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.

Welcome Back to Art!!

So last year my big school project was this mosaic. I had never done anything like this before, so it was defiantly a learning experience. And with a little (or a lot) help from my dad who has done pretty much every kind of construction, we got it finished and I could not be happier with the results! 

So on to the new school year! I am happy to be full time at only 1 school this year! I can't wait to get busy making beautiful art with all of  my wonderful little artist. I will be seeing every class once a week, so we are going to get a lot of good stuff done and work on building our art skills.

If you would like to help us make some amazing new art this year, there are a few things we will need:

• Craft Materials---> Burlap and other Fabric, Beads, Buttons, Wire in a variety of color, Yarn Cones, Sand Paper
• Toys--->Plastic Cars, Plastic Dinosaurs, Legos, Instruments, Play Sand (Or Beach Sand)
• All types of magazines, but sports magazines would be the best!
• Art Supplies---> Containers with lids (my favorite are the cream cheese and baby food), Flat boxes (like used for soda flats or the lid from a ream of paper), egg cartons, foam trays (Fruit and Veggies only, NO meat)
• Anything that would be interesting to draw--> Shells, Vases, Teapots, Keys, Fake Flowers etc. 

And then there are the basics that I have listed on the top right side of my blog that we are always in need of each year. Just remember if you sending in a container that once held food, please WASH it thoroughly before sending it to school. Thank you!

I can't wait to see all my students and hopefully some beautiful artwork that was done over the summer!

Starry Nights

Our annual art show that we call "Starry Night" was a rousing success! All of the student art work looked AMAZING in the Cafeteria. The courtyard was filled with the sound of Spring Songs from our K-2nd graders. And yummy smells from our "Taste of San Pablo" food vendors. The night was truly a wonderful event that we will put on again next year. And the cherry on top... we raised over $800 for the art department! Thank you all who came and out to support our school and the ARTS!!!

All of my WONDERFUL volunteers helping to step up. 

Before the doors were opened 

After :) 

Save the Date

San Pablo Elementary           

Presents

Starry Night Student Art Show

May 14, 2013         

Come and enjoy an evening of

Art, Music and More!

Each student will have an exciting piece of artwork on display for you to take home. Please come and make a donation on your child’s artwork. All donations will be used to purchase Art, Music and Educational supplies!

In addition to our celebration of the arts, the PTA will be hosting our Annual Silent Auction and Taste of San Pablo. Vendors include Bono’s Taco Lu, Cinotti’s, Nini’s and more!

 6:00- Cafeteria Doors Open

6:15- Kindergarten, 1^st, 2^nd graders perform Spring Songs in the Courtyard.

Flower Mandalas

What a great lesson to help students to think about balance! First I introduced Mandalas and their different cultural significance. We discussed the different kinds of balance mandalas have including radial and symmetrical balance. After talking about the different lines, shapes and other Elements of Art we could see, we made a science connection to flowers.We used the mandalas for the center of our flowers. I could not be more amazed at the different patterns some students came up with for their artwork!

 After we designed our mandalas then we added petals and a stem to create the flower with crayons. Then we used watercolor to finish by adding a sky and ground. Students were thinking art smart by choosing some different colors for their sky besides blue, such as violet for night or orange and red for a sunset.

These pictures are from a second grade class. But this lesson can be done with students all the way up to fifth. And it is great for a one day project with older students you just don't make the flower connection. A big thank you to Adventures of an Art Teacher for this idea! 

Fun at the Museum

This year I was able to go on a field trip to The Cummer Art and Gardens Museum with some of the first graders at my school. I was very excited about this (maybe more so then the kids:) because I had never been on a field trip as a teacher. The docents did a wonderful job of keeping the students engaged and showing all of the great exhibits our local museum has to offer. 

This is the part of Art Connections, which is the kids zone of the museum.

 

 

 

Art Connections-- The kids are able to draw on a window with dry eraser markers. 

Outside in the garden we are able to see the St.John's River.

Beautiful garden view.

We ALL had an AWESOME day!

Chinese New Year Dragon

              I know I'm a bit late with this post, but this year is flying by at the speed of sound:) 

This was a great lesson for my after school group. I usually see two groups for 45 minutes each and this lesson worked great for all grade levels K-5. I did make a dragon head tracer for the little ones, but older students could draw their own.

 First we reviewed about warm and coo color groups. Students then needed to choose one color from each group, they traced their hands for the body of the dragon and were free to choose any color for the head. After adding a bit of embellishment to the body to look like scales and decorating the head with an eye or flames, the dragons were ready to assemble. Some students even added wings and horns. This was a fun project and I know I found this on one of the wonderful blogs I follow but can not remember which, to whoever you are thank you!