Holiday Crafting

I had to post this cute picture of me and my daughter working on her felt Christmas tree over the weekend. She's gonna be two on the first of the year and has already shown a lot of interest in art, YAY! She helped peel off the bar code stickers on the felt and then placed them all in piles for me. She's my little helper:)

Picasso's Guitars

Second graders learned about the artist Pablo Picasso. We discussed and looked at his artworks from the periods of his career: the Blue Period, the Rose Period, and Cubism. We also noticed that Picasso had a lot of musical things in his paintings. They looked at all different types of guitars and got to draw any type of they guitar they wanted and then painted them in with blue paint. They then added details using black and grey paper, and newspaper.
(I saw this project on Dali's Mustache blog, thank you:)

Van Gogh's Chair

Third graders learned Vincent Van Gogh through a short video. We looked at all the paintings that had his chair in them. We paid close attention to the special relationships between the legs of the chair and the corner of the room. The third graders did a pencil drawing first, then painted the drawing in with tempera paints. On the last day of the project, I gave them small paint brushes to do all the small details and outlining.

Kandinsky Portraits

First graders learned about the artist Wassily Kandinsky. We looked at all the lines and shapes in his artworks. They were able to point out all the different types of lines used in Kandinsky's artwork. They also learned about the difference between a line and shape. They drew 7 different types of lines and 5 shapes on their drawing paper. They then painted over it with water color. I took their photographs, they posed like they were pretending to shout. During their work time I had them come up to my computer and they told me 3 things about themselves that we turned into I statements. Their portraits are shouting all the wonderful things about themselves.
(I originally saw the portait part of this project on Pinterest)

Paper Mache Pumpkins

Fifth graders reviewed three dimensional shape. They made the paper mache pumpkins from recyclable materials- plastic grocery bags, old newspapers, and rubber bands. They covered the armature with two layers of paper mache. Then painted it with a glittery orange. Once dried, they added the lines with Sharpies.

Dragons Starting with a line of yarn

Mummies and Candy Corn

Spiders

Third graders learned the vocabulary word, concentric circles- circles that are inside other circles and are evenly spaced out. They gave several examples of concentric circles that they have seen on signs, in nature, and in everyday objects. Some that even I didn’t think of! First we drew concentric half circles then traced them with glue to make the spider’s web. Next we created a three dimensional spider using tinfoil. We painted in the spaces between our concentric half circles and the rest of the background using water colors, then hot glued our spiders to the web.

Different Perspective Trees

 

Fifth graders learned about two different types of perspective, worm’s eye and bird’s eye. Worm’s eye perspective is as if you were a worm looking up at the sky. Bird’s eye perspective is as if you were a bird looking down at the ground.

Fifth graders drew fall trees from a worm’s eye perspective. They used oil pastels for the tree trunks and leaves, paying close attention to blending techniques. They then painted the sky with water color. The fifth graders have a great “perspective” on their artwork!

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!