Third grade made coil pots with air dry clay and then painted them with tempera cakes. We also read the story, "The Pot that Juan Built".
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Third grade just can't get enough castles! This is a project I have actually done every year because the students love it so much and ask if they are going to get to do it. I gave them the option since we already drew castles and they overwhelmingly voted to build them. Students learned how to turn a flat, 2-D piece of paper into a 3-D form and let their imagination go from there. Many of them even figure out a way to make a working draw bridge! I've even had working catapults added to the grounds, and torches and fire places added inside. We talk about architecture, and engineering through building a structure that stands and solving problems as they arise.
Third grade loved learning all about castles and then drew their own. They also learned about space and creating the illusion of form. They drew their castles with sharpie and then used water-based markers and water to color them.
Third grade drew a cat or a dog and then colored it with cool or warm colors. They used chalk pastel and blended with their fingers. Students colored the background the opposite color scheme as their animal. Students also added some details to make their art more their own. Most named their "pets"! Some of the small details were outlined with sharpie and when they were done with chalk, students traced over their pencil lines with black oil paste.
Third grade learned about the difference between organic and geometric shapes through the art of Henri Matisse. They were fascinated with the idea of "painting with scissors" and were excited to start their art. Students created their own Matisse inspired collages. The predominant comment in their artist statements was that it was way different and harder cutting organic shapes compared to geometric shapes.
Third grade students learned about the folk art yarn paintings made by the Huichol in Mexico. The paintings are made by pressing yarn into warm beeswax. The paintings tell stories about the culture, history and religion of the Huichol. Students absolutely loved looking at the brightly colored yarn paintings and had great discussions about the symbols and what they might mean.
I have wanted to plan a yarn painting project for several years, but was afraid of the mess they would become if using glue! Somewhere along the way this summer, I saw the idea of using adhesive tiIes. I ran to the nearest home improvement store and purchased some linolium adhesive tiles on clearance! I cut them into 4" x 4" squares. I was worried the size would be too small for my 3rd graders, but decided much bigger would take them too long. Let's face it, I was just plain worried this was going to be too much of a challenge for my little ones that are really still like 2nd graders at the beginning of the year. I jumped in and tried it anyway. They created a simple plan the same size as their tile. They used markers and lines to look like the yarn. Once they had a plan, they went to town on recreating their plan on the tiles. They did an amazing job and most loved every minute of the project! A few were challenged by the process, but all were very proud to show off their creation in the end. The size ended up being perfect. I was just blown away by the talent and persistance of these little ones! Third grade has been having a fabulously messy time with chalk pastel! Sometimes I feel like the "Cat in the Hat". I carry all the supplies from room to room on my cart, get the students all excited, make a big mess, and then leave! We do clean up, but it can get a little crazy especially when there is no sink in the classroom.
I have done this project in the past using oil pastel and emphasized creating the illusion of a form. This year I changed the emphasis to showing space in a landscape. We discussed how overlapping, size, details, and shadows can create the illusion of space. We read "Snowmen at Night" written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner. We discussed how the illustrator showed space in his illustrations and all the fun activities of the snowmen. We also thought about the roles of writer and illustrator. The students then brainstormed what their snowman would do at night and wrote a sentence for our "class book". Then they planned their illustration to go along with their text. Next, students learned some techniques for drawing with chalk pastels. I was thrilled with the creativity and skills of my students and they had a blast! This project is always a winner with my third grade students! We discussed positive/negative space and looked at how an artist uses space by looking at several paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe. I challenged the students to make a creative symmetrical shapes for their stencils. The room was filled with excitement as they cut shape after shape, deciding which one would be their best. Next, students experimented with colors to decide what would work best for their shapes. Students were able to make two pieces of art if they would like, and turn in their best. Students also turned in a written response based on their art. They finished off their project with a gallery walk. They came up with several objectives they felt were important throughout the process and discussed the artwork of peers based on those objectives.
Third grade continued with their unit in color and worked on the warm/cool color schemes. They absolutely loved this project! Another project inspired by other art teachers on Pinterest. One of our objectives was to draw large and fill the page with their "pet". Students chose either a cat or dog and had some idea sheets to look at for inspiration. I encouraged them to be creative to come up with their own version of their cat or dog. Students outlined their pet with oil pastel and colored with watercolor crayons. They cut their animal out and glued it to the background. The background was chalk pastel. If they had extra time, they made a toy or object for their pet. In case you're wondering, dogs outnumbered cats!
