Third Grade Bonsai Trees

Third grade has been working on bonsai trees and pots throughout the first semester. The project began with making coil pots and glazing them. Once that part was completed students created 3D wire and pipe cleaner tree sculptures. To top it off students added leaves made from tissue paper.

Third Grade Sakura

Third grade has been diligently working on creating clay bonsai pots, first designing the pot, then sculpting it out of clay and finally glazing their fired projects. Well while the clay was drying and being fired in the kiln we had enough time for this brief little project.

Students were introduced to one of the most famous Japanese icons, the cherry blossom tree or sakura.

Miharu Takizakura Tree in Fukushima

We discussed the importance of the tree in Japanese culture and looked at images of Japanese cherry blossom viewing parties. Then students created these neat little cherry tree branch paintings.

Cherry Blossom Viewing Party

To start out the background was created using an analogous color scheme (three colors next to each other on the color wheel) out of chalk pastel. Then the branch was created by blowing around india ink with a straw and the flowers were made with dots of red and white paint.

A quick little lesson that introduced students to another color scheme and another piece of Japanese culture.

Fourth Grade Reduction Prints

Fourth grade has just recently finished up a very involved printmaking project. Students looked at traditional Japanese woodblock printing and made guesses on how the artists were able to print in so many colors.

Students were shown that the artist printed each color in a separate layer, so to create a four colored print the image had to be inked and stamped four times. To simulate the look of a Japanese woodblock print without the woodblock students used styrofoam plates and a reduction printmaking technique. 

Here are some finished reduction prints.

Japanese Bedrooms

Second grade recently finished up making paper bedrooms. As a class we looked at typical Japanese architecture and tried to notice similarities with all the images. Some things students noticed was the appearance of shoji (Japanese sliding screens) and tatmi mats (a type of rug usually made of rice straw).

Students were then asked to design their very own Japanese room, making sure to include the tatami mat and shoji screen. These little dioramas were made entirely from paper! On the last day of the project students were introduced to the ancient art of origami. 

Each student folded his/her own origami chair which they then added to the paper room. 

The Great Wave

First graders began our exploration of Japan by looking at one of the most recognizable pieces of artwork from that country, The Great Wave (of Kanagawa). aka Hokusai's Wave.

For those interested in learning more abut The Great Wave click here (an enthralling BBC report).

As for the first graders we took this picture as an opportunity to discuss the term landscape. Now the first graders can tell you landscape can mean either an artwork depicting areas of land or the particular orientation of an artwork.

Students drew their own versions of The Great Wave and then painted them using cool colors for the water/land and warm colors for the sky.

Notans

Fifth graders are finishing up their first Japanese inspired project, notans! A notan is a Japanese concept involving the play and placement of light and dark as they are placed next to each other.

 Students began by drawing designs on a square of black paper. Once everything was drawn students then cut out the designs and begin assembling on a larger white piece of paper. As students begin  to glue the cut out shapes each piece becomes the mirror image of the negative space. The idea of positive and negative space was a big concept with our notans.

Kon'nichiwa! A New Year in the Art Room

We are now into our second week of school and are starting up some really great projects I'm excited to share with you! First though I thought I'd give you an official look around my newly designed art room!

This year Woodland students will be traveling throughout parts of Asia in art class.  We will learn about famous artists from these countries, as well as traditional arts and crafts. To start students will be learning about Japan. Students will notice little touches of this island country throughout the room, such as our color wall being in English and Japanese.

For the first week all the upper elementary students (3rd through 5th) are creating sketchbooks that we will use throughout the year. I'm calling them our artist passports. While lower el created passport photos (self-portraits). As we jump into our second week students are working on printmaking, watercolor, origami and much more. Stay tuned for more updates!

It's Been Awhile

This first year has just flown by! We are in countdown mode now, but the last couple months have been packed full of activities and the school ART SHOW!!! It was quite the undertaking, with over 1,200 pieces of artwork covering all the halls.

So now over the last two weeks of school I will bombard you with all the projects we have been creating for the last couple of months!

To start here are some Kindergarten paper lions!

Canopic Jars

So these beauties were started wayyyyyy back in December before holiday break, they were finished up upon our return in January and I'm finally getting around to posting them. So this was quiet the project.

This project went along with our Ancient Egyptian unit. The fourth graders looked at canopic jars and discussed the uses and the reason behind the animal heads on each jar. Then students brainstormed ideas for their very own canpoic jar. The next several classes were spent building up the form around a yogurt cup with newspaper, masking tape and paper mache paste. This part really stretches some students thinking, having to transfer a 2D drawing to a 3D sculpture.

After weeks of building their creations it was finally time to paint. My students simply used tempera paint which they then covered with a paint on clear acrylic sealer to prevent the paint from chipping off.

 Since wrapping up Ancient Egypt we have zoomed forward thousands of years to look at astronauts and outer space with our next art with science unit.

Weaving Crocodiles

First grade has been working on a project that has many, many steps and took just as many class periods to finish. Now they are finally complete and the results are totally worth the wait. To finish up our Ancient Egyptian theme students have been making weaving crocodiles. The idea for this project came from art teacher Cassie Stephens. You can check out her blog here.

First students learned about the ancient art of weaving, how it is done, what it could be used for etc. We also learned Ancient Egyptians used weaving all the time! Students decorated their strips of paper with patterns and designs cut out from colored construction paper. After the strips were decorated students assembled the weaving.

After the weaving was finally complete, which was a big project all on its own we began to create the different body parts to turn our weaving's into crocodiles. Students cut out tails, which we stamped with green paint and cardboard. We also created the crocodiles mouth, which we made into puppet mouths. This added an extra day to the lesson and was a tad difficult but the students love the fact that they can make their crocodiles mouth open and close.