Flamingos

4/5 learned about warm and cool colors and created abstract flamingos using those colors.  They used crayon in the opposite colors they chose to use on the inside of the flamingo so if their flamingo was warm on the inside the crayons were cool colors. then we finished with splatter(blow) painting around the flamingo in the colors of the bird.   We also looked at and talked about the work of Romare Beardon to learn a bit about collage art... it also worked out during Black History month so we made a few connections all around.

We used tissue paper and newspaper on the collage portion and connected it to the paper with either modge podge or a 50/50 glue water solution- both worked great.  Very nice results with this one to spring up our Florida school halls!

Monet's Water Lilies

For the last  project of the year my K1 Kiddos played around with the starting stages of collage.  We started by watching the Movie: Monet

Then they painting a piece of 9x12 paper with different colors of blue and purple tempera cakes creating movement in overlapping to create their pond.  The next class they cut out bean shaped lily pads and used tissue paper(twisting the little square pieces on the back of their pencils) to create pretty little flowers to go on top of them.  We overlapped the two colors of green and then glued the little flowers on top and then onto the pond and they were done! Very quick and fun project for the end of they year! Great way to use up old pieces of used green paper too!

A Few Samples:

 Students were asked to have at least 2 big lily pads but if time allowed or they worked to small they could add more to their pond.

Luck of the Irish!

For a quick one day project I decided to pull from a project my cop. teacher did last year on Matisse.  We traced Shamrocks and cut them out the created a collage utilizing EVERY piece of paper.... we could have done this for 2- 40 min classes but i wanted to the kids to have it done and with them for St. Patrick's day and before Spring Break.  Fun project to let them think outside the box, work independently and also worked well for k-5 allowing each to be as detailed as their age allowed.  Very fun!

Picasso took over the Art room!!

All of my students created a Picasso inspired project this semester. 

K-1 students created Picasso's Flowers,  by tracing their hands and adding green stems with markers then testing their cutting skills by creating the flowers. 

2-3 students created a collage in the crazy abstract style of Picasso using cut paper and then finishing with a black paint outline.

4-5- This was the project of the year! We started by studying Picasso's Old Guitarist and then broke down the parts and drew the man together as a class.  We then discussed Monochromatic color schemes and how you make tints and shades of the same color.   The students had a lot of trouble with proportions when we first started this project so it took some time but i created scaled boxes which i had the students trace on their papers to then draw each body part in.  The results aren't perfect but then again, what Picasso art work is?

Fruit Mosaics

Third grades Fruit bowl mosaics turned into more of a project than i had imagined.... took FOREVER to complete leaving them with one great project for the quarter.   They learned the history behind mosaic art and then how they could create one using cut paper.  It was quite the task to make sure they understood that they didn't overlap the paper but those that understood the concept and took their time did a fabulous job!  Here are a few shots of them in process... never got a finished picture since they went right up in frames around the school but ill get one on here asap.

Secondary Frogs

My 2nd grade students needed a little refresher on mixing colors, what colors are primary and secondary, what that means, and how you make them.  So they created their secondary frogs.  They learned how to make the secondary colors then actually blended the paint colors to create the secondary color.  They then used stamped tissue paper to cut out lily pads and glue their frogs into their paper pond.  Here are a few pictures of the process...,

Some came out better than others in the end but these are the few pictures i remember to take... over all it turned into more of a process than product project. 

One Project Down, Many more to go...

Under the Sea

First project the kids did for the year was aimed to please the parents with our annual art fundraiser with Square One Art.  the students took the school team mascots and designed and under the sea world using different color combinations and colleaguing techniques.  

 The Kindergarten kiddos created hand print fish, the First grade crew created Rays, Second Eels, Third sponge painted Seahorses and fourth used analogous colors to create a collage styled and animal of their choice and Fifth grade used Warm and Cool colors to decorate their chosen animal.

Kindergarten:

First Grade:

 Second Grade:

 Third Grade:

Fourth Grade:

 Fifth Grade: