Thursday, May 31, 2012

Kindergarten Self Portraits

Kindergarten students learned about the artist Henri Matisse and his use of pattern in backgrounds.

First, I passed out mirrors so students could see themselves as they drew their self portrait.  I demonstrated a few key steps on the board for portrait drawings (head shape, eye, mouth and nose placement, hair, etc).  After they were done drawing, they traced their drawing in black sharpie. The next step was coloring!  It's important to remind Kindergartners that they don't have blue or green skin....only tan, brown or peach crayons!

For the background students used recycled paper and crayons to create patterns and designs.  After the background was complete, students cut out their self-portrait and glued it to their patterned paper.








Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Cherry Blossoms

I found this idea on Pintrest!  Awesome website! If you haven't checked it out yet, it's a teachers dream planning board!  Originally when I had the students do this project, it was Cherry Blossom Festival time in DC so lots of the kids knew exactly what a cherry blossom tree looked like.  First I had them use India Ink and a straw to "blow the ink" to create the branches.  Next I set out pink,white and red paint on plates at each table.  Students used empty water bottles to print the cherry blossoms on the branches.

Check out second grade's cherry blossoms below!







Big Fat Hens

I have done this lesson before, but it was such a hit, I had to do it again!  
To check out the original post click here




Adobe Landscapes

I borrowed this idea from Deep Space Sparkle.  To introduce the lesson, I showed students 2 pictures of landscapes.  They worked in groups to answer a collaborative group discussion sheet about the two pictures.  Students had to decipher the similarities, differences, age of the pictures and locations using group discussion.  After students had time to talk about the art they saw, I taught them how to create an Adobe landscape of their own!  We used chalk and oil  pastels for this project.








Earth Strata

Fifth grade students learned about the layers of the Earth in science class.  Then, in art class on Day 0, they created a relief map showing the layers and texture of the Earth. Can you identify the layers, rocks and fossils they added to their work?