This fun winter landscape was just done by my 1st grade classes. We look at the differences in realism and abstract art. We learn about the colors that make us feel cool. Then we create this cool feeling winter landscape using only the cool colors.

Snow Bug

This is a winter lesson I just finished with Kindergarteners. We used the "magic" of oil pastel alnd watercolor resist to draw a catapillar type bug with snow flakes inside each segment. We then added snow falling from the sky. The so called magic occurs when the colorful watercolor is applied overtop of the white drawing, snow and flakes magically apear, the little guys love that. To wrap up we write a collective class story about the adventure of our snow bugs.

This is part of a unit that I just finished with a group of 5th graders. We spent time studying the differences in contour and sketching lines. For the contour portion students chose and interesting clip art animal and played with layout, space and composition. Students then filled the background with pattern style contour lines. It turned out to be a cool graphic art piece.

Recycled Robots

This was a very fun project for all involved. As part of my art club students found interesting material to create a "recycled" robot. They gave them names and they all had interesting facts. They turned out to be cool industrial type sculptures.

This year for part of our Native American Unit 5th grade created coil pots. I do not have a kiln so we used air dry clay and then painted them when dry. The students really enjoyed the process and liked learning the pottery lingo.

Ode to Starry Night Mural

My art club recently finished this amazing 4ftx8ft mural with their version of Van Gogh's Starry Night. They enjoyed studying the "vibrations" and movement of the painting. We explored the way a painting can evoke an emotion. I have a great little coffee table book called "The Wisdom of a Starry Night" it shows paintings with a single question prompt. For this one we wrote about what wisdom we could find in this starry night. Some sample responses from my 4th and 5th graders were: "The stars in the sky remind me of how small we really are," "The bright starts remind me that my grandpa is always watching over me," it was a great reflective exersize to go with our mural.