1 Fish 2 Fish

Words cannot express my love for Dr. Seuss and his imaginative books and illustrations! In the art room, using his books is the perfect way to connect art and literature! I did this project with my Kindergarteners last week in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. We read the book 1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish together and came up with all kinds of rhyming words of our very own!

To begin the art project, students were given a white 12x18" paper and painted their stripes across from the left to the right. While that was drying, we drew our fish on each color of 6x9" paper and cut them out. Lastly, we glued the fish on the striped paper and displayed them next to our library! 

Mittens!

This is a great art project to go along with the Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We read the story together and discussed why the story is considered a folktale and what happened in the story that is unrealistic.  Students were give blue paper and white colored pencils to fill their paper with snowflakes of different sizes and varieties.  Next, students traced their hands in the shape of a mitten and added lines, shapes, and colors.  Lastly, for some fun detail we added a yarn string and a giant die-cut snowflake and some glitter!

Picture The Music

On to my annual winter project -  compliments of the St. Louis Symphony...Picture The Music!!!! I get excited every year to collaborate on this unique opportunity with a great organization. This year, our song selection is Beethoven's 6th Symphony 4th Movement (I think...). Anyway, we listen to the piece of music, discuss how art and music can elicit emotions and feelings. We do a lesson on comparing and contrasting between paintings that elicit certain 'moods' so kids can see a connection between line and color and feelings. This project had a LOT going on! We cut shapes from sheet music, used rulers to draw straight lines (like in Kandinsky's paintings), used watercolor crayons to add color, and stamped circles on the finished piece.  It took the entire class period but the kids were really intrigued and did a great job on their artwork! Now to select the finalists to send to the Symphony...hmmm. 

Kindergarten Christmas Trees!

We did sorting, comparing, patterns, and measuring today in art class!  Whew! These kindergartners did a fabulous job creating  these stacked Christmas Trees! I had pre-cut strips of paper on their tables so they could select, compare, and measure which strips come next in the pattern. We glued stars at the top and hole-punched dots for ornaments.

 

You could either do the project along with them and show them each strip to glue down, or you can do what I did and show the process first and then then see who can do it. This time of year, I start to let go of some of the control to evaluate their skills. Either way you teach it, these will look great in a Christmas display!

 

Bubbling Fish

     How does one begin a multi-step painting project without losing one's mind?  Well, it's all in the Prep.  While some people look at an art teacher's schedule and scoff at the amount of prep time we get, others understand that good preparation is key to a great project.  That was the case with this project.  We had a fish to cut-out, scales to glue down, and bubbles to paint.  I find that if I can get the tables set before the class comes in, they can see how the tables should look before they leave so the next class can do the same thing.  With my schedule, my 2nd graders come first and the Kindergartners come next.  The 2nd graders LOVE to get the class ready for the little ones!  So, here are the tables all set and ready to go!

     Now, we work with the least messy supplies first and the most messy supplies last.  So, we drew the fish, cut it out, and glued the scales down first.  After that, we used the lids to stamp white circles onto the blue paper.

     And here is a finished project (by a Kindergartner, nonetheless):

Fine Arts Fair Prep

I have been neglecting my blog this past month because I am getting ready for our Fine Arts Fair in a couple of weeks, as I am sure you are too!  Although, I hope you are less stressed about it than I am.  For some reason, I have this innate desire to out-do myself every year.  So, this year, I am having my students display one 2-D and one 3-D piece of art for the event.  I also planned each and every class to have a separate 2-D and 3-D work of art so there are no classes with the same project.  That's a grand total of 36 different lessons and 600 pieces of artwork that needs to be finished, presentable, and displayed by May 15th.  Whew!! And of course I have left ALL 300 3-D sculptures for the month of April, that's what I do best...wait until the last minute.  So, here are a sampling of the lessons we have been working on this past month.

4th Grade Origami Flowers

The 4th graders have created glue-line relief flower paintings in the style of Georgia O'Keefe, so I thought some flower sculptures would compliment the paintings nicely.  I walked them through the step-by-step process of folding each flower petal and I hot-glued the petals together when they were complete.  I also added a dowel rod for the stems and a wood block so the flowers could stand tall.  I will also have the students paint the stems & base green and add some leaves next class period.  I used a collection of buttons for the center of the flowers.

2nd Grade Ceramic Cloud Mobiles w/ birds

I want to give credit to the Etsy artist who inspired these cloud mobiles.  You can find her work here: almapottery, http://www.etsy.com/listing/49331222/sale-price-adjusted-rain-cloud.

We started out with a slab of clay and I had my students roll the slab until they had even consistency.  Next, they cut out the cloud shape and saved their scraps of clay to make the birds.  They poked three holes in the bottom of the clay and one at the top for the strings.  The next class period (after the clay has been fired), I helped them hot glue the beads along their strings and they painted the clouds and the birds.  I had to spend a lot of my free-time attaching the birds to the strings and attaching a wire at the top of the clouds so they can hang.  But, I think they turned out pretty well!

3rd Grade Stamped Ceramic Pendent Necklaces

This was a really fun project to do with 3rd graders!  I showed them how to pinch off a small piece of clay, flatten it out into a round disk, and stamp the bottom of their shoe on the clay to get the texture.  This was neat because everyone's shoes had different patterns on the bottom.  Some even had the name brand stamped on like the one above.  After they were fired, I had the students paint them using acrylics and I helped them hot glue the string to the pendent and attach the beads. 

