Positive/Negative Space Hands Students created patterns across their overlapping hands. They used contrast to help separate the patterns from one another. Once the patterns were completed, they painted the negative space mixing primary colors.
Collage Cats For this project students created a variety of papers to form a collage of their cats. First, students painted their sky using cool colors and splatter painting stars. Using a little chalk, they created a glow to their moon. Then students used oil pastels and crayons with a paint resist to create the texture of the wood fence. Then students created a variety of patterns with oil pastels and water colors for the original cat silhouettes. Finally, students put the collage together cutting and gluing each shape onto the background.
Ceramic Cupcakes (or Snakes) Students used a mold with a pinch pot to make the bottom of the "cupcake" container. Then students rolled out a clay coil and formed the "icing" lid (or snake if they didn't want a cupcake). If desired, students added cherries to the top. Each student had their own creative way to paint their cupcakes.
Northern Lights Chalk Drawing Students are starting a chalk drawing of the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights. We watched a few minutes of videos explaining how these beautiful lights are created in the sky. We also looked through some photos that captured the beauty of the lights. They sectioned off their paper with pencil on black paper. Next, they added their color choices, being careful to pick colors that would mix well together (using the color wheel as a reference) and applying them in a direction that showed the movement of the lights. Once the color was on the paper, they smoothed the colors out in the direction of the lights movement... this was a highly messy step!! Luckily chalk cleans up easily :) After they finished, I sprayed the chalk to keep it from smearing. Then students added stars using splatter paint. The last step students add a silhouette of the horizon line using black ink. This could have mountains, trees, and other fine details.
Snowmen at Night I have to say, this was one of my favorite lessons this year. I have put a lot of difficult tasks to these 4th graders, and they have stepped up! We started the lesson by reading the book Snowmen at Night. Students drew out ideas for their own snowman and what it might do at night. We painted a background using only blue and white. Students used different values- the light and dark of one color, to make the snow appear to have shadows at night. Next they added the snowman body. Students had to consider several factors: how the snowman's body would move based upon its action, how the moonlight would create shadows on the snowman's body, and how the snowman would create a cast shadow onto the ground. Once those tasks were completed, students were finally able to use some other colors to add arms, outfits, background details and props! They look FABULOUS!
3/4/5 Within Reach Students were challenged to create a piece of art work with the theme of “Within Reach.” PTA nationally sponsors a contest called Reflections that students can enter art work. The 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students who had the opportunity to work on this at school were given a completely open forum in which they could create their art. They were given the opportunity to paint, use pastels, oil pastels, color pencil, collage, etc… They chose the material based up which media worked best with their plan. If was fun to see the students explore their own creative ideas!
Negative Leaf Sponge Paint Students used leaf stencils to block the paper. They sponge printed over the leaf to create a negative of the leaf. They used the texture of the sponge to fill the space around the leaves.
Pumpkin Patch Perspective Drawing Students drew the pumpkin patch lines using one-point perspective. They lined up their ruler with a vanishing point to create the effect that the farm was receding into the distance. Next, students added pumpkins and other details being careful to have objects in proper scale. Objects further back in the distance will be smaller compared to objects closer up. They considered a light source for their drawing, and then students added highlighted and shadowed areas to their pumpkins. They also created cast shadows from the objects in the pictures. We used a variety of media from pen, color pencil, watercolor pencils, watercolors, and even splatter paint! The results are beautiful! Lesson objectives: -one-point perspective -drawing objects in scale within space -highlight and shadow, cast shadow -mixed media (color pencil, pen, water colors, water color pencil, tempera)
Op Art We started this lesson watching a short youtube video about optical illusions and how they trick your eyes into seeing things that cannot possibly happen! We also looked at some artist work of Op Art (short for Optical Illusion Art). Students used line to divide their paper into 8 sections. They cut the paper and divided the sections onto 2 different papers to create 2 backgrounds. They then drew 6 circles and created a shadow along one side to create the illusion of a round form on a flat paper. They used watercolor pencils to create the color and shadow on their spheres. We discussed how small objects (like our spheres) will look farther away and larger objects appear to get closer to the viewer. The last step was to cut out the spheres and glue them onto their backgrounds to create the illusion that the spheres were floating towards the viewer. Topics covered: line, shape, form, space youtube video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=w986vl6uZpU
Napkin Symmetry Reflective symmetry is a type of symmetry where the image is mirrored or reflected along the line of symmetry. We reviewed symmetry, a topic discussed in our Name Symmetry project. We discovered that there can be more than one line of symmetry in a design. Students brainstormed different kinds of lines. Line is an Element of Art. Students used different kinds of line to create a symmetrical design on their napkin! We used a napkin because it is equally divided into 4 parts, and it allows the color from the marker to bleed through to create the symmetrical design.