Update on the Art Room and a Wedding!

That's right folks! I got married! Sorry sorry for the lapse in posting that has been going on for awhile. But I just got bogged down in trying to move and then finish planning the wedding and then actually get married! All while only taking a two day break from teaching all my little angels how to make art!

So here's an engagement pic for you all :) Awwww!

And here's an update on what's been happening in the art room!

Kindergarten students are learning about shapes and using them to help draw pictures. We just finished a series of observational drawings using block towers to inspire us. Now they have started on drawing faces using simple shapes. It's been a ton of fun!

1st Grade students have been painting away. We're making a 3-D color wheel! All we have are stacks of painted plates. More to come soon hopefully!

2nd Grade has been working on drawing self-portraits using a picture reference. We've been focusing on using basic shapes to help us start drawings and using symmetry to give us clues for drawing our faces. I have used this project before, but it works well, helping the students to be good observers.

3rd Grade students finished a Landscape project, using two different landscapes. We then cut them up and attached them to an accordion paper. This allows the viewer to see two different Landscapes depending on how they stand when they view the piece. Now students have begun a fruit drawing, They will be painting them next week using Complementary Colors.

4th Grade students finished their Contour Line Self- Portraits and are now working on a Pop Art piece using Grumpy Cat and Analogous Colors. I've also done this project before, but it's a good one.

And lastly, 5th Grade students finished up their shaded crayons, and are beginning on a painting using Aerial Perspective to show depth.

A Color for Every Hour of the Day

First of all, I hope everyone is staying warm! We don't have school again tomorrow because of how cold it is. I don't know if I mentioned it, but we haven't had a full week since before Christmas break. Either because of snow, ice, cold, or other holidays. At this point I can say that I'm ready to be in the class room for a full week. Snow days are nice once in awhile as a surprise to lighten your week. However, I am all caught up on extra work and ready to be teaching those kiddos some art! We did have school today so let me catch you up.

Here's an update on the clay bowls and spoons that the fourth graders are working away at industriously. They are glazing and doing an excellent job, with only a few students forgetting and painting the bottoms of their bowls :) Here are some images of them glazing up a storm.

But what I want to focus on in this post are the wonderful Color Wheel Clocks that our third graders have finished. It was quiet the process. We reviewed color theory and learned some new things about Intermediate Colors as well. We spent a whole class period reviewing how to use a ruler and learning how to use a protractor, (look Geometry in 3rd grade! Math and Art!) in order to divide our circles up evenly. Then using only yellow, blue, and red, students mixed and painted a twelve section color wheel! They were fabulous!

That finished, they outlined and numbered the twelve sections to resemble a clock. This part was a little tricky considering that the numbers some times turned out upside down. Everyone had to be sure to keep the color wheel still and not rotate it while writing the numbers. The 12 always had to be right side up!

I spent some time laminating and all that was left was to put on the clock mechanism.

Each mechanism came with the parts that were needed. They were left over from the pervious art teacher so I'm not sure where they came from, but they were easy to figure out. Students were given a cardboard circle to go behind the clock for extra support. Each clock had a hour, minute, and second hand, all battery operated with on AA battery. So far we've gotten great reports from students that they are hanging on their walls and ticking away!

 

Everyone loves Grumpy Cat!

We're easing our way into color. The 4th graders are doing an awesome project this year! They are studying Pop Art. We learned that Pop Art involves (among other things); lots of color and images that are popular at the time the artwork is made. We took a look into the life of one of the most famous Pop Artists, Andy Warhol. There's are great little music video about his life and Pop Art that we used (found here). **Warning, it does contain a Justin Bieber song that caused some uproar in my class, both positive and negative.**

 

Then we looked at Grumpy Cat memes. If you haven't seen Grumpy Cat yet, you need to click here to check him out. Some of the memes are inappropriate, but I found several that I could show the kids and we could get a good laugh out of it. Many students recognized him and had other examples to share with the class. We discussed how Grumpy Cat is a popular icon in today's world. Then I showed them the Marilyn Monroe piece that Andy Warhol did with multiple drawings of Marilyn, each colored a differently and explained that we would be doing this with Grumpy Cat.
We then spent two class periods dividing our paper into four equal squares and drawing our Grumpy Cats (directions courtesy of Kathy Barbro). During the second class, we took a break to review what we knew about the color wheel and Primary and Secondary colors. Then we talked about color schemes. We focused on Monochromatic, Analogous, and Complementary color schemes. Students were instructed that each cat had to feature a different color scheme that they had just learned. The fourth cat could be colored whatever they want. We're still in the process of finishing these. I will post some of the finished product next week!

 

In other news, our first grade students finished their Louise Nevelson sculptures and they look awesome! Check them out!