This project focused on how symbols and designs are used in African art. The students designed their own painted Korhogo cloth. They decorated the border with symbols and drew their main figure with Sharpie. Then, they added paint with watercolors. 1. Introduce African Korhogo cloths.2. Sketch ideas.3. Draw your design on a square of muslin withe pencil. Use a ruler to draw a border.4. Outline with Sharpie marker.5. Paint with watercolors.
The third/fourth grade classes made paper mache masks. We used inspiration from the Pacific Northwest Coast masks and viewed a video about their culture. Here are the steps we used. Start with a papermache mask form (we used some from Nasco). Then, add appendages with newspapers, LOTS of masking tape, pieces of cardboard, yogurt containers, etc. So much fun to build up a mask! After all the parts are very secured with tape (and I mean lots of tape, MORE … Read more…
Today we made picture frame ornaments with the 3rd graders. First, I cut pieces of thin cardboard into square shapes. Then, I cut tooling foil slightly larger than the cardboard squares. The kids folded their tooling foil around the cardboard. Then, they used Crayola Dry Erase crayons and Sharpie markers to decorate the foil. They left a rectangle in the middle where we will glue their class picture. We also used Deco Art puff paint for additional details. A ribbon … Read more…
We learned about the artist Georges Seurat by reading Scholastic Art magazine. Students identified and described Pointillist paintings. They created a Pointillist painting of trees showing dimension and form by color mixing. Step 1: Introduce the work of Georges Seurat.Step 2: Choose a smaller sized piece of paper. We used 9 x 12″. Lightly sketch a landscape with pencil. Step 3: Using a paintbrush, Q-tip or pencil eraser, dip the end into paint and dab dots of color on your picture. … Read more…
Third/Fourth Grade: The students learned how to identify realistic, abstract and non-objective art. The 3/4s worked on a non-objective graphite drawing. Using only shapes, lines, texture and value the students drew an interesting non-objective design. Non-objective art is art that has no recognizable objects. Value in art is the degree of lightness or darkness. The students completed a value scale using pencil. They learned how to create contrast by placing dark shades next to light shades, rough texture next to … Read more…
Here is a beautiful, awesome lesson plan I found from Kids Artists, called the Longest Line. I used it for a sub plan when I was gone one day. The kids loved it!
Tom Lichtenheld, an author and illustrator, will be visiting EAGLE School at the end of October. To prepare for his visit, many of the classes will be seeing his art and listening to his books. The Intermediates are focusing on his book Everything I Know about Pirates. After reading his book, the students are drawing pirate pictures!
What is balance? What is radial symmetry? How is a compass used in art making? How can we use lines and patterns effectively in a design? The 3rd/4th grade class made RADIAL DESIGNS. They drew concentric circles using compasses. Inside the circles, they drew patterns and designs. Can you tell this class is really into Pac Man?
How do artists see things differently? What is craftsmanship? How have artists in other cultures and times expressed themselves through self-portraits? The 3rd graders read the book Luke’s Way of Looking by Natalie Wheatley to discover how artists see things differently. Next, the class read a book about self-portraits. They painted squares of color on a background. Through this painting, they mixed and applied tempera paints to create tints and shades. Then, they added tissue paper squares in places for … Read more…
box of stickers This was a super fun art project that I forgot to blog about earlier. We did this at the summer art class I taught at my school. Tape and sticker pictures. I wrote about tape and sticker pictures earlier which I love to do with my 20 month old daughter. The above picture is a box of stickers I made. I took some sticky address labels, and color photocopied some patterned paper onto the sticky labels. Then, … Read more…
Puppets were made during my summer art class! For this project, I drew a puppet template, which the kids traced and cut out from felt. They cut out 2 pieces, a front and back. Then, I hot glued them together. The kids then cut out other pieces of felt and added googly eyes to decorate their puppet. They attached these pieces with Elmer’s glue. We added a large stick inside also to hold the puppet up. We made these really … Read more…
In my summer art class, we painted superhero canvases. The kids decided what superhero they would like to be and drew these on dry wax paper with markers and colored pencils. Then I used gel medium (on the backs of the paper) to adhere their images to the canvas board. Then, they used paints to paint a background. I love them!! There is a link to the dry wax paper at the bottom of this post. The ages of my … Read more…
We looked at the silhouette portraits of the early Americans as well as the paper cuttings of Hans Christian Anderson. The students drew with white colored pencil on their black paper, and then cut out their designs. Then, they flipped these over and glued them onto white paper (thus hiding any remaining white pencil lines.) This book below is a must-see for this project! We also looked at a book by Dr. Suess which features awesome silhouettes!! I happened to … Read more…
First, we looked at the art of Bridget Riley and the Op art movement. We read a Scholastic Art issue which features this style of art. If you don’t get these magazines, they are a great investment. Each year, we subscribe for a class set of this magazine. Then, I save them each year in an envelope labeled with the issue’s title. After several years, you will have a collection of lots of subjects to choose from. Both of these … Read more…
