After School Art Class– Finished Projects
This week, the after school art class kids added marker and doodling to their spray painted pictures. They also finished their abstract paintings! Here are a few examples:
Valentine’s Heart paintings– 2nd grade
We had fun painting paper and then layering construction paper hearts and doilies on top. We used gel pens to decorate the hearts. I got this idea from We Heart Art!
American Landscape Paintings–3rd/4th Grade
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 pictures of America. Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows on a mountain. I showed … Read more…
African Adinkra Stamps
The 5th/6th grade class has been carving stamps from soft cut blocks. They used acrylic paints to print their stamps on muslin cloth! The students read about the African Adinkra symbol stamps and created their own symbol.
Egyptian Profile Pictures– 4th/5th grade
Egyptian Profile Paintings:The 4/5s have studied ancient Egypt in their social studies class. In Art class, they are using the standard proportions of the human face to draw each other in profile. Then, they are adding typical ancient Egyptian headdresses, clothes and jewelry to their portraits. Finally, they are drawing some hieroglyphics to finish the picture.
After school class
I am teaching an after school art class for two sessions. We are painting abstract paintings on canvas with acrylic paints! We are also experimenting with spray inks and stencils! Next session, we are going to finish our abstract paintings and then add designs to our sprayed pictures to tie them together.
Weaving on Styrofoam
Weaving on Styrofoam was a recent project with the 1st graders. A restaurant supply store near our school had a huge package of styrofoam plates for very cheap. Slits were cut at the top and bottom of the styrofoam and string was placed in these slits for the loom. The students used ribbon and fabric to weave over and under the string. Suggest to the kids to choose a variety of colors and textures. I put out some colored wire, … Read more…
Inspired by Henri Matisse- Kindergarten
Henri Matisse is a popular artist to teach about in the elementary art classroom. I’ve seen a lot of Matisse-inspired artwork from other art teachers. His artwork is bright and colorful and lends itself well to teaching about shapes. We read the book Oooh! Matisse and watched the video Dropping in on Matisse The students learned about organic shapes and geometric shapes. They also used their fine motor skills to use shape punchers.
Clay Butterflies– 1st Grade
These lovely clay butterflies were made by the 1st graders. Each student traced their hands to make the wings. Some of the little parts fell off, so I would recommend making sure that the kids don’t roll their slabs too thin. I found this lesson in the book, The Clay Lady Way Textbook. I was able to flip through this book at one of the National Art Ed conferences and decided it would be worth the investment.
Editorial Cartoons
Every year, students in grades 5-8 participate in a local contest called the Yahara River Writers Contest. There are categories in poetry, editorials and editorial cartoons. In art class, we study editorial cartoons. We analyze cartoons for their use of exaggeration, symbolism, irony and point of view. Cartoons for the Classroom has an amazing selection of lesson plans for studying editorial cartoons. There are over 200 printable cartoons with questions and explanations about them. We also watch this video The … Read more…
Name Designs– Inspired by Islamic Art– 5th/6th grade
In this project, we studied the repeating patterns found in Islamic art. These students have studied about Islam in their Social Studies class. This project also ties into geometry and math. I have been doing this project for a few years now, and the results have always been stunning! I originally found this lesson in an old School Arts magazine from the 90’s. Last year, I posted a tutorial with steps to achieve the designs.
Alaskan Masks– 2nd Grade
The 2nd graders have been learning about the characteristics and functions of Alaskan masks as well as the cultural traditions of Native Alaskans. They made a 3-D mask using typical characteristics— animal or human features, fur, feathers, appendages, hoops around the mask.
Blog Spotlight
There are almost 200 blogs in the Art Teacher Blog Directory. Have you added yours? I was going to highlight some of the newer entries and then Mrs. Hahn posted some spotlights highlighting the blogs that are on the Art of Ed list, which reminded me that I was going to post about some of the newer entries in this blog directory. So, anyways… one of the newer blogs that I discovered is Ms. Branigan’s website. She has some interesting … Read more…
Beautiful Oops
If you haven’t seen Beautiful Oops yet, you must find a copy and look at it.. It’s my favorite book ever! The first graders looked at this book in class and then they were presented with a creative challenge. Each child chose a piece of colored paper with a hole in it. Holes of various sizes were pre-cut into papers of various colors. They had to figure out how to turn this “oops” piece of paper into a work of … Read more…
Top Art Ed blogs
I’m a finalist for one of the top Art Education blogs on Jessica’s website. If you’ve enjoyed reading my blog, take a second and vote for me! Also, be sure to check out all of the other blogs, as every single one of them are ones that I regularly read. If you want to see some quality art teacher blogs… take a look at this list:theartofed.com/2012/01/15/finalists-announced-vote-for-art-ed-blog-of-the-year
