This is a tried-and-true art teacher lesson plan. The students enjoyed learning the story behind Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting. We read an article about his famous painting. They also enjoyed seeing various parodies of this artwork. They envisioned their own parody of this famous masterpiece. You can also read this book about his artwork:
On Friday, the 7th/8th graders taught the younger kids for part of the day. One of the projects they made were these lovely tissue paper flowers in a construction paper cone vase. I loved them!
Secret Cities The 4/5s learned how to draw 3-d forms and include shading and shadows. They stacked these shapes to make a “secret city”. I got this idea from a book about drawing by Mark Kistler. This artist had a series of television shows that taught kids how to draw 3-d pictures step-by-step. Here is a video of a “secret city” mural.
@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Hatching and Cross-Hatching by the 3/4s The 3/4s are learning about hatching and cross-hatching. They explored this technique in a portrait drawing. After a quick practice of portrait drawing, the students moved on to a cross hatched animal. Animal pictures lend themselves better to this technique, because there is a lot of texture on the surface of … Read more…
Contour Drawings The students observed the details and lines on their shoes. They completed a contour line study of their footwear. Next, they turned these drawings into “miniature playgrounds” for stick people. Contour drawing helps define and explore edges through line and locates one object in relationship to another. It also establishes an expressive and accurate representation of the subject by the richness of the lines, thick or thin, crisp or soft, and the speed and rhythm with which they … Read more…
American Landscapes The 3/4s learned about Colonial times and Westward Expansion. The students watched a video about American landscape artists during the 19th century and they painted their own landscapes. One of the goals was to use inspiration from the environment to create a painting. The students chose a landscape scene from Wisconsin or a state they have visited. Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows … Read more…
Monochromatic Rhythm Painting The third graders are learning about how rhythm is used in art. Rhythm is a principle of art that’s difficult to summarize in words. Assuming that you’ve picked up on a rhythm in music before, take what you heard with your ears and try to translate that to something you’d see with your eyes. Rhythm, in art, is a visual beat. They made a drawing using lines to show rhythm. Then, they mixed tints and shades of … Read more…
@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }@font-face { font-family: “Adobe Caslon Pro”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } The 3/4s viewed a video about Pacific Northwest Coast art. They made a spirit animal mask using similar characteristics. These are made out of paper mache and are painted with a limited color palette.
Third Grade Japanese Scrolls We watched a powerpoint about Hokusai, the Japanese printmaker. The students made styrofoam prints using imagery of nature. We practiced using calligraphy brushes with India ink. The students assembled their calligraphy and prints, along with origami paper into a hanging scroll.
For this project, we drew African masks and then constructed them from slabs of clay. These were painted with acrylic paints and then sprayed with varnish.
The 3/4s painted Pointillist Trees. They have studied trees in Science. 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. Tips: use the back end of the paintbrush, a q-tip or a small brush. Keep the size of the paper small (9×12″ is plenty).
Native American Potttery:The 3/4s are learning about Native American pottery, in particular the Mimbres bowls. Check out the link for more information. They made their own coil-built pot and used sgraffito techniques to design the inside of the bowl. We used Mayco Stroke and Coat Underglaze and then painted Amaco clear glaze on top. I love the brilliant colors. I would never have tried this because it’s more expensive than others, but my colleague WON a whole box of this … Read more…
I did an after school clay class with kids in grades K-6
The Intermediates (grade 3) are studying Africa in their Social Studies class. We learned about the African Korhogo Clothes. See this link for more details. This project focused on how symbols are used in African art. The students designed their own painted Korhogo cloth on muslin. They decorated the border with symbols and drew their main figure with Sharpie. Then, they added paint with watercolor.
Here are a few of the final glazed pocket pots. Kids were in grades K-6. It was an afterschool class. For full directions, see earlier post about this project. Yay! I love them!
