Last week was our first week with paint (very exciting). Even more exciting, was the fact that the kindergarteners were introduced to "tools" to help them incorporate texture into their work. They scratched, they stamped, they rubbed and dabbed. Before painting we talked about how texture is the way something feels or looks like it feels, which can help art look more realistic. My sample was a painting of a tree, and the students told me that they know the bark would feel "rough, scratchy or hard"which is why I made the bark look rough and scratchy. Students were allowed to paint whatever they wanted.
What a wonderful collection of completed work!
0 Comments
Last week, the first graders worked diligently to design and build paper tile mosaics. We opened the class talking about texture and how texture describes how things feel. Texture is important in art to help make it more realistic, or to help better the aesthetic. I brought in a small mosaic as well as images of a few more and told them how mosaics are an art tradition and are a great way to design an image with texture. They could make whatever they wanted. check out these works in progress!
Last week, the second graders had an exercise in shapes. I opened class by talking about the difference between geometric and organic shapes, and had students identify the type as I read the book "The Perfect Square" by Michael Hall. I then showed them a short stop motion animation I made about transforming a square piece of paper into other images (which I will figure out how to upload soon!). Students were also giving tangrams- remember those? The kits of plastic geometric shapes to help them think of a design. They could use this just to get ideas by moving the pieces around, and then they traced the pieces, cut them out and pasted them onto their paper. They were also given the option to create an image using organic shapes, and they were allowed to rip their paper just like in the book. It was a bit of a slow start but after a while they started to get the hang of it, and made some creative creations! This past week, I read “When a Line Bends a Shape Begins” by Rhonda Gowler Greene. I opened class by having students name the types of shapes they knew, and reminding them that we have talked about how lines make up the world around us, including shapes! Our goal was to create a picture by arranging and then gluing pre cut geometric shapes (they could also cut their own shapes if they wanted to). Our book was essential to the lesson since each page describes a shape and provides examples of where to find them.
I am SO impressed by the variation and creativity in their work! Moving on from lines to shapes, the first graders did some outside of the box thinking this past week. I read the simple, creative and inspiring book “Not a Box” by Antoinette Portis which allows readers to think of the endless possibilities of things you can do with a box and your imagination. In the same vein, I challenged the first graders to come up with their own geometric shapes, cut them out, paste them in a book and use their imagination (marker and pencil) to see what it could become.
This is a very talented good humored bunch! This week the second graders were back at it. We spent todays class finishing up our line patterns and we introduced various shapes to our designs. The last step was to add a bit of watercolor over the finished piece to tie the composition together.
I opened this class differently than the rest. Instead of starting as a group on the rug, every student began at their desk with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper while they listened to a brief, pre recorded podcast that I made for my Technology for Special Populations class at Moore College of Art and Design, which I am currently enrolled in. I took this assignment as an opportunity to record my directions and clearly state our objectives, as well as recap what we did last week. For more information about my assignment, you can read: http://karasartcart.weebly.com/weekly-reflections The actual podcast can be found at: https://soundcloud.com/kara-j-rutledge/karaartcartpodcastmp3 I must say, it was a nice change of pace! It was a more dynamic way to recap last weeks lessons than having me repeat what we talked about last week. They used their papers from their exercise as a free draw paper when they were done. We even had time to mount their finished work on colored paper. Here are some finished and works in progress, land (and sea) scapes! This past week, the kindergarteners got a chance to observe lines in leaves from outside (the veins) and trace or free hand draw, color, paint and cut leaves of their own. I began the class by reading "I Am an Artist" by Pat Lowery Collins which uses beautiful illustrations and a poetic form to tell children that art is in the nature all around us and when they look, observe and find it, they are an artist too.
Students excitedly dove right in and made leaves to contribute to a class tree as well as some leaves to take home. Job well done kindergarteners! The first graders are growing line experts, so this week I wanted to see them put their knowledge to use. Using a very simple outline of their hand and forearms, the first graders used varied lines to draw a fall tree and the veins on the leaves. We ended up with a colorful fall collection!During our last class, the second graders created beautiful abstract line compositions. This week they began a two week Line Landscape project. I talked to students about what makes up a landscape and introduced the term "horizon line" as the horizontal line that divides the sky and ground. Students were to draw a landscape, or (seascape) with a horizon line and then break the picture into big shapes. They were to then use colored pencils to fill in the shapes with lines. Next class, they will fill in the sky portion with shapes. See some works in progress below along with my samples.
Next week, I will post some of the finished pieces. Click here to read some of my reflections on this lesson. For our second art class, I talked about lines with my kindergarteners. What is a line? Where can we find them in the classroom? They excitedly pointed to the lines in the ceilings, on the windows, on the carpet and the letters all over the room. I explained that lines make up the world around us and are a very important part of art. I introduced the vocabulary vertical, horizontal and diagonal- so be sure to ask your child which one is which! We then realized that those are not the only three line directions that exist, there is an infinite amount of possibilities.
We had two brief projects. The first was to draw as many line types as they could think of on their black construction paper, using special crayons. I encouraged them to overlap lines, make them thick and thin, dashed and curved, swirly, zig zaggy and all of the above. When they were done with this, I had each table work together as a team to manipulate pipe cleaners into different kinds of lines and add it to a group sculpture. Each group then got a chance to talk about their sculpture- what were they thinking? What does it look like? What's one word that describes their creation? They did a great job sharing and working together! |