Something’s Fishy About This…

I have kind of (really) gotten on a fish kick with some of my classes. My Kinders, 2nd, and 3rd graders have all been working on fish projects. With K and 2, we talked about Henri Matisse and his beautiful fishbowl paintings. And with 3rd Grade, we looked at pictures of koi fish and discussed the story of the koi in the waterfall and how they are symbols for strength and perseverance. I love how fantastic they all are turning out. 

Kindergarten (we read Henri’s Scissors with this!) 

Second grade:

*thanks to Whitney Elementary on Artsonia for the example we used! 

Third Grade:

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Sunburst Paintings

My fifth graders started these sunburst paintings today.  They were fully engaged and enjoying the freedom to experiment with color mixing.  I can’t wait to see their finished products!  Thanks to  Small for Big for such a great idea!

A-corny Jokes!

Sharing some corny jokes to go along with our fall acorn paintings! 

Sometimes you have to put it out to pasture…

My fifth graders have been working on these cow paintings for a few weeks now. We discussed foreshortening and looked at lots of examples before we started our sketches. 

When they finished their sketches, I let them choose a color for their background but gave them black and white or analogous colors to add to the main color to give the pictures some depth.  

I gave them a fairly limited palette with only brown, black, white, and the primary colors to paint their cows and they did a nice job mixing to get the other colors they wanted. 

Some of these are just hilarious because of the expressions on the faces but I love all of them. The drawing goal was to show depth with foreshortening and the painting goal was to show texture with painting technique and more depth with highlights and shadows. 

I’ll be adding more photos of finished cows soon! 

   
    
    
    
   

Folk Art Friskies

I’m looking forward to starting these precious folk art style black cats with my kinders next week.  We are getting in lots of practice with painting, lines, shapes, and colors this first quarter.  I found this lesson on Art Projects for Kids – check out her original post here.  It goes well with the Halloween season but if you don’t do holiday art, you could always do another animal or do it at a different time of year.  I’ve posted my step by step pictures and I’ll post their works of art (which are sure to be way cuter and filled with lots of personality) when we are finished.

  
   
    
 

Some finished products…

Most students had a difficult time with the border. They grasped the idea of a pattern but put in a ton of lines to create their blocks so it took them forever to color. I did learn to tell them to use their thumb as a spacer when creating them. That helped a little. 

   
    
    
   

Little Kids, Big Cats: Henri Rousseau Style

I usually do Henri Rousseau cut paper collages with second graders but I found this new project over at Art with Mrs. Seitz and I just love it. The kids do too – they don’t want to leave class because they want to finish their paintings! It is taking several (maybe 4) classes but they are doing so great. I totally copied Mrs. Seitz on the learning goals: I can tell about Henri Rousseau; I can paint smoothly and with detail; I can paint this entire picture without using pencil!
Check them out!

Lots of tigers, ready for their stripes!

  

  

You know they’re into it when the room is dead silent because they are all so focused. Intense 2nd graders. 🙂 

  

The tigers are finally complete! This took many weeks but the outcome has been worth it. Each tiger is so cute and full of personality. 

   

         

Monarchs for Los Muertos

First graders are getting in on the Dia de Los Muertos fun with their monarch paintings. We drew with sharpies, colored with crayon, and will be painting next week with watercolors!
Instead of a directed drawing, I decided to just show them quickly how I draw a butterfly and then let them go for it.

UPDATE:
A couple of the classes have painted their flowers this week and they are so pretty.

Anatomy of an Acorn

First graders have been working on their painting skills by learning to use value to show form. We also integrated their lesson of labeling things in a scientific diagram by learning about and labeling the parts on an acorn. They are really turning out well.

Happy Earth Day!

To celebrate Earth Day with my first graders, we talked about the saying, “The Earth without Art is just Eh”. They loved it and thought it was hilarious saying, “Eh.” Silly kids. 🙂
So then we discussed some Earth Day facts and pretended to be the hippies at the original Earth Day. Then we got down to business and started painting on our newspaper. We drew a big circle and then used a crayon to write the quote around it. Then we painted our earth and if they finished that in time, they were allowed to paint the background with any colors they wanted.
They turned out colorful and great and they had a blast. Perfect. 🙂

North Carolina Lighthouse Paintings

Fourth graders started these awesome lighthouse pictures today. We looked at some artists from North Carolina that paint seascapes and lighthouses and then looked at some of the famous lighthouses along the Outer Banks.

We started by drawing a few levels of waves and then they had to choose a lighthouse to draw. Then we added zentangle designs to the waves. Next week we will paint the sky and water. Debating on adding a ship. Last year we didn’t do the lighthouse but did 2 ships. I’ll probably let the kids decide.

I thought these two were already looking pretty awesome!