Delaunay's Abstract Art

Fifth graders are learning about Robert and Sonia Delaunay, French abstract artists. We looked at several of the couple's art and have a hard time telling the difference between their works because they are so similar. We started out using a crayon, making lines with rulers and tracing circles. Students learned about asymmetrical balance in their art. Once the students finished with the crayon they are using watercolor to fill in their areas and practice brush control. So far the results are looking look.

Paul Klee Castle & Sun

My third grade students enjoyed learning about Paul Klee and his abstract style art. We learned about geometric shapes, looked at several Paul Klee paintings and started our own. We used rulers, made rectangles, closed the top with triangles and then made all kinds of shapes inside the castle. We used a little circle to trace the top. Students used crayons to color in the shapes and then watercolor in opposite colors to color over shapes. I think I will skip the watercolor step if I do this again. Lots of kids got too heavy on the color and almost ruined their picture.

Clay Guppies

First graders started their first clay project making clay guppies. Totally snagged this idea from Deep Space Sparkle http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/?s=guppies, thanks Patty! We are using paint and modge podge to cover ours. They are turning out super fabulous!! So much more fun than the basic pinch pot!

Flags for Veteran's

My first graders made these little flags for each of the Veteran's that attended our assembly last Thursday. Simple little flags that send a big Thank You!

Gumball Machines

Kindergarten learned about artist Wayne Thiebaud and his painting Three Machines. They really enjoyed this artist and his 'sweet' paintings! We first traced and cut a circle, used smelly Mr. Sketch markers to fill up with gumballs. For the bottom we cut the top corners off a red piece (9x6), wrote 25 cents and Gumballs at the bottom. I have used paint before and it works well too.

Indian Corn

Kindergarten worked on some much needed cutting and gluing skills with this project. We talk about the kinds of corn there are and looked at several pictures of Indian corn. We started with a dark brown rectangle, cut the corners off, then the tiny corners to create an oval. The students cut squares from colored paper, used one dot to glue them down and we added a little green for the leaves. I put them out in the hall to look like stalks.

Jasper Johns Flag Collage

In honor of Veteran's day I had my 2nd grade classes create a flag collage. We talked about pop artist Jasper Johns, Veteran's and how flags are symbols. We used a newspaper half, I gave them strips of Red, White and Blue for them to cut into squares. We finished with a little glitter in the blue for the star sparkle. I've done this project with paint and it works but the news paper gets pretty flimsy.

Watercolor means water + color!!!

Just curious and wonder if elementary kids ever get the hang of watercolors in the cake style palettes. I have taught them so many times about making a puddle of water in the color and never digging deep to get the paint. Still it seems I get projects where the watercolor is thick and sticky...and the kid has used enough of the color for the whole class! I purchased the liquid style watercolors last year and have had pretty good luck with them yet there are problems too! They are so runny that if bumped the colors run together. I usually transport them to tables but still by the end of class the colors are all brown it seems. I love using watercolor, I think it's my favorite medium...yet how do I get the kids to understand it's water with a hint of color!? I've demonstrated until I'm blue in the face and still...I catch a few little darling's still dipping in like we're using tempera!! Any suggestions or does anyone else have the same problem?

Tiny Weaving

4TH Grade Tiny Weaving:
Started with a white piece of 80# paper (12X18)...students created an abstract painting on it. Splatter, smearing, using the top of the paint brush for texture and pretty much anything goes. On day 2 I used the paper cutter to make tiny 1/2 inch strips, while students chose a color of construction paper and created a loom making 1/2 space between the lines. We wove the painted strips through and then added magazine strips going horizontal. I cut all the tiny strips with the paper cutter, the students only cut their loom. This took us 3 classes.