Last week, I showed the students a video about what elements can make up your culture and had students draw symbols or images that they think represent their culture. This past week, I read the kindergarteners "Whoever You are" by Mem Fox. I love this book! When we were drawing our self portraits a few weeks ago, we had a discussion about how so many things about us can be different, like our skin color, our hair color, the way we dress, where we're from, the way we talk, etc. but there are so many things about us that are also the same. Mem Fox does an excellent job at illustrating this message in her book.
For our project on 1/30/16, the kindergarteners assembled their drawings of their neighborhoods/communities, their self portraits and their cultural symbols from the past week into a collage. I wanted students to be introduced to the concept that we can learn about people by looking at the art they create. I also mentioned that very soon we will learn about art from different cultures all over the world. Below are some glimpses of their work- they were very proud of their creations!
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Last week, the first graders were introduced to the french painter, Paul Cezanne. I brought in an oil painting I did of a Cezanne still life so students could see the texture created from the brush strokes. After examining more examples of his work, the students identified that he incorporated many of our elements of art such as lines, shapes, color and texture. Students then made quick reference sketches of a still life set up and went back to their desks to start creating collage pieces. Next week, they will continue to bring this work to fruition.
Click through the photos below to see how these first graders are blossoming into art masters! This past week, the second graders completed their foil form figures inspired by Alberto Giacometti (see below). It was so neat to see these characters come to life! Stay tuned next week to see how they will use their figures as models.
Last week we continued our talk about form (anything that is three dimensional). I showed the students images of the sculptures below by Alberto Giacometti. They noticed that the figures are "skinny, moving, doing an action" and came up with ideas about what each figure could be up to. I let them know that we are starting a longer project and that students will create similar figures using pipe cleaners and tinfoil.
To get started, I had students think a little bit more about the person they are building. What do they like to do? Are you building an athlete? An artist? An inventor? What kind of movements might this person make? Later on, they will develop more background information about their artwork. This past class, students talked to a partner about poses they wanted to try out and they used each other to model for their stick figure sketches. After selecting their favorite out of three sketches, they began to build their figure with pipe cleaners. Next week, tin foil! Last class we reviewed the places the kindergarteners drew in their neighborhood and I talked about how the next step in their art piece is to draw a portrait of themselves from head to toe. I stressed that not everybody draws the same and not everybody looks the same but there are some things we have in common, like two eyes, two arms, two legs. We did a review of body parts that are often skipped in drawings like the neck, hands, fingers and details on the face like eyebrows, eyelashes, and ears. We stood up and moved our bodies to become more aware of all of these forgotten parts. I LOVED seeing these finished sketches. The kindergarteners worked with colored pencils and were challenged to fill up a half sheet of 8"X11" paper. The first photo is a sketch one student started using his old habits, but after reviewing what we just went over, he quickly drew the portrait next to it. I love seeing this click! I have cut out the outline of the portraits so students can add them to a collage later on. Below are a few of the portraits below. This coming week we will begin to talk about cultures and drawing cultural symbols to add to our collages. If you have not completed the CULTURE WORKSHEET that was sent home, there is still time to do so! Or, feel free to have a brief conversation with your child so they can better inform their drawings. Looking forward to it! These are gorgeous. The first graders took their projects to the next level this past Friday, by cutting out their lily pads, adding tissue paper flowers and cool colored oil pastels to represent reflections of the sky above, just like in Monet's water lily series. Every piece turned out so unique. What a great start to our mini masterpieces unit!
The kindergarteners are transitioning into their Around the World Unit soon, but I thought it was important to start at home. I began class talking to kindergarteners about the words "community" and "neighborhood". They then helped me write a list of things that can be found in a neighborhood, such as homes, places to shop, learn, work, eat, and play. We talked about how not everyone's home is the same- some people live in buildings, or in a single, twin home or row home. Keeping these details in mind, the kindergarteners then set out to draw four things in their neighborhood from the list we created, including their home. These will be pieces of a larger project to come.
Thank you to all parents who filled out the worksheet about culture. And an additional thank you if you gave consent for your child to participate in my research study about multiculturalism. We will begin "traveling" at the end of the month and last until the Spring. I will post a list of our "travel itinerary" so any parent who wants to participate and share about their culture can see what week their continent falls on (we travel from continent to continent stopping at 1 or 2 countries along the way). Thank you again for your support! Stay tuned for more information soon. Last week we began out mini masterpiece unit by looking ta paintings by Claude Monet. I talked to students about how an impression is something brief. I hsowed them a few series of Monet's including his water lily, haystack and cathedral series. I asked students to identify the differences within each series and they brilliantly found them. The color changes in the paintings due to the change in the time of day. I let students know that Monet was an Impressionist painter, which means he liked to paint outside, and he loved to study the changing light. I told them that he didn't want to make the painting perfect but painted with loose brushstrokes, leaving an impression of the moment, like a photograph. Students were also able to identify that while from far away the paintings look pretty clear, they are actually full of texture from his short brush strokes. I challenged students to paint their papers blue using various cool colors and to add texture in the way they used their brushes ( I also supplied them with cotton balls to dab the paint). they then created lily pads using a small balloon as a stamp. I LOVE the texture that you get from this. Next week they will cut out their lily pads, add flowers and assemble everything.
I am so IMPRESSED (get it?) Last week, I had the second graders remind me what they learned about value and asked them to recall how they created light and dark values using colored pencils. We then discussed that form, (our 7th element of art) is really anything three dimensional. It was easy for them to identify 3D and 2D objects in the classroom. I showed them my sample the first photo below) of a hand drawn on 2D paper that seems to come to life and look three dimensional when shaded carefully with value. The image on the right of my sample is a stuffed glove (3D) hand covered in a pattern of ribbons. I challenged students to use only pencils to mimic the movement of the ribbon around the form of the hand. Students traced their hands, and began their horizontal lines on the left of the paper. I told them to think of that line as a train which does not fall off the track, however every time it hits the hand, it has to go up a hill and back down again. This helped them to draw the curved lines and really create form. I was so amazed at their hard work that I hardly had time to take photos. These are in progress and will wrap up this coming week!
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