Last week kindergarten traveled to our first continent- Australia! We are off to a great start. Students learned facts about Australia ranging from the climate, the animals, and how children go to school. They then studied Aboriginal dot painting and learned some symbols and meanings in these paintings. Students used Q-tips to create their own dot paintings. They were asked to have their art tell a story using Aboriginal symbols. We will return to Australia during our next class.
Parents: If your child has an artifact (photos, toys, postcards, etc.) or anything related to Australia that they would like to share, please send it with them to school on Friday, March 4th. Thanks!
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Sorry for the delayed post. Due to a Professional Development day this coming Friday we will not have art for first grade and kindergarten. However, let's take a look at what the first graders accomplished last week.
Before diving back into their Van Gogh sunflowers, each first grader held a post card of a Van Gogh painting. I had them observe any special ways Van Gogh used his brush to leave marks on the painting (his brush strokes). They noticed some really interesting ways that Van Gogh uses just paint to create texture. We found that he really liked to have swirls, circles, curves waves, and short marks going in a horizontal or diagonal direction. What keen observers! For free draw, I challenged students to try copying a Van Gogh painting, or to design their own picture while still using Van Gogh's brushstrokes. Last week the second graders played an art review game- and they did an amazing job! I wrote prompts and questions all over a beach ball and they passed it to each other, stopping to answer a question in the style of a good old fashioned "eye spy" game. I brought in an assortment of objects and displayed them for students. They were able to find the answer either in the pile of objects, or within their line of sight in the room. Some students were also wearing the answers!
After this refresher, they broke off into groups and set out to design ANYTHING of their choosing using a large white paper and materials provided (markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue, scissors, scrap paper). The only catch was they have to try to incorporate 6 out of the 7 elements of art. As an extended challenge, I asked them to include the concepts of symmetry and/or patterns. They are off to a great start and will complete their compositions next week! The kindergarteners were surprised and excited when I told them that our first trip around the world will be back in time, over 30,000 years ago. What better place to start our world tour of art, than the beginning of drawing. I read the book "The First Drawing" by Mordicai Gerstein which does a great job setting the stage for younger learners to understand the early human need to draw. After the story, I showed students photos of real cave art and asked them to pretend that they were a cave family with friends at their table. Together, they would create a collaborative cave drawing on a large piece of paper. I dimmed the lights and played sounds from a cave on my phone, to help these creators get in the zone. Using chalks and oil pastels, the kindergarteners did an amazing job working together and creating cave drawings!
Last week, the first graders got to know the works of artist Vincent Van Gogh a little bit better. In order to do so, we started class with a game. I reminded students that the elements of art are very important building blocks that can create a piece of art when combined. I mentioned that these elements are so important, that it would be easy to spot 2 or 3 in Van Gogh's paintings. Each student held a postcard or image of Van Gogh's and we rolled our "elements of art die". Students raised their hand if they could identify the element from the die, in their artwork.
We all agreed that Van Gogh uses a lot of texture in his paintings. Students then began their own version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers using mixed materials. Looking forward to the finished work next week! Last week the second graders finished their foil figure series. Originally, I hoped that we would recreate the silhouettes from their original statues using black paper. Instead of having each student cut out their intricate poses, they used glitter glue to place their foil figures into their paintings.
These compositions are so creative, well thought out and full of detail. Wonderful job! Last week, we began class by talking about culture to reinforce some of our past conversations. Using the poster below as a guide, students took turns sharing aspects of culture to the class. I also unveiled that the kindergarteners will learn about art and cultures from all around the world and they needed to prepare for our trip!
We talked about an artist's portfolio- a large file/ bag that holds your artwork. Students labeled their portfolios and passports. They will hold onto the passports and get a stamp with every new continent we travel to. Students then explored and observed an array of cultural artifacts ranging from instruments to jewelry and sculptures from around the world. They had a chance to share with the class, one artifact they interacted with. They told us what they know about the object from their interactions, made a guess about what it is/where it's from and then classified their artifact with the cultural web on the poster. For example, if a student picked up a drum, they might have said "this is related to culture because it makes music! It also has pictures on it, so it is also art!" This past class, the first graders had a second look at some of Cezanne's paintings. We talked about how the benefit of a still life is 1. It doesn't move! 2. Because it is still, artists can focus on capturing the light, which will make the painting look more life like. We practiced drawing shadows on the opposite side of the light source/ highlights. Students used chalk pastels to add texture, shadows, highlights and to decorate the background.
These are beautiful compositions! Last week, the second graders began class by giving themselves a pat on the back. I had to pause and acknowledge how much work they've done with their foil figures. Like professional artists, they observed a model and created a sketch of a live pose ( they had some tricky poses!) They then sculpted their figure using pipe cleaners, tin foil and clay. Last week, I explained how they will make a silhouette based on their model and place the silhouette into a painting.
Below are photos from the first stage of background paintings for the silhouette. I asked them to think about the pose/character of their foil figure and to design and paint a background to match their pose. There were a few ballet classes, gymnasiums, karate dojos and performance stages. I'm excited to see these paintings come together! |