Chickens in the Art Room

Looking for a way to incorporate some much needed drawing skills into the Kindergarten class, I decided that chickens are new enough, to force looking at details.  I showed images from the "Extraordinary Chickens" calendar, we discussed similarities and differences among the pictures, and then I turned them loose to create a "Chicken Portrait" with Cray Pas.  What fun! And, a lotta personality I might add.

Here Comes the Sun

Here are the finished "found object" suns.  I won, and the kids painted, rather than me spray painting the gold.  However, I wish they would have slowed down, and painted the details more carefully.  Oh well, they are shiny, and the kids love em. 

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

Mr E- check out her Turtle!!!

The music teacher is doing a program with 1st and 2nd grade students.  He asked if I could come up with a mask so that all participating students could feel included. My kiddos sure do love a good mask, and this one had lots of skills included, such as drawing and cutting (for the fish) sculpting, paint application techniques, and even a touch of collage.  The music teacher is delighted, and so are the kids. I am pleased with the detail and marker work students gave to the fish.  What parent won't be delighted to see their student performing in these? Amazing that it started with 1/2 of a paper plate per person!

Valentines Day Pendants

My Kindergarten students needed to learn some clay techniques, such as pinching and rolling.  By practicing our coils, and our spirals, students then shaped their spiral into a heart by pinching the bottom into a point, and shaping the top.  After adding some details with toothpicks, we set them aside for firing.  With a little watercolor paint used for embellishing, we are set for Valentines day.  Cute and full of Skills- that's a good project.

One Man's Trash... a lesson on Found Object

My third graders are to learn about found object sculpture this 9 weeks.  Not an easy concept to begin with, and so rather than make free standing sculptures, we made relief sculptures.  Buttons, straws, bottle tops, etc were glued together to create a sun face.  This goes with the enduring theme of "Artists and Nature", as we looked at various representations of the sun. What fun to break the long standing "no smiley sun" rule.  During one session, students assembled their sun, working on the idea that color didn't matter, but size and shape do.  During today's session, they covered their suns with plaster, building up areas as needed.  Next session, we'll paint.  They are dying to have them spray painted, but I am hoping to push them in the direction of painting them with brushes, so that details can be enhanced.  We'll see who wins this.