Clay snowmen-- First Grade

First grade had their first experience with clay in the art room!  We have been discussing form and how forms differ from shapes in that they are three dimensional and take up space.  In an earlier lesson we talked about geometric shapes; circles, squares, and triangles, for example.  For this lesson, we used spheres, cubes, and cones to create a snowman.  The students learned how to roll their clay into spheres and make cubes and cones from spheres.  They learned that they must score the clay and use slip to attach their pieces of clay.  While they all used the same steps to create their snowman, each is so unique.  The snowmen will dry to a greenware state and then be fired in the kiln.  Stop by again to see the finished product!

Cityscape Collage Mural--2nd grade

In the spirit of 20th century American artist, Romare Bearden, 2nd grade created cityscape collage murals.  In art, we looked at how cities were depicted through paintings and photographs, while in social studies the students were studying cities as a part of their unit on communities.  To begin, the students made Styrofoam prints of parts of a city....buildings, vehicles, monuments.  Next, they created paper collages of buildings, transportation and people.  As a group they decided the placement of all their pieces of art, keeping in mind the use of space and overlapping while also trying to achieve the fullness and frenzy of a city.  The results are a treat to see and capture the sense of a city so well!

Self-Portraits--3rd Grade

Third grade artists viewed the self-portraits of master artists and discussed the difference between portraits and self-portraits.  They began their paintings by drawing their head, neck, and shoulders and then mixing their own skin tones.  Looking in a mirror, the boys and girls studied the placement of their facial features. Using a wet on dry painting technique they painted their facial features.  Once their portrait was complete the students chose an interesting color or pattern to paint the background.

Autumn

First grade looked to autumn to create their next two pieces of art work. The unit began with texture and creating a landscape using visual texture. Through class discussion, we identified the difference between actual and visual texture. Actual texture is something that can be felt, visual texture is how an object might feel if you could touch it. The students began their landscapes by determining where they wanted their horizon line. Once the land and sky were established, the students made rubbings which would later be developed into trees. As a class we discussed the "Y shape" of trees and trees and branches were cut in this formation. The layout of the composition was next with a demonstration of tree placement and overlapping of branches to create three dimensional space within their picture. As a finishing touch the students made leaves and leaf piles by tearing construction paper.
The second piece of artwork was a tree sculpture created from a paper bag. The students learned that shapes were flat like a piece of paper, but trees took up space and had form. The students created their trees by cutting, crumpling, and twisting the bag to resemble roots, trunk and branches.

















Paper tree sculpture idea courtesy of Art with Mrs. Brown

Name Designs

The fifth grade students used radial symmetry to create these name designs. Radial symmetry occurs when lines or shapes spread out from a center point. The boys and girls designed their name and repeated it around a center point on their paper. Using markers they added color to the positive shapes (their name) and negative shapes (the background). See if you can identify the artist who's name is hidden within their artwork!