Week 6 - Ms. L Learned Something Today....

I learned something today - teaching kindergarten students how to draw "self portraits" is harder than I ever expected! The hard part isn't teaching them how to draw themselves - the hard part is teaching them  the correct color choices and that self portraits are supposed to look like them... we do not have blue or orange skin, we do not have purple eyes, and we do not have pink hair! No mater how many times I said this, there were still some blue students with green hair (still cute, but not a self portrait: maybe it is what they will look like in high school)? It was very hard for them to actually draw themselves using their true hair, eye, and skin color. They are so used to being creative and drawing things any color they wish - breaking this habit proved to be very challenging.

Kindergarten: Here are a few of the completed self portraits. Notice the long eyelashes on some - any super model would love to have eyelashes like these! 

Another week, another group of "Artist of the Week"

2nd graders learned about a "Blue Dog" this week. Not just any blue dog, but the famous "Blue Dog" painting by George Rodrigue.  We first drew our dogs with a pencil- so cute. The next step was for students to pick either a warm or cool color for their background. We then painted our dogs with different shades of blue.  The paintings makes me think of... "How much is the dog in the window..." song! Pictures soon!

3rd graders are continuing to learn about overlapping and shading. We started a new project this week and it will take us 2 class periods to complete.  We are using oil pastels on this project and we are drawing colored pencils - kind of confusing! Everyone is super excited about using oil pastels and I am excited that they actually are enjoying using the oil pastels (they tend to be messy). Pictures next week.

4th grade students had the chance to create a fun project this week! We first folded our papers and drew a cute fish, we then unfolded the paper and "expanded" our fish drawings. When the paper is pulled open - it reveals  a surprise... These cute little fish aren't so cute ...

Here are the sweet fish.... papers folded

Here are those same fish - but not so cute when their mouths are open... paper unfolded

4th graders are starting a new project this week and it will take about 3 class periods to complete - so it may be a few weeks before you see their completed art. We are discussing Van Gogh and they are creating their very own sunflower "pop-up" art. Pictures next week.

5th graders are currently working on their Art to Remember project and their theme is "Tropical Birds". Some were not so excited about the theme and were disappointed that I actually gave them a theme for this project - they were hoping to make a picture of your choice.... ugh, I am working hard at breaking  them of their "free draw" habit! They will thank me at some point :) Pictures next week.

Remember keep sending in your plastic bottle caps: all colors and sizes, plastic only (no metal) and make sure you are washing them :) Here are the bottle caps we have collected so far, we still need many more. The kids love bringing them to class and sorting them into their color bins - makes my job easy!!!

Week 5: Part Two

Before I jump into sharing wonderful artwork, I have to apologize for some of the pictures being a bit blurry. I use my iphone as my camera and i dropped it the other day...  causing the back glass to shatter and now the pictures are a bit blurry.

I love how my students view me and I am always honored when they have drawn a picture for me - and the picture is of me! Here is another picture of Ms. Lupien (Ms. L) ... notice the spelling of my name on the art :) I guess I was wearing lots of brown today and I did not notice until I saw this picture of me - brown shoes, brown pants, striped brown shirt and a brown sweater!! I love how she even drew my short pony tail into a bun - very creative!

Pre K students have been reading about an elephant named Elmer - a very colorful elephant. I made a large elephant templates for them to cover with colorful squares (like in the book). Next, they all got busy making Elmer bright and beautiful (fun cooperative project). This Elmer was made with love.

4th grade started a new project last week. They are creating a landscape picture, but not just any ordinary landscape. They are making a "patterned landscape". We discussed different types of mountains, hills, lakes, and regions before we started the art project. We also talked about patterns and how they can give the appearance of texture.

Remember, keep sending in those plastic bottle caps (make sure they are washed first). We still only have a fraction of what we will need to create our masterpiece.

Week 5 In The Art Room

Another week and an other amazing bunch of artist were selected for Artist of The Week....

5th graders (for the past 4 weeks) have been working on making "cubism" art. We started this project by learning about an artist named Paul Klee. We looked at and discussed some of the paintings he painted using a cubism style. We also discussed complimentary colors and the difference between organic and geometric shapes. Students first drew an animal of their choice, then drew a grid like pattern on their paper, and then colored their art using colored pencils. The challenge of this project was they were only allowed to use a total of 4 colors for the entire picture (2 for the animal and 2 for the background). They had to make their art look as if they used many different shades and tints. They remind me of patchwork.

Free Draw is not a word you will hear often in my art class, but the students love to do it. 5th graders had the opportunity to "free draw" this week.... well, at least they thought they were "free drawing". They got to draw what they wanted (kinda), but had to draw a pirate theme and the drawing is for the yearbook cover contest - I guess that isn't really free draw (but don't tell them, they were excited that I let them" free draw" for this project). Stay tuned for some cover art!

Bottles and vases galore. For the past 2 weeks, 3rd graders have been busy creating vases, bottles, and bowls. We discussed symmetry and balance in art. We also talked about making objects look rounded when drawing on a 2d surface. This project was a challenge for many. I heard many students say "I didn't know that drawing a vase was so hard". The project was a challenge, but the art they produced was well worth the hard work!

2nd graders learned about artiest Piet Mondrian this week. We discussed his famous piece of art called Trafalgar Square. We talked about the spaces and colors in Mondrian's art and then created our own Mondrian art... Mondrian style horses. We first drew these, then colored them, cut them out, and lastly added a horse mane using red and white yarn..

