Vocabulary Day!

I  love Vocabulary Day!  Seeing everyone getting creative is the best!!  This year I decided to go as Cool Colors-- which are colors that remind us of cool temperatures like green, blue, and purple.  I wore some shades and carried around my little fan!!

Portraits in Proportion

Fifth graders started their year with a self-portrait which they attempted completely on their own. By having the students draw without my help it helped me to assess their skill level.  After they drew themselves I had them complete another portrait.  This time prior to drawing we discussed the proportions of the face and how to draw different facial features.  The improvement in their drawings is wonderful!!

Egyptian Crowns

Third graders traveled back in time to Ancient Egypt where there were a number of different crowns worn by gods, kings, and queens.  These crowns played an important role in the way that royalty and gods were represented in art.  They were never shown without one because it represented their importance.  Students looked at various crowns from Ancient Egypt and described their shape and purpose.  Finally, students designed their own crowns by combing ideas from different examples of Egyptian crowns.

Fairies!!

Kindergarteners read the story Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane.  In the story Kristen uses things she finds in nature to build her own fairy house in the woods.  Each day she returns to her house to see if any fairies are living inside, and to add other ideas and embelishments to her creation.  Finally, on her last day visiting the woods she is visited by the fairies who show themselves to her as a way of thanking her for her wonderful creation.  After reading and discussing the story students set out to create their own fairies using a variety of materials!

Jennie's hat

First grade students began the year by studying how artists approach self-portraits.  The class read the book The Many Faces of the Face and described how all of our faces are different, including their color, shape, and expression. 

        Students then created a collage self-portrait by using a mirror and cut pieces of paper.  The class then read another story by Ezra Keats titled Jennie’s Hat.  In the book Jennie gets a hat from her aunt that she dislikes because it is too plain.  At the end, birds come to decorate her hat with all types of flowers and found materials, and Jennie is left with the most beautiful hat she has ever seen. 

        Following the story students each created their own plain hat.  We discussed different paper sculpture techniques that they could use to decorate their hat and make it as special as Jennies.  Once the hat was complete students added it to their self-portrait.

Ish

In the story, Ish, a little boy named Ramon loves to draw, but loses his confidence when his picture is laughed at by his older brother. Over and over he crumples his drawings and tosses them on the floor and is ready to give up on art. But, his younger sister has been secretly gathering the crumpled drawings and displays them. She teaches Ramon that art isn’t about being perfect, but about thinking more -ishly!

Kindergartners were inspired by all of Ramon’s crumpled papers in the story and made their own crumpled paper art. This is a great process art activity that really gets the kids excited about creating!

Check out our dots!

Here are some of the dot projects we did for dot day!  Each grade studied a different artist- learning how they made their mark.  We then created dots inspired by the marks these artists made so famous!!

Pointillism dots by kindergarten

Kandinsky dots by first grade

 Mondrian dots by second grade

van Gogh dot by third grade

Romero Britto dot by fourth grade

Fifth grade Lichtenstein dots