Fire & Ice Sculpture

Two 4th grade classes collaborated on this project. These will also be online lessons, but I've been super busy...so not today....will tag later. For this, one class painted plastic bottles in warm colors and the other in cool colors. The warm color class cut their bottles into a spiky shape and the cool color class cut theirs into spirals. Then I made a chicken wire cylinder as a frame. The necks of the bottles fit perfectly into the chicken wire holes. Then our music teacher's father-in-law made the perfect frame to hang it from (Thanks!). I painted it black and ta-da! I am so proud of this, it is so nice! The kids did a great job. :)

Chihuly's Drawings

3rd grade has finished their layered paintings based on Chihuly's drawings. this will be an online lesson later, and I will tag it when it's done. this month, I've been pretty busy setting up for our art show on February 12th, so I haven't had a chance to upload all of the things. Until then, enjoy some pictures of the projects! We used paint rollers and scrappers to create a textured background. After that dried, we drew a Chihuly inspired shaped with oil pastels and added details with paint markers.

Aboriginal Art-2nd Grade

 This is the art part of that Dreamtime lesson we started a few weeks ago.We developed this lesson in college for one of our classes. When we did it then, we focused on pop culture as our subject. For this culture study in 2nd grade, we focused on the native animals of Australia. Students traced a cut-out of either a koala, a kangaroo, or a platypus (drawing wasn't the main thing here, so copying was okay). Then we used paint to build a black & white pattern around our animal. After that dried, we talked about complementary colors and added our dots. Some kids went dot-crazy, but others paid attention to what they were doing and made some wonderful paintings. The PPT for this lesson includes a video and some questions for after the lesson as well. The great thing about this lesson is that it lends itself to being naturally pretty. Even if a student messes up or completely misses the point, there is still something interesting to look at. (The 5th graders loved seeing these in the hall, it's so nice for them to be impressed by the little kids!)

Here are the resources I made for the lesson.

Lesson Plan

PowerPoint

Rubric

Koala Coloring Sheet

Video 1

Video 2

Valuescapes

In 1st grade, we are learning the elements & principles of art. For this lesson, we went from basic things like color, shape & line to something more abstract: value. Sometimes I forget that these kids were kindergartners 9 months ago,and I may expect too much from them. However, for those who can control themselves and follow simple directions, their work turned out great. Other students...had a colorful mess...

We talked about value and did a few guessing/data collecting exercises then started the project. It took about a class time and a half to finish these, so I want to find a book to supplement this at the end. Anyone have a good "value" book?

Here are the resources I made if you want to use them!

Lesson Plan

PowerPoint

Grading Checklist 

Secondary

moving from Primary colors to Secondary, last week 1st grade made some leaf collages (I need to stop making 1st do collages!).

We talked about symmetry and overlapping to go with secondary colors. The previous week, we made our color wheels, so we had already talked about how secondary colors are made.

putting it all together, I think we got some very nice leaf collages.

Here are the links to this lesson online, use what you need!
Lesson Plan
PowerPoint
Self-assessment Checklist

Primarily

Finally getting this post done! We made these about...a month ago? I am bad. In first grade, we are working our way through the elements and principles. Color is a big unit because there is so much to talk about (primary, secondary, complementary, warm & cool...)

For this project, we read The Dot  and talked about how colors are made. I introduced primary colors and how those are made from minerals, plants and, sometimes, bugs (kids loved that). This was right after our Klee's Castles collages, so I reminded them of how hard it was to cut out the circles for their suns. Then we practiced cutting 3 different circles and glued them together. Afterwards, they were all glued to a big white paper as a class display.

I love these! And if the 1st grade teachers don't want to keep them, I certainly will. :)

This lesson is available online, use what you want!

Lesson Plan

PowerPoint

2nd Grade: Keith Haring

the kids started their Keith Haring pieces, but i didn't get to stay long enough to see them finished! but here is the project...
 first, we discussed some of Haring's works and talked about what his figures were doing (dancing, yelling, running, jumping). Then i asked them why we knew they were doing that and we eventually got to the action lines that Haring uses (first answers: "How do we know they are moving? "Because they're dancing! Because they are doing like this! *insert body movement*'")

after we talked about how the lines show movement and emotion, i showed them some of Haring's works that use complementary colors. we talked about what those were and everyone got it pretty quickly.

next, i gave each table a movable figure (remember that i made a ton of those?). the kids totally flipped their stuff over these. they had a lot of fun moving them and talking about what their people were doing and what they were thinking. 

after that, we practiced making some Haring figures in our sketchbooks. every table had a simple "how to draw Haring figures" handout that i made up.they are told to start with a stick man, then add circles to hands and feet, then add meat to the skeleton, and erase the lines. their biggest problem was making their figures thick enough. most of the kids were afraid of making them too fat, but i told them to compare them to the size of the movable models i gave them.

coming up: keith haring

first of all, a rant about how no one in the world has made a good/appropriate video animating keith haring's art for me to show i my class. if you don't mind blinking nipples, this is the best one i've found, and it's super short! i would want 1:50-2:00 minutes, and that would be great.

 but coming up next week: second grade is moving from its Japanese Culture study to a study of movement, expression and complementary colors!


also, i spent a bunch of time making these!

 movable Haring figures to talk about movement! whoo! if i had a tripod, you would have a video of me making them. next on the to-get list.....

Color Wheel Clocks

and starting next week...color wheel clocks in 1st grade! i wanted to do a basic color theory project but make it more than just "make a color wheel". so i looked at their yearly scope and sequence and found that later they will start learning time! and it seemed perfect that they both had 12 sections.

the first week, we will make the clocks on paper plates with card stock hands and a brad to hold it together. we will also fill in the primary colors, red, blue and yellow.

the 2nd week, we will cover the secondary colors and what the 12,3,6,and 9 mean.

week 3, we will fill in the last tertiary colors and talk about the other numbers and counting by 5s. 

i don't expect every student to be able to tell time perfectly by the end of this, but at least they will have a good head start for when they start later. and they can take these to use in their math class! more interaction, less work for those poor overworked classroom teachers. also, here's a fun video i found to practice with. 

warning: song will get stuck in your head.