Hit the ground running....

Every year, it seems I find more and more lessons that I want to try out! With the invention of the most magnificent virtual pin board... (you know who you are) I'm set with boards and boards of lessons for about the next nine years.

This adorable lesson was adapted from a collaborative high school art project. Since we are "Meeting New Friends in Art" this year, we started with the always interesting Vincent Van Gogh.

After viewing artwork by Van Gogh and discussing what "clues" let us know that a masterpiece was painted by him, we started on our lesson inspired by his work.

 

Each student designed a sunflower experimenting with line, and traced over it with a sharpie (kinda my all-time art medium ever).

 

 

We filled in with warm colors using markers.

 

 

And finally put them all together as a group project on 18x24 paper.

 

 

 

Pretty fabulous, right? And a nice way to teach warm and cool colors, radial symmetry, history, pattern, line, texture..... and the list goes on and on!

 

'Till next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifth Grade Legacy Project, part 2!

At Blossomwood, we decided this year to start leaving a Legacy Project from each fifth grade class. This year, our "Seniors" are creating a tile wall. We started by looking at images of Matisse's cut paper collages. The student were then assigned a organic shape to draw and paint on a tile. We layered the glazes 3-4 times on the tiles to make sure the colors are vibrant and bright, and top coated the underglazes with a clear, shiny glaze. The kids are amazed at how the kiln turns the glazes bright and shiny.

After framing, grouting and cleaning the mural, here is the finished project!

I can't wait to see this beautiful piece of art hanging in our school for years!

Quite possibly the best lesson ever.....

Okay, You guys that know me... or well, follow me, know that I hardly ever take credit for a completely original idea.

To me, it's just as important to work smarter, not harder. This lesson is a PERFECT example of taking something fantastic and making it even better!

These Japanese  Koi fish were found on www.artprojectsforkids.me  a website that absolutely could teach a hamster to draw... (no offense hamsters). I love this site and frequently use it's step by step approach to teach kids to ANALYZE (what? a higher order thinking skill from Bloom's Taxonomy in Art Class?) and CREATE (what? the HIGHEST thinking skill on Bloom's Taxonomy?) their own drawings. Even though the instructions were basically the same for each child, all of the drawings look different.

 

So there. Quite possibly the best lesson ever.... and I had nothing to do with it's creation.

It's CLAY DAY!

 

 

Check out this little herd of elephants! My 4th and 5th graders really loved working with clay and creating this wonderful little creatures.

 

The kids really enjoying discussing fractions when we divided our clay into pieces to form our elephants. Then I really blew them away discussing the science of firing clay and the evaporation of water molecules!

 

 

 

 

 

After firing, we will paint them gray and take them home to treasure forever!

Where are you Spring?

I don't know about you guys, but I am ready for some warm weather, bright colors and fresh air around here! I felt like my Pre- K and Kindergarteners agreed, so we created printed Cherry Blossom trees inspired by Japanese Sumi E painting.

We began by looking at some Sumi E paintings like this:

(image from bing image search)

They we used recycled cardboard piece to dip and print tree limbs like this:

and then added wadded up tiny pieces of tissue to add the blossoms like this:

Finishing off with a "chop mark" cut from e-z cut linoleum to make our painting look as authentic as possible.

I'm hoping that warmed you up a little... only 28 days left of winter, but who's counting?

Up, up and Away!

Continuing with our "Traveling Around the World" theme, we "visited" France where the hot air balloon was invented. After a brief science lesson on hot vs. cold air, we began assembling our balloons.

 

We started by decorating the balloon with pattern and coloring in with oil pastels.

 

Then cutting and gluing construction paper to create a layered background.

 

 

And finishing with a photo in a basket held on my yarn.

 

All of them turned out great...and the kids really enjoyed posing for their high-flying pictures!

 

Blosssomwood Fifth Grade Legacy Project

At Blossomwood, we decided this year to start leaving a Legacy Project from each fifth grade class.
This year, our "Seniors" are creating a tile wall.

We started by looking at images of Matisse's cut paper collages. The student were then assigned a organic shape to draw and paint on a tile.

We layered the glazes 3-4 times on the tiles to make sure the colors are vibrant and bright, and top coated the underglazes with a clear, shiny glaze.

The kids are amazed at how the kiln turns the glazes bright and shiny.

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

COMING SOON!

 

 

What a wonderful piece of art to leave as their "legacy."