Fifth Grade Second Trimester Projects

Fifth grade got to create the long awaited first clay project of the year by making clay gargoyles. We looked at gargoyles found on cathedrals and other public buildings around the world. They learned that a gargoyle serves the purpose of directing rain water away form a building, but a grotesque is simply there to adorn the building. Students created their gargoyle using a pinch pot and slab base and then they added lots of details!
After drying for about one week they were fired and then ready for glazing.

Students also created small paintings that demonstrated their understanding of value in art. They used an implied light source and and drew 3D forms which were painted with a primary or secondary color and then tints and shades were added to them to create an even better 3D effect.

A favorite "Hobbit" inspired project was our Fantasy Tree lesson. Trees were designed that incorporated the elements value, textures, perspective and lots of creativity. The houses all required at least one window and door which were made form acetate and colored with Sharpies to give the look of stained glass. The door led to each student's idea of a fantasy world.

Our TAP (Teacher Apprentice Program) intern Joe Scherer worked with the fifth grade students to create an arts integrated lesson  that combined music and art. Mr. Scherer played original compositions on his guitar and piano while students listened and visualized shapes and colors. The students were reminded that this lesson was very subjective and there was no one right answer. They then created abstract paintings using only black paint. The following week the students chose one of their three black line compositions, mounted it on large black paper and added small amount of color, which added pattern, texture, and emphasis to the final piece. The resulting work is quite varies greatly in style, but all are quite beautiful.

Second and Third Grade Second Trimester Projects

Owls, Owls, Owls! During our owl unit we explored all kinds of owls through a guided drawing practice session and by examining numerous photos of owls. we created beautiful drawings using oil pastels and some students had time to make owl puppets. We continued the unit by making clay owls using a pinch pot and and pulling/protuberance technique. we added texture like feathers and other details. After the owls dried they headed over to Fleming school to be fired for the first time in the kiln. Upon their much anticipated return to Summit they were painted with ceramic glaze and prepared for one more journey to the Fleming kiln.

We also worked on a warm and cool water color weaving. We explored water color techniques and limited our color palette as a way to study warm and cool colors. After each student created one warm and cool painting they they chose one to be used as their loom, otherwise known as the warp. We then cut the other painting into strips which were used as the weft to be woven through the loom.

We worked on value study snowmen by adding a shadow to one side of their snowmen and a light source coming from the opposite side.

Like Kindergarten and First grade most students made portfolios to organize their work.

Kindergarten and First Grade Projects from Trimester Two

We started out the trimester creating cut paper cats after reading the book "Grumpy Cat". Students used geometric and organic shapes to create these colorful cats.

Our next project was also inspired by a classic children's book "Elmer the Elephant". We drew an elephant using shapes and then added a grid to create Elmer's checkerboard design.

We studied the work of Jim Dine who is crazy about hearts! He uses the heart motif in many of his works and that inspired us to make cut paper heart collages. we discussed symmetry and positive and negative space.

Our next project used a very different painting tools, strips of cardboard that were held on the edge and dragged like a comb once dipped into paint. The students were learning about he basics of shadow and light and created the effect on pine branches, They also used the cardboard  strips to create clusters of pine needles. The final touch was to add a cardinal sitting on the snowy branch, which did require the use of a paint brush.

We finely took the time to create portfolios to help organize our artwork and get it organized. This is a highlight for the students as they love to decorate the front and backside of the portfolios.

K-3 Self Portraits with iPads

Students had the opportunity to create self portraits using iPads, which proved to be very fun and a bit challenging. We started the project by using the camera feature and turning the camera lens to face ourselves we snapped a few shots. We then used the Doodle Buddy app to create a contour line drawing on top of the photo. using a fine dark drawing line we traced all of the shapes and lines we saw on our faces. After the drawing was done we changed the background to a solid white one and saved it to our albums. We now used the Draw Free app and used our contour line drawing as a background in this newly opened app and then with the crayon tool we colored our drawing like a coloring sheet.

Welcome to my Art Room News blog! This blog will follow happenings in both of my art rooms at Summit Street School and Thomas Fleming School. Summit is kindergarten though third grade and Fleming is Fourth through fifth grade and both are part of the Chittenden Central Supervisory Union in Essex Junction Vermont. I will be posting information about projects, events and of course photos of the amazing artwork my students create.