Jim Dine Valentines

     I love this art lesson so much that I do it every year - and that's rare that I repeat a lesson year after year.  It is such an easy lesson with great results!  I love teaching the kids that art doesn't have to be complicated in order for it to be successful.  Jim Dine used such simple subjects in his paintings and focused on the exploration of color, instead of complicated subject matter.
     We used oil pastels to make the hearts, focusing on mixing the colors together in the middle of the heart and tempera paints for the background.

Ceramic Dinosaurs

Students in 2nd grade have been working on clay dinosaurs.  We read the book, The Dinosaur's New Clothes, together as a class, and I demonstrated how to create a clay dinosaur by rolling out a piece of clay into a rope, focusing on a thick middle and two thin ends.  Next, the students made one end the tail and one end the head and added details like scales, spikes, legs, claws, etc.  I think they turned out fabulous!  I will fire them this week and we will paint them next class period.