work. 

I think that these bowls can be the foundation to add more cool and interesting things, like magazine paper, paint, Mod Podge, and the list goes on!  I am thinking about spray painting mine silver :)

What was I thinking?

Sometimes I have these crazy ideas to utilize materials in new and different ways.  For one, I have a collection of this Art Paste in the Art Room that has been here for the last decade, and since I'm one for using what I have rather than buying new...I introduce you to our latest Art Club endeavour.

It all started with a box of Art Paste:

 

...and some shredded paper...

...and some balloons...

And the result?  A very messy Art Room, some soggy/half-covered balloons, and LOADS of fun...

I will add that I am spending my planning/lunch time today finishing up the balloons.  Our 45 minute Art Club was not nearly enough time to cover the whole balloons with 2-3 layers of paper.  I am actually only covering half of their balloons so that when they dry, they will be paper bowls.  Look for more photos to come :)