Tuesday, September 27, 2011

"Silly Shapes" with 1st Grade

1st grade is learning about geometric shapes and free-form shapes. Today, they learned that geometric shapes have names (circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, etc.) and that free-form shapes don't have names. Then, using various scraps of colored paper, each student cut out a free-form shape that didn't look like anything at all. Once every student had cut a shape, I shuffled the shapes up and passed them out again. The students glued their new shape to a piece of paper, and made a picture out of it! None of the shapes really looked like anything by themselves, but with the creative work of my 1st graders, each shape turned into a recognizable picture.

This red shape became a snail:


This brown shape became a bow-tie:


One student made this yellow shape into a pair of really big pants:


Another student made this shape into a mommy whale, and added a baby whale and daddy whale to make the picture complete:


By adding ears to this pink shape, this student created a dog. Adding a dog house and food dish made the picture complete:


A few leaves made this pink shape into a tree:


This red shape became a whale spouting water:


Here we have a crocodile in a swamp:


A few criss-cross lines on the shell made this brown shape into a turtle:

Monday, September 26, 2011

5th Grade Mountain Paintings

After looking at a mountain painting by Georgia O'Keeffe, my 5th graders painted their own mountains, mixing tints (color + white) and shades (color + black) to make different values. I had them paint a little sun or moon in the corner of their painting to help them determine which side of each mountain should be dark and which side should be light. They did an amazing job!

























Friday, September 23, 2011

3rd Grade Starry Night Paintings

3rd grade recently studied Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. They learned that Van Gogh painted the town he lived in, as he saw it from his bedroom window, under his stars. When the students began their own starry night paintings, I encouraged them to think about where they lived when they painted their town under their stars. Some of the students live out in the country, and painted a farm, and others live in town and painted a bunch of buildings. Here is a bulletin board of some of the 3rd graders' work.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

2nd Grade Near and Far Pictures

2nd grade learned that size can show what is near and what is far away. They used this skill to create seascapes with near boats and faraway boats. My only stipulation was that each student had to draw at least one near boat, and at least one faraway boat, so some of the kids got really creative!

The next week, 2nd grade learned that overlapping can also show the viewer what is closer and what is farther away. They painted landscapes with overlapping trees for that assignment.

Since the students have completed both of these assignments, it has been really wonderful watching them use both of these concepts in other projects!










Monday, September 19, 2011

A Picture of Me!

Today some of my 4th graders finished their assignment early, so I let them use white paper and crayons to draw. At the end of class, one of my students handed me this picture, which I thanked her for, glanced at briefly, and then placed on my desk. I thought it was a girl walking on a sidewalk, with another sidewalk behind her.

This afternoon as I was grading art, I noticed the picture again, and realized that it is a very accurate portrayal of me! There I am in my gray sweater with buttons, with my pinkish red shirt peaking out from under it, my black pants, and my black shoes. Behind me are all of my brown cabinets and the yellowish counter on top of the bottom cabinets. What an eye for detail this promising young student has!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Kindergarten Ice Cream Cones

Kindergarten is currently learning about how shapes can be used in art. This week, we studies circles and triangles, and put those shapes together to create an ice cream cone. The kindergartners also got to use paint for the first time for the chocolate sauce on their ice cream, and they were very excited about that. The ice cream cone pictures are based on Wayne Thiebaud's painting Single and Double Decker, shown below.