Chihuly inspired 2nd Graders

Inspired by Chihuly, the 2nd graders created an interpretation of his blown glass work from coffee filters, washable markers and spray starch. They then mounted their sculptures and I hung them from the ceiling. Next, we looked at Chihuly's, 'Niijima Floats' series of drawings, discussing the abstract and experimental nature of they offer. Check them out here: niijima floats Next, they used chalk pastels and drew from their sculptures that were hung above their tables, pulling colors, patterns, and textures from their own work as well as the work of their peers. They have the option of adding tempera paint (object printing, brushed, splattered, marble rolling) liquid glitter & dry glitter.

mixed media student example, inspired by Chihuly's, 'Niijima Floats' series

coffee filter "blown glass" sculptures

Mounted on construction paper and hung from the ceiling around the room

metallic paint station

A student working on her chalk pastel drawing

student examples

Warm & Cool

Warm and Cool collage/paintings by the kindergartners. Objectives of this lesson: Develop a solid understanding of the warm and cool color families (ability to create a work of art using only one family) ability to make connections between colors & our environment and ability to tear shapes of paper with control...we're still working on this fine motor skill :)

The Lion and The Rat

Inspired by another wonderful Brian Wildsmith story, The Lion and The Rat, kindergartners created lions for Family Arts Night at Swallow. 3rd and 4th grade students helped design and hang a jungle mural to display their work. I found a great children's book review blog, check it out here: http://theartofchildrenspicturebooks.blogspot.com/  and Brian Wildsmith's website: http://www.brianwildsmith.com/

Self Portraits -4th Grade

Oil pastel self portraits by the 4th graders, created using the gridding technique. photo 8 x 10, drawing 16 x 20. Great job guys and gals!

Creole Cottages

Popsicle sticks, toothpicks, cardboard, pom poms, pipe cleaners, tag board templates (to create 4 walls) scrap tag board to create architectural design elements & yard elements. We looked closely at New Orleans creole cottages for inspiration. My students really enjoyed this project--we set up a series of these homes for Family Arts Night in rows similar to the streets of the French Quarter!

Student Architects

Kindergarten focused on architecture this week, creating buildings in our community from wooden blocks. Students works in teams to build a structure of choice, then we did a gallery tour and each team presented their creation to the class (talk about wild imaginations!) Next, students recorded their creations by drawing a version of their still life structure on paper. This activity led into the next portion of the unit which was building our school from construction paper shapes and materials in a collage-like format. The focus of this unit was to look, describe and translate shapes into recognizable buildings in their environment. Wow, do kindergarten boys like to build with blocks!
"...probably the best day in art, ever!" - kinder

Kinder Collages

Inspired by paper dolls, the kindergartners created a collage of their family. They created a background and frame to start. Then, traced people and cut them out added clothing and accessories with drawing materials and/or paper collaging techniques. We also worked on titles and names.The most tricky part of the was tracing and cutting out the people (some lost some body parts along the way!) Next year I would probably make this a 3D project and have each student create a stage or room for their paper doll people to inhabit.