Fall Trees

Collage Monsters

 

First graders read the story Go Away Big Green Monster!, by Ed Emberley. We discussed all the shapes that made up the Big Green Monster in the story. First graders also learned about the art term collage, assembling one piece of art by using different materials to create it. First graders used different color construction paper to cut out shapes to create their very own monster. They started by first drawing and cutting out the head. They paid close attention to their gluing skills, as well, making sure everything was glued totally flat. Lastly we added googley eyes to make the monsters extra spooky!

Thunder Storms

 

 

First graders learned about extreme weather through an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy. They learned about lightning, thunder, tornados, and hurricanes. We also discussed Hurricane Sandy since that extreme weather was going on just as we started our Thunder Storm project. First graders made a city skyline by cutting squares and rectangles from black construction paper. Next they used three oil pastel colors to create their clouds, and they also worked on their blending techniques by smudging the colors with their fingers. A zig zag line was used to create the lightning. Lastly, they painted over the background with blue and purple water colors to make the sky look dreary like a rainy day.

Indian Corn

 

4^th graders learned about the history of corn in North America. They learned that it was a staple crop for the Native Americans. When the English settlers came over to North America from England, they would not have survived if they hadn’t learned how to plant and harvest corn from the Native Americans. Today, Indian corn, or ornamental corn, is used mainly as a decoration during the autumn’s months.

Glowing Pumpkins

4^th graders learned how to draw a pumpkin from real life. We discussed all the different shapes pumpkins can have and the curvature of the lines in a pumpkin. Students colored in pumpkins using oil pastels and focused on creating a pattern with their color choices. They also focused on having a smooth transition from one color to the next by using blending and overlapping techniques. To create the glow around the pumpkins students used white chalk pastel and another blending technique. They turned out great‼

I'm Baaaaaaack!

Whew, it's been forever since I posted last! With good reason though, I had a beautiful baby boy on June 24. So I was lucky enough to take the first six weeks off of school. I came back October 10, and have been sooooo busy. I have the craziest schedule this year, with 2 new schools that I'm teaching at and 3 travel days. I finally am sort of caught up on work, just today anyway. I have a whole bunch of new projects to share with  you.

Last Day of School 2012

My room is all packed up and ready for the summer. It was a great school year with lots of challenges and lots of great accomplishments. The kiddos were definitely ready for a break, as most of the teachers are too.

I try not to get too personal or political in my blog because I like to use it mainly as a showcase of student work and lessons. But I will say that with the election results here in Wisconsin I am disappointed. I fear a lot for what the future will be like for public education and our students. And of course there is always the nagging worry of what massive budget cuts mean for the arts. Well, we'll just keep on trucking along here in Wisconsin with or without the state's and the people's support. We have to, for the sake of the kids.

With that being said, I will not be back in the classroom until mid October for the 2012-13 school year. Baby #2 is due to arrive any day now! I'm so glad I made it through this school year:) I will be on maternity leave for the first 6 weeks of school. I have no idea who my sub will be, I just hope I get one! So signing off for now, until next school year! Have a great summer everyone!

Sidewalk Chalk- End of Year Ideas

The end of the year is always tricky with art classes. Some classes finish art for the year with 2 or 3 weeks left of the school year. Others I see lots of times right up until the last day. It all varies depending on field trips, music concerts, equalized days, and early dismissals. As much as I try to plan projects to go up until almost the last day, sometimes it just doesn't work out. So I have been pretty good lately at coming up with one day activities for my art classes. My favorite is taking the kids outside on nice days to do sidewalk chalk art. I used to just let them do whatever, but now I usually have a plan of what I want them to be working on outside.

Zentangles have been all the rage this year. On Dali's mustache blog she calls them Zendoodles, which I like better for elementary. I had my first graders watch an artist create a Zendoodle on a video in fast motion and I also showed them some student samples. I had them do a small Zendoodle on paper to practice and get a feel for it. My classes run an hour long, so we do this for about 30-40 minutes (depending how into it the kids are.) Then I get the sidewalk chalk bins out and we head outside. It's great because my room has a door that leads right to the playground area and kickball field. We have tons of sidewalk to decorate right outside the art room. The kids then started Zendoodling on the sidewalk with chalk. THEY LOVE IT! And having a beautiful day to do it is a bonus.

Thiebaud Cake Sculptures

For my 5th graders last project I wanted to do something fun and out of the box with them. We studied Pop artist Wayne Thiebaud. We watched a CBS interview with Thiebaud from a few years ago- the interview told about his progression as an arstist and of course talked about his artwork.

For our last trimester I did almost all 3D projects with the 5th grade, and they wanted to continue with the 3D theme. So instead of drawing desserts, we made cake sculptures. I saved any type of food box for a few months. The students first built their cake assembling the recycled boxes and food containers. Next they paper mached the form with newspaper to make it one solid piece. Then they "frosted" their cakes using colored construction paper and paper mache again. After they were done with the paper macheing we discussed decorating. I asked how many of the students had ever seen shows like Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss, several had. I found a slide show on YouTube of amazing cakes and showed them that. And it turns out that this year we have a wonderful cake designer working right in our school. One of our instructional paras runs a small cake business on the side and she makes AMAZING cakes. She was nice enough to bring in her portfolio of cakes she has created to share with my classes. They were quite amazed. After viewing all the different cakes, I put tons of random supply out for them to use to decorate. We started to run out of time with it being the end of the school year. But for a big end of the year project they turned out pretty unique!

Grant Wood Farmscapes

Third graders learned about the artist Grant Wood. We discussed landscapes, foreground, middle ground, and back ground. First we learned how to draw a rooster by watching an instructional drawing video on Youtube. We watched it twice, once just watching, and the second time we drew along with the video. I paused it every now and then to give them a chance to get caught up. They did a great job! They then outlined and colored in with color pencil. Next they drew a simple landscape with a farm house and field. I had them start with a horizon line, then use a variety of lines to divide up the space. Then they drew a farm house on top. They used water color to paint. The roosters were cut out and we used little scraps with an accordian fold to make them pop out off our paper.