5th Grade American Flags

The 5th grader's have an annual Road To Revolution Presentation that the put on at our school.  The 5th graders dress up in costumes and put on various presentations, power points, skits about the American Revolution.  So in Art Class we created Flag collages to decorate the commons for their presentations.  We brainstormed  words for "What it means to be an American".  Students cut words out of magazines and then added handwritten words into their space.  We discussed Variety and how variety makes a piece of art more interesting.  So students used different fonts, sizes and different directions to add/write their words. The 2nd day students add the transparent paint (modge podge mixed with tempera paint) to create the American Flag. 

 

3rd Grade Chicken Sculptures

3rd Grade Zentangle Hearts

4th Grade Masks

The 4^th grade students looked at and studied many different types of masks.  We discussed the difference between symmetrical balance and asymmetrical balance.  Symmetrical balance is when the mask is exactly the same on both sides, and asymmetrical balance is when the two sides are different.  We also talked about the difference between 3-Dimensional and 2-Dimensional art.  The students were able to create their own unique design for their mask using either symmetrical or asymmetrical balance.  Finally students were able to add many fun details to create their 3-D Mask.

 

2nd Grade Matisse Collage

The 2^nd Grade students learned about the life and artwork of Henri Matisse.  Students learned that Matisse loved to use his scissors to make various shapes overlapping to create a collage.  He rarely threw any scraps away.  Students learned the difference between positive and negative space.  Students also learned the difference between geometric and organic shapes.  The students created a collage with many overlapping geometric and organic shapes using the positive and negative images just like Henri Matisse did! 

 

 



4th Grade Chuck Close Portraits

The 4^th grade students learned about the artist Chuck Close.  His first paintings were called Photo Realism because they looked like they could have been black and white photographs.  Chuck Close ended up having a spinal collapse, which paralyzed him from the neck down.  He had such a passion for art that he wanted to continue but he had to totally change his style because he could not longer grip a paintbrush.  He went through a lot of therapy to finally get motion back in his arms.  Because he cannot grip a paintbrush he has a glove that he Velcro’s a brush to the top of his hand.  He is not able to get the fine detail like he used to so he changed his painting style an impressionism style.  He uses grids and overlaps different color circles and hearts inside each square to create some really interesting portraits of people.   The students had to create a grid overlapping on a photo of their self.  Then they used colored pencil to create overlapping circles in each square to complete a piece of art in Close’s Impressionism style.

 

 

5th Grade Picasso Portraits

The 5^th grade students learned about the artist Pablo Picasso through a power point.  Picasso was born in Spain and has become one of the world’s most famous artists.  The students were able to see the progression of his different styles of art.  The Blue Period was a time that was depressing and sad for Picasso.  He showed this through painting his artwork in all different shades of blue.  His next period was called the Rose Period.   He used more bright and cheerful colors.  This was a more happy time in Picasso’s life because he was involved in a relationship with his future wife.  The period that Picasso is most famous for is CUBISM.  Cubism is using various shapes to create multiple viewpoints.  Picasso love to use people as his subject matter.  The 5^th grade students created faces using multiple patterns in the cubism style that Picasso was so famous for. 

 

1st Grade Peacocks

 

1^st Grade Peacocks

I Can . . .

· State important facts about food/habitat of a peacock

· Describe what a peacock looks like and identify the patterns in the feathers

· Draw and color the body of a peacock

· Create texture on the body of my peacock

· Use chalk and oil crayons to create a pattern within the feathers of my peacock

3rd Grade Blue Dog

George Rodrigue is a Louisiana native and has been painting for 40 years.  He started painting at the age of 5.  His inspiration for painting Blue Dog came from a story his mom read him about a werewolf, that werewolf reminded him of a dog, and then he wanted to paint the dog blue.  We read the book, Why Is Blue Dog Blue and students learned that Rodrigue did not always paint Blue Dog blue.  On the day he went fishing he painted Blue Dog salmon; when he ate a hot dog he painted Blue Dog mustard; when he went to the beach painted Blue Dog tan.  So the places and objects that Rodigue experienced influenced his color choices for his art.  Rodrigue’s advice to students is, “Paint what you like.”  Students were able to draw a Blue Dog and paint Blue Dog any color they wanted and had to complete the sentence: “I painted Blue Dog _______ because________.”  Once students chose their color they had to outline their blue dog with the complementary color (color opposite on the color wheel) to make their do pop out.  Students learned what VALUE is and why artists use VALUE.  Students used oil crayons to add value to their dog.  Finally students choose a pattern using lines or shapes and a crayon resist technique to paint their background.