Friday, September 27, 2013

Crayon Drawings


 




4th and 5th graders learned about two of the Principles of Design: BALANCE and UNITY.
In a work of art BALANCE refers to the arrangement of elements on either side of a centered line. Shapes and colors can be arranged to create a sense of balance. UNITY makes an artwork feel complete and finished.
For their project, the students traced a large crayon shape three or more times. The students were required to create balance in their artwork with these shapes. There also had to be on area of overlapping in their drawing. Finally, they needed to create unity in their artwork by making their drawing look complete and finished by coloring in neatly.

Mondrian Grid Art



1st graders learned about horizontal and vertical lines. They also learned about the three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue.

Jazz Instruments





Romare Bearden was an African-American artist and writer. Bearden had many 3 main influences on his art, country life, city life, and music. He especially loved jazz music.

·    Students learned about artist Romare Bearden.

·       Students learned about jazz music and jazz instruments.

·       Students choose one or more jazz instruments to draw.

·       They then outlined with chalk pastel and colored in adding lots of color detail.

·       They then divided background into several sections to color in brightly with oil pastel.

Paper Bag Monkeys


2nd graders learned all about monkeys! We read a story, I Want My Banana, by Mary Risk. They also watched a short video to learn a variety of facts about monkeys. Did you know monkeys have an opposable thumb? Or that mama monkeys only have 1 baby a year because they have to do everything for that baby the first year of its life. Did you know that monkeys that all live together are called troops? These are just a few of the interesting facts that second graders learned about monkeys! They made the head of the monkey first using different colored construction paper. Next they stuffed a paper bag with newspaper and cut/crinkled 5 sheets of brown paper for the arms, legs, and tails. To put the monkey together, Ms. Stalsberg stapled everything together to make the monkeys come alive!

Monday, September 23, 2013

4th and 5th Self Portrait Zentangle Arm Prints

4th and 5th graders made these awesome arm prints! They traced their arm and hand first on colored paper. The first day they looked through magazines to find 2-3 images that described themselves or was a picture of something they liked to do or were interested in. Once the images were glued to their arm prints, they created Zentangle designs in the empty space. I had Zentangle books and print outs for them to look at to get ideas for their designs. Then they cut and glued to black paper where I had written Reach For The Stars.

Grade 3 Handprint Tree




 Third graders worked collaboratively to make a grade level tree. They traced their hands, designed and colored in, then glued to a tree I had pre-cut.


Grades 1 and 2 Collaborative Circles



After going over rules and expectations for the year I needed something simple and something that would be successful for all my students right off the bat. We talked about working as independent artists, and then also working collaboratively as artist. Each student got a section of a circle to color and design how they desired. I told them to focus on being creative and neat. Then we glued them together like a puzzle. Great, easy project to get the art juices flowing and the halls decorated quickly!

Welcome Back!

New school year! New art projects! Yipppeee!
 
Some of my handy work to spruce up my room. It was a bulletin board in the hallway that said Paint Your Own Future. I couldn't throw it out, so I hung it up in my room.