Second Grade Van Gogh & Kindergarten Pumpkins

We sure did have fun learning about the artist Vincent Van Gogh, his sunflower paintings, and the still life genre of art. When the students came into the room, they knew something great was about to happen because all of the tables and stools were moves out of the way. In the middle of the open floor was a vase with sunflowers in it.  The students sat around the still life and drew using observation. We also talked about using the space on our page and how to make our vases look as though they are sitting on a table rather than floating. The next class we discussed the brushstrokes that are characteristic of Van Gogh's paintings.  The students went to work painting their still life and exploring different ways to create brushstrokes in their own artwork.  Look at these beauties!

 

The next few images are some of the Kindergartener's latest masterpieces.  In this lesson, we linked what they were learning about pumpkins in their classrooms to art knowledge.  Students learned about primary and secondary colors and experimented with mixing their primaries to create secondary colors orange and green.  Later, we reached back to our knowledge of collage from their self-portrait unit and created pumpkin collages using the orange and green paper they created.  We also talked about facial expressions showing emotions and they worked hard to show an emotion through the shapes of their eyes and mouths.  These really look great!  I am so impressed with our Kinder's and their cutting and gluing skills!

Fifth Grade Double Self-Portraits and Third Grade Cityscapes!

Fifth grade just completed their mixed media self-portrait unit inspired by the artist Chuck Close!  We call these double self-portraits because they drew themselves and created value using their finger prints and black ink!  They learned about the artist Chuck Close and his various art processes for creating realistic portraits and then incorporated them into their artwork.  This unit taught so many skills and art vocabulary such as drawing correct facial proportions, color value, using a ruler, painting pattern, contrast, and oil pastel techniques.  The students and I really enjoyed this art smart jam packed unit!  Take a look at these beauties!

 

Here are some that are hanging in the main hallway at school! :)

Next up! Third grade learns about the big ol' city!  First we discussed the different characteristics between a cityscape and a landscape.  Then we explored America's top 10 cityscapes to get an idea of what cityscapes look like around our country.  This was a great geography lesson as well because students had to name what state each city was in.  They did a fabulous job!  Then it came time to create their own cityscape.  Students drew their cityscape on a foam printing plate and then cut along the top edge.  For the background, students learned about cool and warm colors and the horizon line.  We define the horizon line as the line where the sky meets the land.  After the students drew their horizon line, they used cool and warm color schemes to paint above and below the horizon line using watercolors.  Next, we learned about the art process of printmaking, inked our cityscape printing plate, and printed the first print above the horizon line and a ghost print on the bottom of the horizon line.  A ghost print is when you re-print the plate without re-inking it so that it has a faded look.  These two prints represent the cityscape above the horizon line and the reflection of the city in the water below the horizon line.  These turned out so beautiful!  You can see some of them below and in the front office when you visit school!

Second Grade Giuseppi Arcimboldo Inspired Self-Portraits

Second graders just finished a self-portrait collage lesson where we discovered the artist Giuseppi Arcimboldo.  Arcimboldo was known for his painted portraits of people made up of objects such as books, flowers, vegetables, and other plants.  We began our exploration of the artist through playing a game with the Smart board where the students could practice the concept of collaging a human portrait using various vegetables.  Then, the students were on their way cutting images from family and garden magazines to use in their portrait collage.  They turned out to be so unique! It was a funny lesson that had us all giggling all throughout art class!

Here is a look of some that are on display in the main hallway! They sure are getting a lot of attention from the teachers here at BES.... everyone thinks they are so creative!

Fourth Grade Takes A Turn With Gelatin Prints!

Our big idea for the month of October is Environment. For fourth grade, we are learning how our environment can inspire our art as well as be used to create our art. We had a fabulous time making prints using the gelatin printmaking method. The students loved it so much that they wanted to know how they could do it at home! So here is what you need: A box of Knox unflavored gelatin (you can get it from any grocery store), a baking pan to hold the gelatin, water based printing ink (you can get from Hobby Lobby or any craft store), a brayer to roll the ink (any craft store), aluminum foil to roll the ink out, and lots of soft foliage like leaves to use in the printing process.

Step 1: Prep your gelatine printing plate by placing 2 cups of water in a pot and 4 packets of gelatin powder (4 tbsp). Heat water up to dissolve the gelatin and stir consistantly so it doesnt burn to the bottom! Once the water is hot, pour it into your baking pan and place in the frige to harden for at least 12 hours.

Step 2: roll out your ink first on the foil and then roll ink onto the gelatin until the ink on the gelatin is opaque.

Step 3: Lay your leaves onto the inked gelatin plate. Yarn works great too!

Step 4: Place paper over the leaves and gently rub the back of the paper. You are trying to pick up all of the ink around the leaves to create your negative print. Pull your negative print.

Step 5: Blot any extra ink not picked up from the negative print and then carefully peel away the leaves from the gelatin.

Step 6: Lay a second peice of paper down on the gelatin to create your positive print.

Step 7: Do steps 1-6 again and again!! Have fun!

Here are some that are now on display in the main hallway! They look so beautiful and it was such a fun way to teach negative and positive space to fourth grade! I hope that you have fun doing these at home :)

Teachers Make Art, Too!!!

Yes... it's TRUE! I love having the teachers come in some afternoons to decompress and have fun with art! The day doesn't always end for us when the students leave so it is important for us to take some time to sharpen the saw through getting creative. Fourth grade will be doing a lesson on positive and negative space by creating gelatin prints using elements of nature (leaves, flowers, vines, etc.). So I invited the teachers to come try out the process after school yesterday. Here is what we did! :)

 

 

I am so excited to do these with fourth grade this Thursday and Friday!

Fourth Grade Wire Self-Portraits

Fourth grade just completed their first art piece of the year... how exciting! We started off the unit discussing the artist Alexander Calder and his wire portraits. We then discussed the idea of a continuous contour drawing, a line drawing where the drawing tool is never lifted from the paper, and how the wire portraits use continuous contour lines. We practiced creating continuous contour line drawings of our self-portraits using the paint program on the smart board! So FUN!

Next, the students began using the wire medium to start their abstract self-portraits.

This project was so fun! Using wire as an art medium was unique to the students and myself and it could not have gone any better! Come check out the display of some of the wire portraits in the art display case at school.