2016 Art Show- First Grade

Hello!
This year has been a bit of a change for me as we are following a district-wide scope and sequence. It has been a year of new projects, new successes and of course of few failures! The art show this year did not have a theme as I have in the past however I did do something new with 3-4th grade. This year I saved all of their art show projects from the fall and in December they picked and labeled them on their own, took Artsonia pictures, and put them in a folder to save until the show. In the spring we did the same thing. It was SO NICE to not have to pick and label as much art this year by myself! I also think it gave the students more ownership over their art show work. I hung the 3-5th art by their classrooms, but K-2nd I still had sorted by project. I will do one blog post per grade level. :-) Enjoy!
FIRST GRADE:

European Castle

Students looked at a variety of castles all over Europe. We talked about what the neutral colors are. First students created a background on 12x18 paper. We drew with pencil then traced with sharpie then set them under our chairs. Students got a 9x12" paper and did a tri-fold. I demoed how to paint gray "stone" on the top two sections, and dark brown "wood" on bottom third. Students were given a plate with black and white next to each other at the top, then brown and black together at the bottom. Students got white on their brush then a corner of black. On their paper they made a forward "C" and backwards "C" to create a circle for each stone. Once finished with each row of stones, they washed their brush and wiped the extra water on the edge. Students got brown on their brush and a little black, then went back and forth in long strokes to look like wood.
Next class, we cut our castles into the pieces required to build the castle. We colored our backgrounds then glued the castle on top. We learned about color theory and texture for this project.

Jazzy Jungle Cat

 The directions for this project can be found in Dynamic Art Projects for Kids.

I found this adorable project at this blog: http://www.artwithmre.com/2012/05/paper-sculpture-creatures-1st-grade.html?m=1

We read the book Beekle by Dan Santat first so the students could get ideas of imaginary creatures- plus it is just an adorable book! The other thing I added was I pre-cut the paper to fit around the TP rolls and had them all glue it at the same time. I knew it wouldn't stick unless they held it for a long time... so I decided to pull up some Kids Bop on Spotify and told the students they could dance by their chairs BUT they had to hold their TP rolls (with the paper glued on) the ENTIRE song. It was very cute watching the first grade dance moves, plus by the end the paper stuck just fine! :-D

Texture Bowls

Students each got a slab of clay- I called them one table at a time to my slab roller and one large slab creates a piece long enough to cut into 4 pieces. Students used rubber stamps, marker lids, glue lids, clay tools and sporks to create texture patterns on their slabs. I also passed out foam bowls (small ones). When the students were finished with their texture pattrns, they flipped the slab over on the bowl so it would dry in the shape of the bowl. After fired, students painted the inside and outside with tempera cakes. (Not food safe!)

 Crazy Hair Day

 We read the book Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzburg. Students learned all sorts of different lines and practiced first on the back. Next we drew a half circle (semicircle) for the head. We drew only eyes on the face. Students used marker to draw different kinds of lines out from the head to look like hair. Students used crayon to color between each line.

Koi Fish

Students learned some basic facts about Koi Fish and Japanese Water Gardens. We drew the main fish in the middle then more around the edges either coming in or out of the picture plane. Students traced with sharpie, painted the fish warm colors, and the water garden cool colors. Last I came around and sprinkled salt on their water to create a "sparkling water" look. 

Winter Fox

Students used shapes to create their fox. We traced with sharpie and colored with crayon. Last students used yarn and cotton balls to create actual texture. 

2016 Art Show- Kindergarten

Hello!
This year has been a bit of a change for me as we are following a district-wide scope and sequence. It has been a year of new projects, new successes and of course of few failures! The art show this year did not have a theme as I have in the past however I did do something new with 3-4th grade. This year I saved all of their art show projects from the fall and in December they picked and labeled them on their own, took Artsonia pictures, and put them in a folder to save until the show. In the spring we did the same thing. It was SO NICE to not have to pick and label as much art this year by myself! I also think it gave the students more ownership over their art show work. I hung the 3-5th art by their classrooms, but K-2nd I still had sorted by project. I will do one blog post per grade level. :-) Enjoy!
KINDERGARTEN:

Little White Owl 

Students read the book The Little White Owl  by Tracey Corderoy then created their own version. We traced and cut a circle then folded it to become our owl. Students created a moonlit sky with silver crayon and a tree in the foreground for their owl to sit on. We worked on paper manipulation and 3D art and texture (tree bark) for this project!

Apple Tree

Students watched a Brain Pop Junior about Johnny Appleseed. We traced our hand and arm to create a tree trunk and branches and colored it with brown crayon. Next we used watercolor paint and a curly line to paint fall colored leaves. Last we stamped apples onto our tree. I used a pom pom attached to a clothes pin and put a small amount of red paint on a plate for them to stamp. The next class we cut our trees out, glued them to turquoise paper, than added and sky and details such as sunflowers or pumpkins under the tree. This project included tracing, printmaking (stamping), painting and line. 

 Aztec Gold

Students watched a Brain Pop Jr. about Mexico, which includes a part about the ancient Aztecs. We took a look at some of the turquoise and gold jewelry they made. For our project we used stoneware clay. I gave each student a small chunk of clay, they rolled it into a ball then smashed it into a fat pancake. We used stamps and marker lids to create texture on the clay pendants. Last they poked a pencil all the way through the middle to make a large hole. (Clay shrinks in the kiln so make the hole big!) Once they clay was fired, painted them with gold paint. I had some 5th grade helpers cut and tie the yarn in the pendants. We focused on texture for this project.

 Mondrian Primaries

Students looked at Piet Mondrian's art and created their own version. I had pre-cut 1x18, 1x12, and 1x6 inch pieces of black paper for them to glue on to create squares. Students used primary crayons and texture plates to color their artwork. We focused on color theory and texture for this project.

Color Wheel Caterpillar

Students folded their paper in half the long way then did a tri-fold (with teacher help) to create 6 squares on a 12x18 white paper. We used tempera cakes to create the 6 colors of the basic color wheel. The trick is.... I only gave them the primary colors! We started by painting the yellow square, then painted yellow in the next square, washed our brush and got a little bit of red paint, and mixed it on the paper to create orange. I led the class color by color until we had all 6 on our paper. Next class we traced a circle in each box, cut them out, and glued them onto a green leaf in color wheel order. Last we added the details of the face, antenna, and legs to our caterpillars. Students were working on color theory when creating this artwork.

       

Indian Peacock

Students watched a short video about peacocks to learn a few facts about them. We found the middle of the picture plane when tracing a circle for the head. Students added diagonal lines for the neck, and straight lines radiating from the body and head to become the tail feathers. Students also added "eyes" to the feathers, then traced with sharpie, and colored the eyes with gold crayon. Last we used tempera cakes to paint the peacock. Students worked on space for this project.

Art Show 2015

This year students got a passport as they walked in and were invited to see "Art Around the World". Each hallway was a different continent and each grade level made one project per continent. I like doing it this way because grandparents and students walk around the whole building instead of just their classroom.

Enjoy the pics!

 Rainbow Crow- Legend from Lenapi tribe