Monets Garden

For this lesson, my 1st graders read the story of Claude Monet, called The Magical Garden of Claude Monet. We then looked at some different online visuals and discussed the favorite things we found in his garden. The students, after discussing horizon lines, created their own version of his garden. We colored and created a crayon resist by painting mixed colors over it.

Symmetrical bugs... The 2nd graders created symmetrical bugs by drawing half of their bug with pencil after folding the paper in half. They then outlined it with black crayon, and "transferred" the design on the other half by closing the paper and rubbing it with scissor handles. They then outlined the other side to match the first, and

then colored with oil pastels.

New School Year

I plan to try to use this blog more often, so that I can share via Pintrest as to what I am doing throughout the year. Trying to decide what to do to start off the year is always a huge challenge for me!!! I try to "outdo" what I did in the past. Last year I had each student decorate a pennant with things aobut themselves. I ended up hanging them all over the art room and I loved it. Now, with SLO's starting and the Ohio teacher evaluation coming down the pipes, I feel like I need to start off the year with a pre-assessment for the students. Something that I have never done before. I am stuck with how I am going to go about this. A short written quiz and a skills assessment might be my best bet. I am open to any ideas though!!!

Pointilism Art lesson, 3rd grade

After looking at pointilism and mosaic, my third graders were encouraged to create a small picutre that they would create in pointilism.  They used a small 9x9 colored peice of construction paper and tempera paint.

Recycled Tube Art lesson

Last year a parent donated a TON of small tape tubes to the art room.  I love when parents offer me stuff, but I wasn't sure about what to do with them.  I decided to have the students create ANYTHING they wanted with their tube. Well let me tell you, this was very hard for the students!! They are so used to having a topic for their lessons, and doing this as the first lesson after summer break made it even harder!! Some students really loved it, and went crazy with it, and some just were stuck!  I gave the students a variety of supplies to use, various papers, beads, pipe cleaners, etc.  I even pulled out hot glue guns to help stuff hold better.  I didnt let little kids use it, but my 5th graders were allowed to.  They handled that quite well.  Here are some photos of what they did....

Clay Food Art Lesson, 5th grade

Last year I decided to stray away from the typical coil pots that I have done with my fifth grade.  One of my students asked if we could make clay food, and I thought that would be a great idea.  We looked at some famous contemporary artists who have used food in/as the theme of their art, and started from there.  We use various methods to create our forms, depending what the food is.  After the clay was fired, they just used tempera to add the color, an modge podge to put a shine to it.  The clay food was a hit! The students an teachers loved to see what was made!

Outer Space Scenes, 1st grade

Space scene lesson, 1st grade.

I have done this Space scene lesson a ton of different ways, and I am not totally sold on if I like it or not.  They students draw out their scenes with pencil, and then color it in with oil pastel.  Once that is done, they use tempera cakes to paint in the sky.  This worked well as long as they outlined their work first.  After that was dry, they took a new 9x12 pice of white to create their rocket ship.  They used crayon and marker to add details and color, and then cut it and glued it on their page.