Day of Dead Shrinky Dink Skulls

4th graders looked at images of the very detailed art skulls found in Day of the Dead celebrations. They then drew a skull on Shrinky Dink plastic and colored it in with colored pencil. I really emphasized to them that they should be very detailed. After they finished coloring, they cut out the skull shape, then I shrunk them in a toaster oven. They had the choice to either turn their skull into a necklace or pin. (If you do shrinky dink necklaces, make sure you punch the hole to string the chain or thread through before they go into the oven).

Sonia Delaunay

I try to keep the first few art projects I do with first grade pretty abstract. I don't want anyone to feel defeated because their artwork doesn't "look right". Sonia Delaunay is a Ukrainian-French abstract painter. She is noted for using strong color choices and geometric shapes. First graders drew circles with oil pastels, we then painted with water color over the circles. Next we used stamping techniques using only the primary colors and again only circles. Lastly we talked about how to create emphasis in our artwork. We did this by outlining some of our circles in black tempera paint. I do this project every year at the beginning of the year, it is one of my favorites because they all turn out so beautiful and they make such a great display in the hall all hung up together!

Dancing Skeletons

3rd graders learned about the celebration El Dia de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead. We watched two videos on the celebration that takes place in Mexico every year on November 2. We talked about the differences between the Day of the Dead and Halloween, since they often get confused. We looked at images of skeletons and skeletons used in Day of the Dead. Students drew their skeletons with white colored pencil, added festive clothing and instruments. Lastly, we added marigold flowers because that is the flower used most often in the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Blue Dog

Of course I had to include Blue Dog in my Art Dog Unit. Third graders read Why Is Blue Dog Blue? and also viewed a Power Point of all the different types of Blue Dog paintings that George Rodrigue painted. I also found an interview with Rodrigue from CBS's Morning Show on You Tube to show the kids as well. It was perfect actually, because he showed a Blue Dog Painting that he did right after Sept. 11, 2001, and we were doing our project right around then. It had a powerful impact on the students. Shout out to Artolazzi's Blog, got the painting idea from her blog:)

Large Painted Dogs

5^th graders learned about the artist Pablo Picasso. They learned about Cubism and how in Picasso’s Cubist portraits he focused on the eyes and noses. 5^th graders each received a photograph of a dog and first painted the eyes and nose on index cards. They then glued them to a large sheet of paper and painted the rest of the dog around the eyes and nose. They are wonderful and beautiful‼

Picasso Dogs

4^th graders learned about the artist Pablo Picasso by looking at his artwork and a Power Point presentation. Picasso invented a style of art called Cubism. Cubism is breaking up objects using different shapes and forms.  4^th graders used Cubism in their drawings of dogs. This was done with oil pastels.

Laurel Burch Dogs

2nd graders learned about the American, self- taught artist Laurel Burch by looking at her website and watching a short interview with her. She has a rare bone disease that often keeps her bed ridden for months at a time. She says she’d paint with her toes if she had to though! She loves to use bright colors and patterns. Most of all she loves to paint animals.



Wag a Tail

Students read Wag A Tail by Lois Ehlert. We used our art eyes to find the various shapes that Lois used to create her dogs. The students also had fun being the pointer and finding all the dogs in the illustrations. We created our own dogs with paper. I did the instruction step by step as an entire group. The first graders did awesome. Their favorite part was naming their dog1!

Dog Gone Unit

At the end of September we are having an all school assembly with a very special guest, Frankie the Daschund. Frankie is special because his hind legs are paralyzed so he has a special doggie wheel chair for his hind legs. Frankie and his owner teach diversity and how to over come challenges life hands you. So I thought it would be a warm welcome to Frankie if we had all sorts of Art dogs to greet him when he got to our school. I found a different dog project for each grade level to create!

First days of school Project

I think the first week of art is always the toughest, because you have to review all the classroom rules and procedures. It's so much talking and I know the students would rather be working on projects. So this year I shortened my introduction to the art room to bare bones so we could get to a project right away. I figured I could address specific procedures as they come up through out the year. So I got this idea from SmART Class blog, THANK YOU!! It turned out so great and I've gotten so many compliments on it from other staff members. And of course the students love hunting for their portrait. There was about 20 portraits that I didn't add to the big collage, but I will be hanging those in my art room for a mini college.

My mini collage in my art room of students who didn't finish in time for the bigger display.