Doing the basics in September

September is a good time to hit some of the basics and see how well and comfortably the students draw. I also get to assess how well they work with basic supplies like glue and scissors at all grade levels.  Most of the grades did a name based project and  projects using types of lines to create designs. The 3rd grade spirals were a lot of fun and quite popular.  The  kindergarten names went well with the paper plate faces and hand prints from the week before. Lots of the artwork made it onto the walls in the hall or the classrooms. 

We also did projects identifying textures and shaping them which is very popular. students brought items from home to add to my offerings to have a "touch table" then used the items to create the designs. The picture at left is from the 2nd grade class.






The 4-5 grade did an interpretive mixed media picture using yarns, tissue and drawing based on the story of Moby Dick. Great depictions of whales with its blow hole and other detail of a wily whale that had survived many hunts. One of the students added the boat and little speech bubbles. 

Our lines and curves drawing day turned out so much better than the examples I brought. 2nd grade did scarecrow complete with crows and  the 3rd grade is abstract blocks. 




This year our 6-8th grade students are all participating in art instead of signing up for an optional group after school  I had them draw the Spanish buildings then paint them in watercolors. Watercolors are a bit of a challenge to get just the right amount of wet into everything but by the end they did a great job and some went on to do a 2nd picture. 

Textures in art for Kindergarten & 1st

January the kindergarten is moving into textures in art. This project fits into the study theme of day and night and earth. We started with a review of textures present in the classroom and a book, "Moon to Sun" by Sheila Sampton,  then developed the picture focusing on which textures were in the picture. We used textured metallic tissue, sand paper, felt, cardboard, a perforated doily, cotton ball, sequin stars for examples of rough, smooth, bumpy, fluffy, and soft.


This is also a skills project on gluing and handling various types and sizes of objects. It is hard for the kids to remember not to put the glue stick on items like the cotton ball, felt, and stars as they stick to it. We also worked on how to properly close the glue sticks to return them to the tote. 

The second texture project for the kindergarten was to construct the picture following directions to find a "fuzzy stem" and glue it on for a flower. Each group of students were given a plate full of items to "find"  each type of texture from. The large doilies were rough and served as the sun the remainder built our flowers and gave the group an additional gluing activity. 

The 1st grade took on a slightly different type of project to demonstrate texture by creating a mitten bookmark. Students were given a felt mitten and a selection of materials to identify fuzzy, soft, hard, rough and smooth. Each was able to create his/her own design then the mittens were attached to a  thick ribbon to serve as a bookmark. It was a very popular project with lots of variety in the designs. 

2nd grade creates patterns and designs

This is similar to a project we did in the kindergarten in the fall. Each student wrote their name on a sheet of paper being instructed to write it as large as possible and to make dimensional letters. The students were then instructed to fill the rest of the paper with a variety of shapes and fill each shape with different designs and colors, ie.: a square with wiggly green lines, a triangle with purple commas, etc. Once they got into the project the variey grew. At one point many of the students realized that a puzzel could be created by cutting out the shapes.