Fourth grade discussed some of the jobs you can have in the art field. We looked specifically at logos that were created by graphic designers. We looked at some that would be familiar to the students and they also made great use of positive/negative space. Students loved talking about this subject and had a great time making observations about the various logos. Some we looked at were:
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Fourth grade culminated their color unit by creating a Dali bird project. They discussed art by Salvador Dali. Two of the pieces depict elephants with long stick-like legs. These became the inspiration for our project and I've seen versions of this by other art teachers. Students had to paint the background in color wheel order. They then drew five birds. One bird had to be primary colors, one was secondary colors and the other three birds were made up of complementary color sets. Students cut out their birds and glued them to the background. They added grass using oil pastels to mimic Monet's impressionistic style. They had learned that Dali was influenced by Monet. Finally, they added interesting lines as extensions of bird feathers and long legs similar to those of Dali's elephants. Fifth grade reviewed positive/negative space. They began with comparing and contrasting Japanese and Native American art. Then students learned that Notan is a Japanese art term which refers to the harmonious interplay of light and dark in a composition. They looked at examples of Notan and then created their own.
Students painted two pieces of paper. They were to choose either primary, secondary, warm or cool color schemes for each paper and were able to paint however they would like. Students then folded their papers in half and cut out symmetrical shapes and glued their symmetrical positive/negative shapes to a larger piece of paper. Students were using some new tempera paint sticks I had decided to try. They loved them! The paint dries almost immediately so the colors don't get muddy with mixing and they are vibrant.
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 used watercolors to paint warm and cool squares. The next week we added our snowmen with tempera paint and the last week we added details with colored permanent markers. We talked about the cool snowman being made with geometric shapes and the warm melting snowman with an organic shape. Students glued their squares to their frame and decorated it to make a winter wonderland.
Students in fifth grade filled the space on their paper with overlapping geometric shapes. They painted with watercolors, using two analogous colors in each new shape to make a tertiary color when they mixed. They learned the wet on wet technique. We connected art and science by using salt to create texture in our paintings.
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!
Second grade was learning how to mix colors! They drew their wacky birds and used red, yellow and blue watercolor pencils to mix their colors. They were so cute when I modeled brushing over the layered pencil with water. They clapped in amazement and could not wait to try it for themselves! They got to experiment with making all kinds of colors when they were done with their project.
First grade students learned about the element of art space in artwork. They learned that artists make objects appear close by making them large and make them small to look far away or to show the space between them. Students were able to use the vocabulary to describe where objects appear: foreground, middle ground and background. They were excited to "measure" desks that were close to them and then compare how small the desks in the back of the room looked when they "measured" them! We worked together to draw snowmen 3 different sizes and then add a horizon line in our landscape.
Our students have had the honor of participating in the Winter Garden of Youth Art Exhibit sponsored by the Aurora Public Art Commission for the last several years. Each school may select five pieces of art to hang in the show. That means out of all the projects completed through early December by around 850 students at Hermes, only five are chosen for the show! This year I had four students (my Hermes colleague chose an additional student from her classes). The artwork is mounted and displayed in the Gallery at the David L. Pierce Art and History Center. Students are invited to the Opening Reception which includes refreshments! The artwork will be on display until Jan. 23, 2016. Congratulations to our Hermes representatives!
5th grade studied the Mexican folk art of carved alebrijes from Oaxaca. These imaginary animals are carved from the trees that grow in the mountains, and then painted with bright colors and patterns. The students had the challenge of drawing their animal (amphibian, or bird) to fill the page, and then create pattern with lines and shapes. Once their animal was filled with patterns, they painted color patterns using tempera cakes. They cut out their animals, chose a background which would compliment the animal and attach foam spacers to give their animal a bit of a 3-dimensional illusion. They did a fantastic job with their art!
4th grade was working on the difference between organic shapes and geometric shapes. They looked at the art of Reggie Laurent and had a great time imagining what all the organic shapes looked like in his artwork. They went to work making their own organic shapes with construction paper, and once they had a nice balance and variety of organic, they added geometric shapes. When their paper was full, they added lines with white oil pastel. Some of the shapes also contain patterns created with colored oil pastels. It took a little longer than I thought it would to cut all the shapes, but the students were 100% engages and the results are stunning.
First grade is learning about the color wheel. They had so much fun drawing their wacky birds! They used primary colors of watercolor crayons to color their birds. They mixed their secondary colors by layering primary colors, and then painting with water.
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.
After their organic butterfly shapes, second graders made some art using geometric shapes. We discussed the difference and also added to their color knowledge. They reviewed primary and secondary, and then learned about warm and cool. Students were to choose a color scheme for their project. When their page was filled with a variety of geometric shapes they used markers in the same color scheme to draw lines around their shapes.
This is a great project for my first graders. Anything to do with paint creates a lot of excitement! Students made observations about Mondrian's artwork. They discovered that he used straight lines that made squares and rectangles. They also noticed that he used red, yellow and blue in his paintings. We continue to review the elements of line and shape as we move into color. They also learned some big vocabulary...vertical and horizontal. Most of my first grade classrooms are bilingual, so I am careful not to overwhelm them with lots of new vocabulary all at once. They used strips of black paper for their lines and tempera paint for their shapes.
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!"
Beautiful butterflies everywhere! Second graders learned about organic shapes and what it means when a shape is symmetrical, like a butterfly. Students folded their large paper in half and drew half a butterfly. It is quite the challenge to get little ones to draw big! Once they were happy with their drawing, they traced over their lines with black tempera paint squeezed from a bottle and made a mono print. Next they added lines and designs to the wings with white oil pastel if they wished, and then painted with tempera cakes. Students could then add to the background with white oil pastel and finished by filling the page with paint. These turned out gorgeous! So proud of my second graders!
First graders are so enthusiastic about everything they get to do in art! We "built" robots using geometric shapes and then used lines to "make them work". They created springs, gears, bolts, wires, controls and all sorts of creative spare parts with lines! We discussed how we were adding details to make them interesting, just like we add details to our writing to make it interesting. Students brainstormed what their robot would do for them and wrote the sentence using a sentence stem. Just a few of the examples: "My robot will clean my room. My robot will play with me. My robot will make toys for me. My robot will bake me cakes." They also had a great time naming their robots!
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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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