Cats on the fence in 5th grade

My fifth graders are finishing up their paintings this week.  They practiced blending in a circle for the background and we also discussed many different types of lines as we drew these together. It's always a struggle to get them to fill the page with their artwork but I think they nailed it with this project!  

Not so scary scarecrows in 1st grade!

This project covers several of our elements of art and principals of design, including line, shape, color, repetition, balance, and the list goes on!  We can also learn a little about more about drawing the face and use what they've learned previously about drawing self portraits.  These are so cute, every single one of them has so much character!

4th grade Spooky Halloween Houses

This is one of those projects I repeat each year in 4th grade.  They seem to get better.  The colors were especially vibrant this year! 

We discuss unity and line, as well as artistic styles with this project.  I think they enjoy the fact that they don't have to make their lines straight. 

They are still finishing up some coloring but I couldn't wait to post them! 

Sneak Peeks!! Pumpkins, scarecrows, haunted houses, spiders and cats on a fence!

A few things we're working on this week! I can't wait to share the finished pieces!  

Kindergarten is learning about overlapping, line, and shape in their pumpkin paintings:

First grade is whipping up some excellent scarecrows using what they know about line, shape, and self portraits:

2nd grade is still working diligently on their Grant Wood pumpkin farms, learning about depth and foreground/midground/background.  I didn't get pics of theirs just yet! 

3rd grade is practicing their spider web drawing skills with line and shape (webs are drawn on the back):

4th grade is learning about unity and artistic style in their whimsical haunted houses:

Fifth grade is studying abstract art and will also be learning about blending in a circle with paint next week:

More pictures to come!!

More 3rd Dot Day Creatures

I posted a few of these last week so I'm following up with a few more!  I love how creative students got with this project!  I gave them just a few guidelines, discussing symmetry for their creature as well as that it should be made MOSTLY with dots.  At the end they could add a few non-dot details such as antennas and feet.  

This one reminds me of the Gru's dog in Despicable Me!  :)

She said, "it's a Koala bear with her baby!" I was impressed! 

I can't wait to display these!  They all turned out so awesome!

Dot Day Creatures in 3rd grade

Third grade is finishing up their Dot Day creatures this week!

Adding to our dot day mobiles in 5th grade

I see students weekly at one of my schools and not as often at the other, so to keep them together (and keep my sanity!) we continue adding to the same project at the school where I see them more often.  To make our dots look more like some of Vashti's dots we added stitching.  I considered just having students draw or paint different types of lines as Vashti does but this was way more fun! 

We punched an even number of holes around the edges of our dots. 

Then we experimented with different stitches like a straight stitch and a whip stitch. They turned out so neat!  The only problem is, now I want both schools to complete this step... But I suppose that would defeat the purpose! ;)

Happy International Dot Day!

September 15-ish is here!  We have been celebrating International Dot Day by creating artwork inspired by Peter H. Reynolds' book, The Dot.  It's an inspiring story about a girl who is encouraged by her art teacher to "make a mark and see where it takes you." Each class has watched a quick 3 minute animated version of The Dot I found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=t5mGeR4AQdM as we continue work on our dot projects.  5th grade is channeling Alexander Caulder in their dot mobiles:

Lots more coming soon!

Kindergarten self portraits

I never know what I'm going to get when I do self portraits with kindergarten! I have to say I was pretty impressed with how they followed directions.  We discussed the face shape, the proportions and how using a few simple lines would make our faces look more realistic.  I plan to do this again later in the year and go into more detail for the eyes and other features.  

This little guy got so upset when he realized his was crooked!  It turned out to be one of my favorites! 

Check out the hands on this one!  Note that we did not go into detail about drawing hands, he just did this on his own!  

Lots o dots!

Lots of dot projects going on this week in preparation for International Dot Day! We have dots everywhere in all shape and sizes to be used for various projects.  

Scrap painted paper storage... I can't bear to waste it so we cut and cut until there's nothing left. :)

Also some trees going on in fourth grade for their dot project... I can't wait to share the final pieces!

Aftermath of creating painted paper...

I just tried not to look this week... I promise I taught these students how to properly use their brushes, but when using them all day as we did last week and yesterday, it's inevitable that they'll look like this:

Ugh... The horror!! Oh well, they cleaned up like a charm! (After about 45 minutes of washing.) It was worth it though, I think the kids enjoyed their first week in art and we got a beautiful start on our first projects, which will be based on the book, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. I'm starting the year off a little different this year as we prepare for a celebration of International Dot Day coming up around September 15-ish.  I usually start the year with our Art By Me fundraiser, but this year we'll be doing that in the spring to give us more time to create our masterpieces.  Happy First Week back!

First Day 2015!

Today was a pretty great day!  Usually the first day is a little chaotic, and maybe it was for the rest of my school, but over in art-land in my new classroom, it was fantastic!  I found out just last week I would be moving from my tiny room upstairs in the gym to a mobile unit. I am thrilled to say the least!  The only thing that would make it perfect is a sink, but I didn't have one in my last room either and cool whip bowls and milk jugs totally make it work.  Way better than hauling all my stuff to their classrooms.  We have so much room to move around and our classes are smaller this year which is a dream!  I can actually have conversations with my students and not feel as if I have 25 kids talking at once. True story. ;) 

So with the exception of 1 or 2 students, I am very blessed to have had all of my students for the last 4 years.  That means they know my expectations and rules, so aside from reminders of procedures here and there as we work, we can jump right into art.  We began the year by making painted paper.  It's the perfect quick but fun project.  They love to paint, they love to mix colors and paint what they want, and I love the outcome for projects later in the year.  It's a win-win for all! ;) 

 

Loading them up to dry! It's funny when kindergarten pipes up with questions about the mechanics of the drying rack.  They think it magically dries the papers faster, even though I attempt to explain that it's just simply a method for storage wet artwork until it dries, they usually don't get it until about 1st or 2nd grade! :)