A trip to the zoo

 The Arabic teacher for the 1st grade asked me to help the students create a trip to the zoo. I formed most of the animals from TP tubes then the students painted them and added all of the details using yarn and feathers.

In the center section you can see where the paths between each area are as the whole layout for the whole project. Some of the things turned out a little strange like the green horses. Others like the peacocks were little wilder in color than we expected. It is the kid's art and important that they do the projects without a lot of rules.

It is a great way to integrate what they are learning in any subject and make them remember better.

3rd grade creates tiles for door to Morocco

 As part of the cultures day the third grade selected the country of Morocco. For their art project I had them create tiles based on a Moroccan design and then assemble the door including the stonework around the center. They drilled the designs using wooden templates then painted them. They helped match the tiles up to create the design.

2nd Grade paints Picasso guitars

The 2nd grade was assigned Spain for their cultures day. We decided to do the guitar artwork from Picasso as part of this project.
We reviewed some examples of his musical period and talked about some of the other periods like his blue period. The students both drew and painted the guitars.

Learning calligraphy and Eid Mubarak

As part of the plan this year during Islamic art month grades 2nd - 8th practiced on creating calligraphy. We started with just simple lines and the direction of the pen but tracing a design gave us the best results. Most of the kids had never used the 2 dimensional pens so it was a bit hard for some. We will keep working on this skill every month until the pens totally give out. The 1st and Kindergarten used a wax resist then painted their letters in. They were excited to making a special message. 

Our last  project was to make sheep for the party on the last day of school. The 3rd grade shows off the design. 

Creating pictures of mosques

 The 4th-5th grade classes used an example of a multi-turreted mosque and drew their own then incorporated a variety of lines and other designs into each section. 

Lastly they used their choice of markers or colored pencils to complete the designs. 

The Kindergarten and 1st grade painted their pictures using metallic tempera and created a pretty great set of pictures too. 

Art mini-camp photo slideshows

Art Mini- camp slideshow Summer is in full swing and camp has kids busy painting and using clay and other art mediums. Thought that it would be simpler to share the weblink as we post each day's pictures over the 8 weeks of camp in June and July.

Kindergarten has patriotic themes

 We have had some fun with the patriotic themes in February creating flags, Liberty statues, and stick puppets of Lincoln and Washington for president's day. The kids are getting pretty good at following more complicated directions and filling in the blanks. They were able to do alternating stripes for the flags and most breezed through the stars. Those that had a bit of trouble still managed some pretty good stars. They were concerned that the examples did not have faces and put faces on all the puppets and the liberty lady. She even has her torch. 

2nd grade paints landscapes

This was a project that we really looked forward to doing. This class likes to paint and draw so having them do a landscape painting was a natural. I brought in a few that I had painted as examples. We discussed what kind of elements would be in a landscape and began. They used 1/2 sheets of stiff cardboard for their paintings. Each drew the landscape then painted them learning how to make clouds more fluffy, making waterfalls with a bit of movement, painting birds, and making a foggy sky. I think they did a remarkable job on them.

more clay creations

We are spending the month of January working with clay. Sometimes this medium really lends itself to integrating into the lessons as with the plant parts for the kindergarten. Each student got a 3x5" note card as a base and a ball of salt clay. We discussed plant parts and drew a plant on the board then they were off. Each was to include all the parts on their plant remembering to include roots and seeds. They are pretty good at the proportions on these. When the plants were completed we used washable markers to color them with pretty great results.

The 1st grade created a 3D map with most of the correct elements. We had a discussion of which would be on a map and which would not. The volcanoes, train tracks, roads and rivers would. Trees might although not in as great of detail as some of the trees acquired. People and animals would not appear. They completed the project by giving it some color using water color boxes. It was a bit messy but turned out well. This is a different clay than we used in the past made with cornstarch as I was given a 50# bag of it.

The 2nd grade is studying landmarks so we created replicas of several of them using the soda/cornstarch clay, chenille stems and toothpicks. We determined that Mt. Rushmore was going to be too hard to create but Natural bridge, Washington's monument and a few others fit the bill. The monuments never had such color before though!

Lastly the 3rd grade got to add a bit of color to their vertebrates from last week using watercolors. They were really great creations and the color was just what they needed. 

Harvest moon with a tree

This was a very challenging project for the students to take on but gave them a chance to learn a variety of skills and produced a frame-able artwork at the end of the month. 


We began by using circle stencils to draw the moon and outline the area for the moonglow. They then painted in the moon and first area of glow with brushes and had to move into a bit of a new area for them. We created the remaining glow and the background sky using foam stampers made from meat trays and dowels. The students mixed the colors on the tray with the stamper and applied them to the canvas. It was a bit labor intensive and time consuming but produces a great result. At each days end they dried their project. 

 We next added some color splashes of  red, purple, orange and darker yellow to the sky. Some skies were very dark blue, some were much lighter. We left an area in the right lower corner for a hillside to ground the tree.

They had gotten pretty good with the stamping when they switched back to brushes. Some of the trees have more delicate branch tips than others. 

In this paining the student decided to make a wintry hillside with while which suited her idea of the ground and tree.