Lastly, Kinders and 1st graders were busy learning about another artist: Laurel Birch, Birch is know for her cat drawings - so of course we created cat drawings. I have to admit, some of these turned out looking like bulldogs :) We first drew them, cut them out and then glued them to black paper...

Here are the 1st graders cats...

Here are the kinder cats....

4th grade started a new project this week. They are creating a landscape picture, but not just any ordinary landscape. They are making a "Patterned Landscape". We discussed different types of mountains, hills, lakes, and regions before we started the art. We also talked about patterns and how they can give the appearance of texture. Pictures will be uploaded soon.

Week 4: Part II

More wonderful art has been created and posted around the school. For those of you who do not have the opportunity to walk through our school and see the art work... here is a snippet of more art that was created this week.

Pre K has been reading Brown Bear by Eric Carle and in art class we created our very own brown bear. This project was a two day event. We first started with painting an entire sheet of large paper with 2 different brown colors. Once the entire sheet was painted, I had students take a plastic fork and scratch the wet paint (to give texture). This also helped to make it look like the art in Eric Carle's Brown Bear book. Once the paper was dry, students cut out their bear shapes (templates I made) that was drawn on their brown paper. Lastly they created a scene for  their bears! Check out the texture on these bears...

Circles, circles, and more circles!!!! I do believe kindergartners have mastered the circle shape (organic and geometric) . Last week kinders learned about a famous artist name Kandinsky. Kandinsky is famous for a piece of art that he created called Concentric Circles... For the past two weeks kinders have been busy making their very own Kandinsky circle art.... Kandinsky would be proud (I am extremely proud)!

Pre K and kinders are not the only ones learning and creating art this week. First graders had the opportunity to create "Line Art" using a technique called crayon resist. Our lesson objective was to make patterns using different line variations that we discussed in class. Once lines and patterns were created with crayons, we painted each section with a "watercolor wash" (very light colored watercolor paint that we made in class)... I showed them an example of a firework on the class board - this must have been their favorite since they all seemed to have drawn it :)

I am sure you are all wondering what 5th graders have been doing since I have not posted their art yet... I promise to post shortly. They are finishing their Paul Klee Cubism art and next week will be creating a year book cover for our year book contest.

I hope you are all enjoying seeing the artwork that my students (your amazing kids) are creating! I love sharing it with you!! Until next week....

Week 4... Half way done!

The first four weeks of this school year have gone by super fast and I am sure it flew by because I have amazing students and I love what I do!

First,  I want to share a piece of art that one of my 3rd graders made for me. Yesterday I had on a cute deep purple colored dress and my brown cowboy boots... She drew a picture of us -  me with my purple dress and cowboy boots :) She made me look pretty, look at my amazing eye lashes and skinny waist!

The long awaited moment.... The first artist of the week students were chosen this Monday and everyone one is super excited.  It was very difficult to only pick one student for each grade level, but there are still many more weeks of the school year left -  many other students will get a chance of being on my Artist of the Week bulletin board!

This week, 1st grade is finishing their Art to Remember project - flowers are our theme. We talked about artist Georgia O'Keeffe and the beautiful flowers she painted... students then created their our beautiful flowers. We talked about giving the flower petals multiple layers and they achieved this!  Here are a few that are complete.

2nd graders are also finishing their Art to Remember projects this week, but their theme is "Colorful Iguanas".  We talked about the importance of using our entire piece of paper and layering objects when we draw. These are the cutest and most colorful iguanas I've ever seen!

4th graders have been working on their negative and positive space art for the past few weeks and are finishing them this week. For this project, we learned and practiced making a template (in this case they made their own tree template). We then discussed positive and negative space in art and  reviewed patterns. Students got to select their pattern and color choice. When I look at these, I think "Happy Trees"....

I have to admit that I have the best students and it never gets old hearing them say I am the "best art teacher ever"... I'm sure that me doing the "Sprinkler and shopping cart" dance with theme helps in getting the "best" art teacher status, but if it makes them smile - it makes me smile!

Week 3 - Adventures in the art room...

Students have been spotted "Random Dancing" in the art room and I might have been spotted doing my robot dance with them... oh, the things teachers will do - such a hard job :)

Bradley artists have been very busy the past two weeks creating masterpieces (while they aren't dancing)... 3rd graders have been working on drawing and painting some amazing landscapes using watercolor paint. Our theme: "Hawaiian Sunsets" and students learned about foreground, middle ground, and background. The colors for this lesson were the colors of the rainbow.... makes me want to go to Hawaii!

3rd graders were not the only ones busy creating! 2nd graders were also painting using watercolor paint, but they were learning about warm and cool colors. We first talked about the correct ways of holding our paint brush (yes, second graders needed reminders) and then talked about the proper way of swirling our brush in our watercolor paint. To keep with the swirling theme, we painted large swirls in warm colors on one sheet and cool colors on the other sheet. Next, we cut both of our sheets and made a puzzle alternating our warm and cool colors. If you hear your 2nd grader chanting the word "swirl"... it is because I had them repeat the word over and over in the art room :) At this point they might even be saying it in their sleep! Mission accomplished.

4th and 5th graders will be finishing their current art projects soon and I will post some of those pictures as soon as they are completed.

Stay tuned for next week - the first "Artist of the Week" for the 2013-2014 school year will be announced on Monday morning at school and their amazing pieces of art will be displayed at school and here! So exciting!!!