Very High-Brow Artistic Shading...or just talented kids.

Here are my fourth and fifth graders van Gogh inspired Irises. My students used oil pastels to create shadows and light on their irises, making them more realistic. Also notice how the overlapping of the stems create depth. Wow!

Starry Night, paint your palette blue and grey...

Our Second and Third graders joined in the 'van Gogh fun" by using oil pastels to create a "Starry Night" inspired piece. With very SIMPLE instructions, these guys owned it.

van Gogh, more than cutting off ears.

Our Kindergarteners and First Graders got some great practice cutting, gluing and drawing with their Sunflower creations. Each piece was traced and cut, then glued together. The students used warm colors, or "colors of the sun" to fill the petals. To complete their drawing, the students drew pots and stems for their cut paper sunflower. Here are a few examplse of a beautiful sunflower inspired by van Gogh, and the original... Can you tell the difference?

Spooky Fun

Hello Friends!
Here's the next fabulous lesson... we took a break from our very serious art history curriculum to do something fun... check it out... you'll love it!

Kindergarten and First grade did FUNNY MUMMIES! We discussed briefly Ancient Egypt and mummification-- isn't that what every 6 year old talks about? The cool part is the art process. We used crayon to draw and color our mummies, and liquid watercolor to paint over then. Learning a science concept... water and oil don't mix... the crayon repelled the watercolor and gave a great antiqued effect to the mummies.

and here's the end result!

So then... Second and third grade did a little research on Owls. We looked at books about different species of owls. Thank you Ms. Fuller for collaborating in our Professional Learning Community--(also known as a school).
Our kids... rocked it.

but my all time favorite....maybe because I'm an architecture nerd... VICTORIAN HOUSES!

My students were given the option to make then spooky, but only after they drew historically correct Victorian Homes. A few of my Blossomwood kids were lucky enough to take a walking tour around our temporary home in East Clinton School to see the real thing.

Henri Matisse

So our first lesson was inspired by Henri Matisse.

 My K-1's did torn paper faces.

aren't they fabulous!? My darling ones learned to use glue and fine motor skills by tearing little pieces and placing them perfectly for "self-portraits" using bright, vibrant colors!

Then, 2-3 graders did a Matisse-inspired goldfish watercolor painting.

and LOOK at what they did! They EXCELLED in taking care of their brushes, and using both watercolor cakes and liquid watercolors.

4-5 grades did a cut paper collage of a self-portrait.

Again, amazing. I love the expressive faces that they made by just using scissors. NO DRAWING ALLOWED!

The two main things I want your child to remember about Matisse is that he loved to "draw with scissors" and he loved to use bright, vibrant colors in his paintings-- twhich was very unpopular at the time.
I'm amazed every day at how smart and creative my little ones are... Thanks for sharing them with me.

New at This!

Hey Guys,
So.... I'm biting the technological bullet and starting a blog to share the wonderful work created by my students at Blossomwood and Highlands Elementary Schools. So get ready parents, friends and colleagues...to see some fantastic work, lots of mistakes and hopefully lots of great ideas!