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!

FAUVIST LIONS!

This idea came from this post ... http://marymaking.blogspot.com/2011/09/leroy-neiman-inspired-lions.html.. on Mary Making.

I changed it a little but kept the basic concept and history portion similar.  I used colored pencils for the face and then added tempera paint for the main--- fun project with pretty good results... some students rushed and made a MESS but most did a pretty good job.   We talked a lot about subjective color use and how simply laying colors over others will keep the one color clean and also blend to create a new color with what is under it.  Very fun but i would make a few changes to how we draw the face next time.

Piet Primary Colors

Simple, quick but got the lesson learned... i really wanted to drill in learning the primary colors with my K-1 students this year so we did a quick Piet Modrian Project to learn about the 3 primary colors.  We started by reading the book Color, by Ruth Heller, which explains the printing process and how the 3 primary colors overlap to mix and make every color printed.  This along with my attention cue of saying "Red, Yellow, Blue and the students responding "Eyes on you" helped them learn that those 3 colors were important.  The two facts i made sure they all knew was that those 3 colors combine to make many other colors, and that they are the only 3 colors that cant be made by mixing others.  The project was dont with cut black strips that they glued down making geometric boxes like Modrian and then they colored in boxes with only the 3 primary colors like he used to paint with.  Okay results in the project but they do all now know the 3 primary colors and why they are special.

Book we read:

Finished K students work:

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.

One Day Owls

K-1 One Day Owls

As a quick filler project my k-1 students learned how to draw this fun lil owl.  We went step by step drawing together just with crayon (to avoid eraser worries) and then the students used watercolors to paint them in.

This owl was with one of my last classes when we  decided to call them Opposite Owls, learning about color opposites, this was a fun way to get a little color theory into the lesson, in the future i will probably do them all this way, just to avoid so many plain brown owls.

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. 

2nd Grd- Laurel Burch Cats

This project was one i picked up from my students teaching teacher and then i have seen many versions of it around the web.  But my second graders did a great job on this projects!  We started by viewing a short power point on Laurel Burch to make them familiar with the artist and her life.  They then got to work.  Each traced a pre-made Cat template and then drew in their cats face and tail details.  Then followed mixing their own tins and painting the whole cat.  then next day they added pattern details with construction paper crayons, and if they did a nice job and finished on time they were able to add smaller details with glitter glue.  Finishing by cutting out their cats and having their own Laurel Birch inspired feline.

The lesson over all took about 3 40 minute classes:
Day 1- Ppt and tracing
Day 2- Painting with tints
Day 3- Cutting out cat and adding crayon details and patterns with glitter glue 

My sample Cat :

 Second graders results:

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: