Rangoli

First grade students ventured outside today to create their own Rangoli designs.  Rangoli are typically done outside of homes in India.  They are beautiful radial designs that some women apply on the ground outside their homes every morning.  They are usually believed to bring good luck.
Students created their design by folding one fourth of a circle and cutting it into a symmetrical design.  This was then used as their stencil which they rotated four times on the ground to create a design with rotational symmetry!  It was so nice to take our art making outdoors!!!

Surrealism

Fifth graders studied the Renaissance and the introduction of perspective in Renaissance paintings.  Each students created a room that demonstrated knowledge of the rules of perspective.  Using perspective creates the illusion of depth and a very realistic looking space.  Once the room was complete, we shifted our focus from creating something real to something surreal.  Surrealism is all about unexpected images and real looking objects put together in unexpected ways.  Students transformed their space into a surrealist landscape by including a background from outer space and pictures cut from magazines.

Victorian Homes

Third grade students discussed what the word home means to them...a place to feel safe, to rest, where you feel comfortable.  In the Victorian Era (the time during the reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901)homes became a reflection of your status and wealth.  American Victorians thought of their homes as a way to show off what they have accomplished (their wealth) and the stability of their family.  The American dream became an individually owned home on a nice piece of land.  Many people in this era thought of their home as a status symbol.  Building a large, impressive house was a measure of success and your social status.
After studying the details on these impressive houses students set out to design their own.  Each student created a pop up and drew the details of their home.

More Miro!

I was hanging these up this morning and just needed to post a few more...I love how these came out!!

Thank You

Our first grade is going on a field trip to the zoo this month; thanks to the generous donations received
through Donors Choose.  Barre N9ne Dance Studio funded a large portion of the trip so some of my first graders created these dancing animals as a thank you!

Miro

First grade students studied the work of artist Joan Miro.  We discussed the abstract nature of his work, and learned how abstract art doesn't try to look real but instead uses lines, shapes and colors to describe an idea.  Students identified different symbols, lines and shapes that reminded them of the night sky while discussing Miro's constellation series.  We also discussed how Miro is often described as a surrealist artist -since he tried to get in touch with his unconcious mind when he painted.  Finally students created their own Miro inspired figure by playing a drawing game with a dice to roll their own Miro!

Moving lines

Kindergartners created sculptural lines that twist and turn around their page.