In third grade, students made some observations about artwork to discover that art can have a theme, just like music dance and literature. They chose a theme for their color wheels and then went to work mixing secondary colors with their primary colors. They used watercolors for their color wheels.
Third grade was learning about the differences between geometric and organic shapes. They began their project by creating organic shapes using warm colors. The next week they outlined their organic shapes with permanent marker, and added overlapping geometric shapes. Students used cool colors to paint their geometric shapes and they also had to make decisions about what color to use when geometric shapes overlapped. I jumped into this project thinking it may be too complicated for my third graders, but I am happy to say I was wrong! They loved this project and used great care while painting. You could have heard a pin drop...except we were listening to music while we worked. As one student exclaimed..."This is so relaxing, I wish we could just do this all day!"
Third grade students learned all about lines and balance. They also learned when a line becomes a shape. Students stacked up the letters in their names and in some cases used lines to help "prop" up their names.
This was such a fun project for the end of the year! Students reviewed color (primary, secondary and mixing), drew their wacky birds, and then colored them with chalk pastels. No pencils with this project! We learn to make our mistakes part of our art.
Students studied the weaving of several cultures. They made comparisons and described differences between the weaving of cultures. Students looked specifically at Kente cloth and learned that it tells a story about the person for whom it is made. They chose colors that would say something about themselves and when they finished weaving, they added details and symbols for visual texture with black markers. I found a great video on how to do the weaving. Kente cloth video.
After making snowmen in third grade we moved on to castles! I've taught this lesson to my third graders for the last three years and it is one of their all time favorites. We crossed over into the realms of math, science and social studies. They reviewed geometric solids: cubes, cylinders, cones and rectangular prisms and made observations on how these forms were different from shapes. The students studied the square shape in my hand and then they made a list of everything they observed about it. They did the same with other shapes and the forms, and then did some comparing and contrasting between them.
Students shared what they knew about castles and then we looked a a short PowerPoint on them. The students got so excited when they realized the castles were built of all the forms we just discussed! I taught them how to make simple forms and attach them to their "land". Students could choose from several colors, but many preferred their castle to be the color of a "real" castle. They all started with a cube and got creative with their cylinders, cones and rectangular prisms. They then added paper details like moats, draw bridges that actually function, torches in the castle, catapults, princes, princesses and knights. They became architects and problem solvers! I have seen many innovative and creative solutions for making draw bridges actually work in the last three years! A few castles had even had zip lines this year, but then the students decided a real castle probably wouldn't have had a zip line! While third grade was on a roll with snowmen, we used our model magic to make 3-dimensional snowmen. Students had previously brainstormed hats, scarves, and all the things that could go along with snowmen. I modeled the 3 basic spheres and a few simple details, then let them have fun creating. Many had only used model magic once the previous year, so this was quite a treat! Students happily spent their time rolling, squishing and coloring model magic, and also problem solving ways to add the details they wanted on their sculpture. Sadly, I have no photos. They made their project, I graded it and returned them as quickly as possible, forgetting that I had not photographed any of them. It is a challenge to do 3-D artwork on a cart with no where to store it!
We read "Snowmen at Night" by Caralyn Buehner. We studied the illustrations as we read the story and had some great discussions on value, shape, form, line, space and color. We made observations on light source, all the different faces, hats, scarves and things that the snowmen were doing. After the story we got to work creating our own snowmen using value to make our shapes look like 3-diminsional forms. We started by drawing overlapping circles for the snowmen. Students used oil pastel for a majority of the artwork, and then used some color pencil to add detail.
Third grade students compared and contrasted artwork inspired by the sea by a variety of artists, including Henri Matisse and Edward Hopper. They made observations on the elements of space, line, shape and color and contributed their thoughts on the art. Students created mixed media collages to make their own art inspired by the sea. They were also to include the use of space. They loved cutting, twisting, and gluing paper in their collages. They started by making a large fish. Some classes used aluminum tooling foil and permanent markers, others used watercolor paper, washable markers and water. Lesson aligned with ELA Common Core unit "Inspired by the Sea" Students discussed positive/negative space in 3rd grade. First they cut a symmetrical shape out of paper to create a stencil and they learned how to use chalk pastels to magically turn their shape from positive to negative or negative to positive!
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Mrs. Kendell
I was a graphic designer for many years, and then decided to make the leap into art education. I taught elementary art for 8 years. Archives
May 2018
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