Warm Fish in a Cool Ocean

 1st Grade is learning about color families! After a talk about colors and the things they make of think of. We started with the backgrounds, using only our Cool Colors (Blue, Green, Violet) we painted water lines, seaweed and perhaps some coral. The next week we created our sea creatures (because the ocean is full of more then just fish and these first graders wanted to show the variety of different animals:) Our sea creatures we made with Warm Colors (Orange, Yellow, Red and Pink) using oil pastels. After a quick talk about planning and balance we finally we cut and pasted those creatures onto our backgrounds. And the results are...

FABULOUS! 

Jasper Johns Names

In 4th Grade we are learning about Rhythm and Pattern. So we looked to Jasper Johns and his famous alphabet and number paintings. Students drew out their names (or nicknames) with oil pastels for the letters, trying to create pattern with color. We quickly reviewed different color families and how they can be used to create contrast in the background then used watercolor. The students did a great job keeping colors with certain letters which really created wonderful pattern and rhythm throughout their artwork. Almost every student had success with this lesson, it is definitely a keeper. :) Thank you to the blog "For the Love of Art", for helping inspire me with this lesson. 

This girl really got creative on how she was arranging her lettering. Love the results! 

Empty Bowls

Empty Bowls is an annual luncheon put on by a local food bank. Community members are invited to the luncheon where they purchase a bowl that was made by a local elementary school student. The proceeds from the bowls and luncheon tickets to go to help families in need during the holiday season. 

This project was done with my 3rd-5th grade after school art club.

I have been creating bowls for this event for 5 years now, but I think these are some of the best bowls yet! 

We used a coil construction. This was day 1. 

Skip to the finished product. I really love the patterns and rhythms they did when they were glazing.

 Some of the girls formed their bowls into heart shapes. I think it is quite fitting for the occasion.

 

Paul Klee Inspired City

 First let me give credit where credit is due, I got the idea for this lesson from another blog "deep space sparkle". I was looking around Pinterest for a lesson that would be good for teaching geometric shapes, when I came across the lesson. Of course artist Paul Klee is a great inspiration for any shape lesson. I also added the element of art of color, students learned about analogous colors before we started painting. I think having them choose an analogous color scheme really helped to create success for all students with this lesson. Which also teaches them about UNITY.

This is still a work in progress, but I really like the whimsical use of shapes.

These are both going to be two WARM cities when they are finished.

New Art Club

 This year I have taken on a new group for Art Club...Kindergarten thru 2nd Graders! 

One thing I learned over the summer doing Art Camps, is that things flow better with a theme. So this year I am taking that approach with my Art Club, each quarter will have a different theme. 

First quarter our theme is Autumn! (I'm thinking seasonal this year).

For our first project we made owls and leaves to create a group collaborative bulletin board. The students created owls and leaves with oil pastels and watercolor. As you can tell we had so many that I had no room for the sign so I got creative and hung it above. It was one of the easiest bulletin boards I've ever done because all students helped with hanging up their own artwork.

For our next project we made Scarecrows. 

I showed the students pictures from Grant Wood and his spacious rural landscapes, for inspiration for their backgrounds. And I borrowed a scarecrow from our garden at school to help them in creating their scarecrows. (Stay tuned on more for garden art activities this year.) 

All in all the results were too CUTE! 

She made sure the fabric was used as the pots for the flowers to grow from.