WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE ART ROOM??: 5th Grade

Thursday, December 17, 2015

5th Grade Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal art originated in Australia over 30,000 years ago. Many of the aborigines traveled long distances and recorded their travels by using symbols. The symbols they created using only lines and dots in a repeated pattern. Aboriginal art has many of the earth tone colors because they used to make their paint from materials in nature. UNITY and REPETITION are seen throughout the aboriginal art we looked at because of the repeated dots used to create symbols. The students were able to create their own piece of aboriginal art using dots and aboriginal symbols and earth tone colors!

5th Grade Skeletons (Dia de los Muertos)

El Dia de los Muertos is a tradition that is celebrated in Mexico for over 500 years. It is celebrated on November 1^st and 2^nd. This is a time to remember and honor loved ones who have passed away. It is not supposed to be sad or scary; it’s a time to celebrate life itself. In Mexico on these two days people create altars that are filled with food, photographs, candles, skulls, flowers, etc. to remember all the great memories from those who have passed away. Some Mexicans decorate and set up altars at the grave sites as well. The calavera, or skeleton is an important symbol during Dia del los Muertos. On these two special days there are many types of toys, food, masks and miniatures made to look like skulls or skeletons.

5th Grade Birch Tree Landscapes

The 5^th grade students studied landscapes. A landscape is a painting or picture of physical elements that are outside including mountains, people, animals, plants, trees, lighting, weather, etc. They were able to look at many different landscapes that included birch trees. We compared similarities and differences between an abstract landscape and a realistic landscape. Students also found the HORIZON LINE, FOREGROUND, MIDDLE GROUND and BACKGROUND in several different landscapes. Students were able to use cardboard and paint to create texture on their birch trees. We discussed how to create depth in a painting by putting larger elements closer and smaller elements farther back in their landscape. Students were able to choose colors of their choice for their background keeping in mind the color wheel when they were mixing. They wanted to choose colors that were right next to each other on the color wheel when mixing.