These were some fun paper Memory Quilts that the kindergartners made! Aren’t they cute? We read Tar Beach, by Faith Ringgold and talked about her story quilts. The children received a square piece of white paper, which had 9 squares pre-drawn in pencil (4 x 4 inches each). I had a variety of scrapbook papers pre-cut into 4 x 4 inch squares. The children glued down their squares and could cut the squares in pieces to make designs. In the … Read more…
Sometimes I like to let the kids loose with a box of supplies and minimal instruction. I photocopied some pages from Lynda Barry’s book and showed them to the first graders. In the box were paper scraps, magazines, strips of scrapbook paper and random stickers. Isn’t this raw and beautiful?
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…
These pictures are based on the book Elmer! I love this book and the colorful elephants. The kids drew their own elephants and colored them with fun patterns. The borders were made by cutting up and gluing strips of wrapping paper and neon cardstock. And I want to remind you of this fun game that my students enjoy using in their free art time. It is a blast: PICK and DRAW
The 4th/5th grade classes learned all about Greek and Roman mosaics, to complement their studies of Greek/Roman history. In Art class, we made mosaics from ceramic tiles. The tiles were glued on to masonite board using wood glue (there probably is a better glue out there, but this is cheap and the pieces stick fine). We also had some gems and stones available too. Some of the kids who were motivated were able to use the tile nippers to cut … Read more…
This is a playground! Do you see the mini-Coke cans for sale? Here are some of our finished assemblages. These were made by 4th and 5th graders. This is a town square, with a fountain, pool and snack shop. Ice cream for sale. the pool!
The first graders learned about artists that make art about underwater life. Then, they used markers and water to create a watercolor effect. They drew the fish with water soluble markers and then used a paintbrush and water to blend the colors. Later, they used blue spray ink to create the background. Here is the slideshow I showed them:
This is one of my favorite projects all year. I know it is one of the kids favorite projects too. The 5th/6th graders study the Medieval period in their Social Studies class. In Art class, we have done a variety of Medieval art. In this project, the student build paper mache knights. This year, some of the kids chose to build horses out of Model Magic too. That made things a bit more challenging and complicated for them. … Read more…
My husband has hobbies too! He is really into building Legos now and he even started his own lego blog. I think the title of his blog is cute and I love the picture he put on his heading. Let me tell you, between my art related and scrapbooking hobbies and his Lego/Magic/comic book collections, we have no shortage of STUFF around here! Anyways… there are no official Lego stores in Madison where we live, but one JUST opened an … Read more…
Finally! My copy of the magazine has arrived. Featuring magazine was started by the lovely Marit in the Netherlands. It is about art journaling, mixed media and other arts. She had a call for submissions and applications to be a contributing editor and I was thrilled when my article and application were accepted. After several months of brainstorming, interviewing and writing.. plus the countless hours Marit and her husband spent with layout, editing, printing and everything else… the magazine … Read more…
Here are some more of our painted fabrics. They doodled on the muslin fabric with Sharpies… graffiti-style! Then, we used liquid watercolor paints (with a little bit of water) in spray bottles and stencils to spray over them with color. These are all going to be cut up and used in fabric collages.
I was going through my old emails and I found this one from a parent. He had told me about this at parent-teacher conferences. His daughter had made some art using backyard materials.. all natural! She is a fourth grade student and very creative. “Backyard Sushi”
The first graders made these utterly adorable birds in nests this week. We first made nests. We used tinfoil to shape a nest-like shape. Then I mixed up some goopy paper-clay and the kids covered their tinfoil nests with the goop. Little sticks, hay and pebbles were added to the goop before it dried. Here are the steps we used to make the birds.We used Crayola Model Magic. A big secret I discovered is that if you squirt hand-lotion on … Read more…
Here are some scenes from the art room this week! We are using appliance parts to build assemblages. We are painting on wet fabric and will later cut the fabrics and sew theme together for a fabric collage.
The second graders drew a bug of their choice on white paper. I had photos for reference and showed them how to use the pencil to create shading and how to blend it with a blending stub. (I call them “smudgy sticks”). Later, they cut out their bug and glued it to another background page. The students looked at this image by Louise Bourgeois and answered some discussion questions about the artwork. Then, they filled out a sheet which prompted … Read more…
