Paper Collage Frankenstein

2nd graders learned about collage art, where artists use paper and other materials to construct an artwork. Students read a short story about Dr. Frankenstein and how he created Frankenstein. Students reviewed geometric and freeform shapes; and were able to identify which shapes were which when constructing their Frankensteins. 2nd graders also were working on their cutting and gluing skills throughout this project.

Learning Targets for project were:

• I can identify geometric and freeform shapes.
• I can use the correct amount glue.
• I can glue with the tip of my glue bottle touching my paper.
• I can make sure all pieces of paper are glued flat.
• I can cut paper shapes so the edges are smooth, not jagged.

Modrian Spider Webs

Van Gogh Pumpkin Patch

3rd graders learned about the artist Vincent Van Gogh through a short video. They learned about the warm and cool colors of the color wheel, and how to create concentric circles.

Students did two pencil drawings of a pumpkin and then colored it in with oil pastel using warm colors. Students were shown how to blend oil pastels using their thumb and starting from the outer part of their pumpkin and working their way in. Students then outlined pumpkin in black and cut out.

Students then used the cool colors to create the background for the pumpkins. Students used concentric circles in the sky to give it a “Van Gogh feel”. Students then colored in grass with different shades of green, and then glued pumpkins on.

They did a great job. Students learned about craftsmanship and taking their time coloring in and blending with this project.

Learning Targets:

• I can identify warm and cool colors.
• I can color neatly using the correct pressure.
• I can blend my colors using the techniques demonstrated by the teacher.

#Student Selfies

I started the year at a new school this year, same district. But NO MORE TRAVELING for me!!! It has been so wonderful being in only one building. I have never had so much prep time in my whole career now that I'm not  buzzing around town between schools.
So I have 500 or so new names to learn of all my students. I thought a perfect beginning of the year project would be self portraits. Since I had to unpack 8 years of art teaching hoarding, I wanted an easy lesson with little prep. I found this lesson with all the templates in both English and Spanish on the Teachers Pay Teacher website, which was submitted by Art With Jenny K (THANK YOU!)

The kids loved it, it puts a modern spin on self portraits, and used language they are familiar with. And it was nice to get a piece of artwork up from every student right away.

Secondary Color Mixing fish

This was a good end of year review project for second grade color mixing. This particular group of artists were the focus group of my SLO this past year. These students came such a long way this year with their knowledge of primary and secondary colors and color mixing. I am very proud of their hard work!

Op Art

I always save op art for the end of year for my 4th and 5th graders. They love seeing all the examples of op art. And I love it because it is an easy clean up project for the end of the school year when I feel like all I'm doing is cleaning ;)

Clay Frogs

Baird Bee Painted Bench for Downtown

Our downtown district was looking for artists to paint iron benches for the Downtown Broadway District in Green Bay. I applied and was granted permission to have my 5th grade students help me paint the bench. They did such a great job helping me! We were given only a week time frame to get this completed and it turned out fantastic! I couldn't have done it without their help!

Wayne Thiebaud Cupcakes

This was the last big project of the year for first graders. We learned all about the Pop Artist Wayne Thiebaud and his wonderful dessert paintings. I was very focused this year on getting my first graders to master the basic art skills of cutting, gluing, and painting properly. To wrap up the year they took a gluing assessment  to check their gluing skills. I have found that gluing is a basic skill that needs to be revisited every year, by every grade level. Students focused very much on using the correct amount of glue, making sure all pieces of paper were glued flat, and when gluing making sure the tip of the glue bottle is touching the paper. They did a great job!

**Lesson credit to Artolazzi**

Grant Wood Chicken Weather Vanes

Students learned all about the artist Grant Wood. We compared how Grant Wood grew up in Iowa to our lives here in Wisconsin. Students looked at several photographs of barns and weather vanes. Students drew either a rooster or chicken on metal tool and added patterns. They then stained it with India Ink and cut it out. Students drew just the top part of a barn and attached the chicken/rooster as a weather vane.