Islamic art: Painting Eid Mubarak signs, Kaabas

We decided this year to spend November focusing on Islamic art with the kids. The first week we made folded Kaabas in the 1st & 2nd grades and a flat picture in Kindergarten. The students had the opportunity to talk about this symbol while making it. We used black poster board which did not glue as well as I had hoped, necessitating taping. We also used gold curling ribbon which needed a bit of tape but the results were quite nice.
Our second project was to paint a sign in Arabic saying Eid Mubarak. It also gave them a chance to use the metalic pastel tempera paints. Although we used a computer template for the phrase, all the classes were encouraged to decorate the remainder of the page. Some added their names, various symbols, and a few even painted a mosque or kabba on their page. The kids had a fun project to top off their Eid parties and managed to get a little skill work in too painting inside lines.

Painting fruits and vegetable in vivid color

These paintings gave us a great way to talk about colors and use the primary and secondary colors while tying to some of the 1st grade lessons. We discussed making the secondary colors then had to paint a red fruit, an orange one, etc. They did an great job on them too once they thought about what could be which color. I did not get any purple carrots or other odd things this time.

Kindergarteners create colorful leaf people

Making leaf people is a great way to encourage creativity but the leaves this year are just plain dull. I figured I would take a chance with the kindergarden as I have lots of help and let them paint the leaves once the picture was completed. It was great fun and watercolors & tempera are good to work with as they are color dense but don't stain the kids.

Wildflowers bloom in 1st grade

 
 This was a popular project everywhere this week. With wildflowers just popping up on the hillsides, we made our own blooming display.
This was a group project where each table created a page for the wall. I drew the flowers and lettered the names so the class could paint. And paint they did! 




They did multi-colored lettering for the names then got into the flower painting. When we completed the flowers they added bees, birds, butterflies and caterpillars. This is always an enjoyable painting project where everyone puts their own touch on the flowers.

Painting and drawing with the older kids

The after school group was supposed to spend 2 weeks drawing but they were in real "painting mood" so we drew designs and worked with tempera paints to complete them. As usual, they were something to see. One of the creations actually became 3D.

Busy week for painting and drawing before spring break

Finger painting can be messy but it can be very creative and lots of fun if you approach it right. For the kindergarten class this means they have to have a paper towel to wipe their fingers and they are good to go. At one point, I think the paper towel was becoming the art as they were comparing designs on those too! This was a free design to let them use color, texture and their creativity. The only rule was "no mixing paint on the pallete." Several were delighted to show me that they mixed colors on their pages to get just the right shade. Every picture had a story and the whole group seemed to enjoy the painting day.

In the 3rd grade we worked with Tessellations and used a repeating design of a goldfish to accomplish it. It is a hard concept but once they got going, the designs turned out well. I chose a simple line repeat although there are spirals and other more complex designs. One of the students heard circles and had to do hers that way. It turned out pretty well too. 

After school group paints on texture surface

This is probably a stretch for 4-6th grade students but they were equal to it! First we prepped our boards with a texture that is similar to plaster which had to dry for a week. We painted the first part of the painting (pear and cherries) with texture and pallete knives then switched to brushes to complete the design. The students drew in their own branches and leaves then brush mixed the green for the leaves.  The vase and the background were done in a watercolor style letting the color flood along the lines of the water.
The backgrounds were anything but dull as each student did her own thing. I continue to be impressed by their artistic abilities. 

Mouse paint color with Kindergarteners

We are still working on learning about colors and color mixing in the kindergarten. We mixed the secondary colors last week from primary ones and painted a rainbow (and the tables and some of the hands and arms!) 


The book Mouse paint by Ellen Stoll Walsch is just so much fun so we started the class by reading the book then painted the mice and mixed colors to paint the feet and ears. This class went a bit better but we still have a few that just mix everything together in great delight to get a muddy brown. They are a few lessons ahead with the brown. The kids were pretty picky on just what purple looked like as it is the hardest one to get right. Orange was so easy for them. Green took a bit of effort to get enough yellow into the mix.

2nd grade studies Integrating art and studies

This project was the final one in our art studies grouping. They spent the month learning about different kinds of art and making examples. In today's project we discussed how we used artwork during the last year in each of the other subjects from fractions in math to making maps for geography and life cycles in science to drawing and painting a mosque in the religious/cultural studies.
Students were able to make drawings and color or paint them. Sometimes the detail work won out over completing the full assignment. Remembering their past project and what they learned from them or what project they did seemed to also generate a lot of discussion.
This is another project that I will definately repeat.


The first grade is busy constucting their ecosystem and as part of that project yesterday the students were to draw and paint a building in the area as well as a plant and an animal.

We apparently have lions and tigers but no bears in our parks. The kids used q-tips as brushes. I am looking forward to seeing the completed project and getting a couple of pictures to share. Nothing says art to the kids like paint. They are getting a bit of assembly help from the grownups but all of the artwork on this mural is theirs. Great job!

3rd grade does Foil embossed bugs

We used aluminum foils and pencils as our stylus to learn about embossing then painted the insects we drew with tempra. Students learned about the relief created and how to not eliminate it as they painted. Nice project.