2nd Grade Q-Tip Colorful Dandelions

I was inspired by an Anthropologie photo that I saw on Pinterest using q-tips to make dandelions.  Of course, I couldn't leave the q-tips white!  All you need are enough styrofoam balls for each person and q-tips cut in half.  I thought 1,000 q-tip halves would be enough for one class, but I definitely could have used more!  Again, I used dowel rods and wood blocks.  Maybe we'll make some leaves for these, too?

Starry Starry Night

I decided it was time to break out a lesson on the ever-popular Starry Night for my 2nd graders.  I found this fun video on You Tube that I shared with the class before we began our painting:

I went over Van Gogh's textural use of paint & his depiction of movement and rhythm.  This was a very messy project, so I suggest a tall cup of coffee to any of my adventurous colleagues beginning this lesson.  First, we worked with dark blue paint for the sky.  Next, I had the students dip a fork in white and yellow to mimic the effect of impasto and Van Gogh's brushstrokes.  Then, we added yellow dots to the sky and circled around them with the forks.  The students then worked on the mountains & the ground, first with a solid color and then dipping their fork in contrasting colors to add the impasto effect.  Lastly, we painted the large tree in the foreground with black & used brown on the fork to add texture.

Step 2 was creating the houses for the little village in the second class period.  It was just too much to do this in day 1, so I thought it would be best to wait until the paint has dried.  When I passed out their paintings I asked them to compare and contrast their paintings to Van Gogh's painting and think about what we need to add to make ours more similar to the original Starry Night.  They pointed out things like the moon, the houses, and smaller trees & bushes.  I had the students draw the objects on white paper, color them with colored pencils, and glue them to the background.  Voila!

Sidney's painting

Brian's painting

Alan's painting

Aaliyah B.'s painting

Fancy Peacocks

I have been seeing beautiful peacock artwork on teacher blogs and Pinterest a lot lately, so I hopped on the bandwagon and did a peacock lesson of my own.  This was the first lesson that I tried out my new liquid watercolors and I have to say, I am quite impressed.  We first drew the peacocks with Sharpies and painted the background using the liquid watercolors in cool colors.  Next, I passed out cool colored oil pastels and instructed the students to draw the 'eyes' on the feathers right on top of the watercolor paint.  The oil pastels I use are Portfolio, so if we had drawn the 'eyes' on the feathers before the paint, the oil pastels would have washed away since they are water soluble.  Otherwise, traditional oil pastels would have worked fine before the paint was applied.  Here are some samples of 3rd grade peacocks:

 Tyler's Peacock

 Elise's Peacock

Noah's Peacock

Pattern Zebras

This was a fun lesson that I did with my Kinders yesterday.  First, I pulled-up this short story on You Tube about Zippy the Zebra and symbiotic relationships (yes, of course I planned a science lesson to go along with this...or maybe it was a happy coincidence). 

Then, I had pre-cut large ovals, small ovals, ears, and legs for the bodies.  If the classes were older, I would have them cut their own shapes.  I showed them the order to glue the shapes down & then demonstrated how to create a pattern in the body, legs, & head using markers.  Lastly, we glued yarn on the head, back, & the tail. 

Story Quilts

To celebrate and honor Black History Month, students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade have been working on story quilts inspired by the famous Faith Ringgold!  She is a fabulous artist and author that students can relate to because her art is primarily based on stories she heard as a child.  Also, her images are playful, colorful, and enticing.  First, we read the story Tar Beach together as a class and discussed traditions of African American family life in the early 1940's in New York City.  Students shared ideas about how other things that Cassie Louise Lightfoot could fly over to claim as her own.  We imagined our own city, St. Louis, and shared ideas about what we would fly over to claim as our own, as well.

To begin the project, students were instructed to create a quilt-like frame around the blue construction paper, similar to Ringgold's quilts using scraps of wallpaper samples.  Next, students used sharpie markers and oil pastels to draw and color a city.  For this part of the project, students were encouraged to think about the city they live in or cities have visited and imagine what kinds of shapes, details and colors they would see in a large city.  For the finishing touch, students drew a self-portrait of himself/herself flying over their city.

 by Elise

 by Martha

 by Trayauna

by Noah

Kindergarten Lions

     In keeping with the African American cultural unit, kinders made these adorable lion portraits in Art last week.  Starting off with the lion face, we colored in the features with neutral colored crayons.  Next, I put orange, yellow, & brown paint on their tables and showed them how to paint straight lines radiating from the lion's face to represent the mane.  Lastly, I put pieces of neutral colored yarn on the tables & let them glue pieces of yarn on top of the lion's mane.  Here are just a few examples of student work:

 Rhyan's Lion

 Autumn's Lion

Olivia's Lion

Comic Book Art...cont.

Students in grades 5 & 6 have been diligently working on their Onomatopoeia art for the past two weeks.  First, they had to fill up the entire 9x12 paper with black text from magazine pages.  Then, they were to create a sketch of their word and some action symbols that represent the chosen word.  Next, they drew their design on top of the magazine paper with a sharpie marker and added shadowing around their letters.  Last, I had them use a limited color palette of blue, red, and yellow to reflect Lichtenstein's artwork.  As you can see from the student work below, some students chose to follow those guidelines while others did not.  I didn't take off points for the coloring part of the project because while I suggested the three color scheme, I didn't enforce it as a grade.  It's very difficult to limit creativity to three colors, isn't it? (he he he)

Here are some finished works of art: