First Grade Bento Boxes

First Grade Japanese Lunch Boxes, A.K.A Bento Boxes

Each box contains several model magic sushi and noodles made of yarn.

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.

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.

Pattern Owls

First grade has recently finished up a small unit on line and pattern. For this project students took everything they learned about pattern and used this to decorate their owl pictures. First students drew an owl using black markers and then they divided the owl into sections. In each of these sections they had to fill it with a different pattern. The following class students were given a black piece of paper and had to fill the entire piece with one pattern using construction paper crayons. After students carefully cut out his/her owl and glued it onto the background they just created. I just love all the different personalities these little owls have. Plus the first graders really have a handle on line and pattern now!

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!!

The Gravity of Space and Art

So I just finished watching the film Gravity for the fourth time. I know some find it a snooze fest, others think its only good to watch it on a gigantic movie screen, but I am a space addict and its about as close as I'll ever get to actual space soooo.... Gravity has found a little spot in my heart next to Contact. Anyways all this space watching inspired me to post a few more of my students space themed artwork from about a month back.

I regards to what is currently going on in the art room; lots and lots of clay (which as soon as the Face Jugs are complete I'll post an update), paper weaving and portraits. All of which I'll be sure to share on here for my audience of one. *Waves at Emily*

Anyways on to some space art. First I have some chalk pastel solar systems by third grade. We talked about blending and such.

Happy Valentine's Day

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day with some perfectly timed heart drawings from the art room. Now, now these are not those type of heart drawings. These actually introduced my students to a new artist and to the art concept of batik. See now everyone is happy!
I showed my students work by Jim Dine of course and then pretty much let them draw hearts however they felt moved to do so. With the only rule being color in all of the paper. They mostly followed this rule. . . mostly.

Happy Valentine's Day from some of my first graders!

Pyramids

Okay, okay so I'm a huge liar. I did not post right away. Well I'm posting now! I recently finished up a unit on Ancient Egypt which the kids were really excited about. For my first graders we learned about the pyramids; how they were built, why and so on. We also looked at a lot of different pictures of the pyramids at Giza and talked about the art word perspective. I wanted them to understand the concept that when things are in perspective they get smaller the farther away they are and larger the closer they are. The three pyramids right in a row were a great example of this. After that we drew our three pyramids in perspective. We also included a camel and the Nile river.

The following week we outlined the drawings with permanent markers, and I'm proud to say no tables, clothes or hands were drawn on! Then we completed the pictures by painting them with watercolors. To make the sky different than the river we made it look like the sun was setting.