1st grade Paper Weavings

First graders created paper weavings using an over under pattern. We discussed how much of the clothing we wear is woven. The students got to see two types of looms and learned vocabulary words such as loom, warp, and weft.  Once their weavings were finished the students used cut paper shapes to create interesting details on top.

More 3rd Grade Self Portraits

While the students are finishing up some art work, here are some more self portraits. Every time I look at these they make me smile!

Art Alert!

During the month of January, artwork from Barrows Elementary will be on exhibit in the conference room at the superintendent's office.  The school committee meeting on January 10th will be broadcast on RCTV--tune in for a chance to see the student artwork!

New England Autumn Landscapes-4th grade

This artwork is a little late getting displayed, but better late than never!

Amy-4th gr.

Matteo-4th grade

Ashley-4th grade

4th graders created a New England autumn landscape in connection with their social studies unit on regions.  The students used a masking tape resist technique to create the trees and planned their composition using foreground, middle ground, and background to create the illusion of space and distance.  They taped different sized strips of masking tape to their paper to create the trees in the fore, middle, and background.  The land and sky were painted using tempera cakes.  When the paint dried, the tape was peeled away to reveal areas of white paper.  Details were added turning the areas of white paper into birch trees.  Other details were added using colored pencils.

Idea thanks to mrsbrownart.com

1st grade Snowman Sculptures

Here is the finished product!  The snowmen turned out great and are a school-wide favorite!  After the sculptures were finished first graders drew a portrait of their snowman.

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!