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.

End of the Week Sneak Peak!

The second week of art is in the books and while no grade is one hundred percent finished with their projects I'm too excited to wait to show you what they are working on! To start off the year every grade is using the Element of Art - LINE in their projects. For some younger grades it is simply learning about the different types of lines and for others it is using line to make a more complex work of art.

 In Kindergarten first we learned the proper steps when painting, we don't want flat hair do's on our brushes! Then we talked about different lines and painted each one across our paper.

The next class we reviewed all the lines we had learned and then talked about the difference between 2-D and 3-D. After we made 3-D line sculptures. They were quite colorful!



First graders reviewed what they learned about line from Kindergarten and made a line sculpture out of pipe cleaners. The following class we started our Line and Pattern Project. Students divided his/her paper using different lines and then filled in each section using a pattern.We'll be going over these with watercolor next week.

Second grade is using line to make a cityscape. Students looked at the use of line in architecture and we discussed the idea of geometric lines vs. organic lines. Students used markers to fill in his/her buildings with black geometric lines and we have now begun filling in the backgrounds iwth colorful organic lines.

 Third graders are also learning about geometric and organic (lines and shapes). We used what we learned to create Aztec Suns. When coloring students colored half the sun with hot colors and half with cool colors. Then we used the opposite for the background. Students are doing and excellent job blending with the oil pastels.

 

Fourth Grade is learning all about American artist Alexander Clader. He's the artist who invented the mobile, but he is also responsible for some wonderful sculptures that use contour line. Students practiced using continuous contour line to draw (which means we never pick up our pencil while drawing). Once we had our animals drawn we started to make the drawing using thin wire just like Clader!

Fifth grade has been busy creating an Optical Illusion Design using line. This is a really great project as it emphasizes good craftsmanship. By the end of this project students are masters of shading with color pencil.

   Lastly my group of ASD students have been hard at work practicing their cutting and gluing skills while learning about all the colors of the rainbow at the same time! ROYGBIV everyone! 

A Look Around the 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 new art room!

 Here is a nice view of the room as you enter the class. My tables are arranged so there is a straight shot to the seating area in the back.

This is the area where students sit while when I discuss new projects, read books or look at images from the computer with them. I'm really diggin' on this rug I picked up on sale at Target.
I have a small book shelf to the right.  I have a lot wonderful art themed books for curriculum, plus tons of fun books for students who finish early to read.
I also have our classroom rules and Wildcat ROARS on the wall. Plus our favorite role model Mona Lisa.

Here is a view of the front of the class where i have hung our classroom art jobs and class ART letters to keep noise volume down and students on task. Those paying close attention will also see that Ribs the Art frog has his new home on the table at the front of the class!!

Lastly I'd thought I'd share with everyone what our Wildcats created during their first week in art.

Every student created a mini self-portrait using a monochromatic color scheme. That means they could only use one color to create his/her portrait. For some it was a challenge (especially those that had yellow) but everyone did a great job using different shades of the same color and different materials to create stunning works of art.

After every student completed a portrait I got to work taping and gluing and gluing and gluing . . . sorry needless to say it was a lot of gluing and assembling our finished work in the hallway! 

So when everyone walked into school this morning they were greeted by all the students smiling faces in a Giant Rainbow Wall!!

Catching Up

Once again I know it has been awhile since my last post, but trust me we have been keeping very busy in the art room. Most of my upper grades have been working on wonderful weaving projects which I plan on posting once they are done in the coming weeks and I have been kept busy setting up for the district art show. Not to mention my third and second grade students are all working on clay!

 Speaking of clay I never did get around to posting the finished products of my fifth graders clay face jug projects (which you can read about here). So here they are in all their glazed glory.

My fourth grade students also finished up clay projects. They made pinch pots which we then filled up with clay succulent plants, such as cactus and hens and chicks. Some students also got creative and added extra embellishments to his/her pot. Once they were fired we painted them with neon paints.

Clay!

Well we finally made it! My school just had its first full five day week since before winter break! As promised I wanted to show a bit of the clay work that has been happening among all these shortened weeks. My fifth graders have been making Face Jugs. Here is a link to a PBS video we watched before we got started.  This art form originated with the slaves being brought over from Africa and really sparked some interesting discussions in my room. For the remainder of the hour I had the students sketch out his/her idea.

The following week we dove in. I demonstrated how we would be making the jugs by combining two pinch pots together and cutting a hole in the top for the jug opening. From there students could use any combination of methods to make the face for the jug; coils, slabs. . .

Now we have finally reached a point where all the jugs are complete and drying on the shelves, for which my hands are thankful. Being allergic to the clay and working with it for days on end are no fun for my dry, incredibly itchy hands! Anyways I hope to have them all fired and ready to glaze when we return from mid-winter break. That's right in another week my school has another break! Craziness. Here are a few jugs waiting to be fired.

Kindergarten has also been working on making clay fish which they just got to paint this week. I simply used liquid watercolors, much cheaper and much easier. The kids loved them and they always have such personality.

More Than A Month Later!

Well after a 21 day winter break, Martin Luther King Jr Day and four additional snow days we are trying to get back into the swing of things in the art room. Here we are already at the very end of January! Where did this month go?

Since returning from break I have started clay with my Kindergartners and fifth graders. Unfortunately for the fifth graders due to cold days their clay projects have been bagged up for nearly two weeks! Yikes! Hopefully by next week I will have some progress shots of what they are working on and some nicely painted Kindergarten clay pics.

For now I want to show you some projects I wanted to upload long ago but honestly I was just to lazy to do.

Back during my Ancient Egyptian unit my fifth graders learned about King Tut and the mummification process.  I found this video about Tut which I edited down to a little ten minute video that really got the kids thinking and asking really great questions. I liked this video because it focused on the art that was found in the tomb and the sarcophagus design. Really cool stuff.

Anyways after that I had students lay down on pieces of paper and trace around the outline of his/her body. Many chose to have a friend help with this part. They also traced over their own hands. This gave them the basic mummy outline. Then I demonstrated how to divide the face into proportions and add the facial features. From there they could choose how to decorate their Egyptian sarcophagus. These were outlined in marker and colored with crayon.

This was a very successful project and the students really liked it, although I think one reason they liked it so much was because they got to work on the floor.

         

Happy Halloween!!!

Our Halloween Projects!

Kindergarten - Painted Pumpkin with Cut Out Faces

1st Grade - Painting Secondary Colors Pumpkin Patch

2nd Grade - Oil Pastel Pumpkin Patch

3rd Grade - Haunted House Silhouettes

4th Grade - Symmetry Name Design Skeleton

5th Grade - Chalk Pastel Pumpkin Pile