Just Keep Swimming....

This school year was hard for me to switch gears from "swim team mom" to "full time working mom"... so I decided to incorporate a little of my summer into the art room.

We began by taking a look at David Hockney's California Series of Swimmers:

 

 

The kids discussed the rippling effect of the water in Hockney's painting and problem-solved to think of what type of art media we could use to create that "look" on our paper.

 

The student's started by drawing a figure (preferably themselves) swimming.... we discussed drawing bodies in motion, and proportion. After the figure was drawn, we colored in and added white crayon wiggly lines all around our swimmer.

 

 

 

 

Of course, the most fun part of all was adding the sparkling blue watercolor to the top of our drawing. My art scientists discovered that oil and water don't mix, and they crayon would repel the watercolor, creating a very cool effect on the paper.

 

 



 

 

A well-equipped swimmer.

 

 

A bathing beauty.

 

 

A very flexible fish of a guy.

The MOST Wonderful Time of the Year!

no, no, no.... I know what you're thinking... It's NUTCRACKER time! I'm one of those lucky girls that has a December birthday. So that means, Poinsettias on birthday cakes, joint birthday/Christmas gifts, birthday presents wrapped in Christmas paper... you get the idea.

BUT my most favorite part of having a December birthday is going to the Nutcracker Ballet each year as a birthday gift.

 

 

You can ask my friends, I'm a ballet snob... and I love EVERYTHING about it. If I could fit my size 9 feet in my size 7 old pointe shoes, I'd do it... and dance around. But alas....the closest I'll get to the stage is in seat Q14 this year.

 

 

 

So, what do to? MAKE NUTCRACKERS IN ART CLASS!!!!

 

 

and boy, did we....

 

 

big ones, little ones and even tiny, kindergarten toy soldier ones...

 

 

Merry, merry Nutcracker to you!

 

p.s. shameless shout-out to my friend, Lynn, who will run the Nutcracker Gift Shop for the Huntsville Ballet... and have my fabulous Nutcrackers on display. Thanks!

 

 



Camping, anyone?

This is a classic...."hmmmm what do I need to get rid of?"..... lesson.

Over run by matboard scraps, construction paper scraps, and random craft materials, we came up with this campground lesson. I say, "we" because literally that's what happened. I started teaching them to make an organic, abstract design with construction paper scraps and it turned into these adorable campgrounds.

 

 

Students, folded, crimped, cut and glued paper to make their own campsites, complete with tents, cots, blue cellophane "fishing holes," campfires from orange party streamers and tree and bushes galore.

 

Well done, campers! You are ready for Summer!

 

Hippity Hoppity...

This week, Kindergarten and First Grade took a look at a five hundred year old piece of artwork by Albrecht Durer.

We "drew with our scissors" to create one of our own "Chocolate Bunnies!"

While the kids were concentrating on cutting and gluing, I snuck in LOTS of geometry... vertical and horizontal lines, symmetry, rectangles, circles, squares, octagons....

...isn't it awesome how you can teach ANY subject in art class and make it fun? I'm so sneaky...

ENJOY!