5th grade pinecone progress...

We had some beautiful snow a couple of weeks ago and a few school delays, so my classes are a little behind on the projects they started at the beginning of January.  I wanted to post a few in progress pictures of the pinecones that my 4th and 5th graders are working on.  I have really enjoyed this one so far and I will definitely be adding it to my regular list of projects for winter.  The students have learned about so many of the elements of art AND principles of design with this one.  We've discussed value, shape, form, texture, and of course line.  They learned about repetition while drawing the pinecone, and are now practicing shading with black, brown, and white paint.  I can't wait to share our finished ones!

Parrot progress!

Oooo I'm loving how some of these are turning out!  They are practicing blending in color wheel order, using my handy dandy paintbrush color wheel I made at the beginning of the year.  (More on that later. :) 

We are also blending in our leaves, using dark and light green, along with some yellow.  This student is doing a fantastic job on her leaves.

zebra surrealism!!

This is of my favorite projects for 5th grade that I repeat almost every year.  It's great for learning about surrealism and the anatomy of the eye.  We look at artists who painted surrealistic paintings like Dali. Of course their favorite is The Persistence of Memory.  They love the melting clocks, and who can blame them?! They're so cool! 

We also discuss the parts of the eye,  what their purpose is, and why they're the color that they are.  When they discover that the pupil is a hole in their eye it completely grosses them out!  Ha!

Last, we use our favorite method of shading with analogous colors.  They use their color wheels to determine the best combinations for their stripes.  Using watercolor, we paint each part in a specific order so certain areas are dry for the next step, like the eyelashes.  No one likes an exploding eyelash. :)

I'll post finished pieces when we're done!  

Wintry sneak peek!

A little sneak peek of what we're working on in 5th grade!  A review from October in value and blending makes this project really turn out well.  I can't wait to show you the finished pieces! 

Santa Clause suits!

I've seen this design floating around on Pinterest for several years, and this year I needed a super quick project for my 5th graders.  This one was perfect and we finished it completely in one day!  I love these!  We did a short value study with paint and practiced blending to show texture. 

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!  

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!

Happy First Day of Spring!!

Ironically, today is a dreary, cold, and rainy day... The temperature is a balmy 45 degrees on the first day of spring. :( So... I'm happy to be creating such beautiful bright and colorful flowers in a few of my classes this week.  It definitely has brightened up my morning!  We added polka dots to the background of these and I love the striking effect of them!

This student asked if he could do his in shades of black, white, and gray.  It turned out awesome!

Happy Spring!

More Georgia O'Keefe inspired paintings! :)

5th grade is finishing these gorgeous spring flowers this week.  This class had a LOT of purple and orange and blue color combinations!  I love this yellow and blue one!