Animals in their Habitats

Tiger in the water

Tiger in the Cave

This is about the cutest penguin ever!

Giraffe, and Elephant in the pond!

Looking to buy myself a little time while we waited for the clay animals to come out of the Kiln, I had the students make environments for their animals. We discussed Background, Middle Ground and Foreground, along with 2-D vs 3-D. It was a great review, and the kids always love getting out the scrap box. Each student created an environment that they thought would make their animal comfortable. When the animals came out of the kiln, we dunked them in a watered down acrylic paint, to give an all over wash. Then, we used paint on tiny brushes to add the details.

3rd Grade-Real/Abstract

Each 3rd grader had to make 4 paintings or drawings. One realistic, and 3 abstract in some way. They chose their realistic, and their best abstract to turn in. This allowed some personal choice, and some criticism skills to enter into the lesson. We looked at Christo, Picasso, Warhol, Duchamp and Franz Marc to see a wide span of abstract art.

2nd Grade- Canopic Jars

Zebra
Scorpion
Not exactly sure- but it's cute!
Bunny Rabit
Tiger

I decided to change up one of my favorite 2nd grade spring projects. I love making coil pots. Typically, we glaze them in bright colors, and the classroom teachers plant flowers in them to take home. But this year, in order to go along with a Concealing/Revealing theme, we did some Egyptian artwork culminating in Canopic Jars. Gross enough to please the boys! I had never taught how to make lids before, but the students caught on quickly, and loved making their animals to be the "handle" on the top. The students had to pick an animal that represented their personality, which was fun.

Spring Projects

Kindergarten"Bugs". We made symmetrical paintings by folding the paper while the paint was wet, and then after they were dry, we used our paper sculpting techniques to add the extra parts.

Bug drawings. We concentrated on making small things big. We used chalk to color.


Having noticed a bit of a lack of effort in our projects lately, I have increased my efforts to encourage complete projects, with the use of good craftsmanship. Some fun spring projects, paired with a renewed energy towards effort has resulted in some great work.