Kinder Explores 2018-19

Welcome young artist! I'm so glad to have you join us...

1 Start of School Self Portrait-Introduction to portraits: What do I look like?  What are the parts of the human face? What is my story? Frame, background, signature

2 Color Theory Fall leaves (yellow and red to make orange). Seasons, colors, plant life. Warm colors, Cool colors…leaves in gutters.

3/4 Color Line Monsters- lines straight lines curvy- continue our study of lines looking at famous works of art for inspiration. Drawing, cutting, watercolor and collage. Expressive faces and Storytelling. 

5-6 Winter Polar Bears- shape and blending, weather and collage. Building a composition through layers. Created Penguin background at the same time as the Bear body with white tempera paint.

laying out the colors 

7-1.5 Event Project:  Rainbow Unicorn. Inspired by the sugar bright colors of Pop 90’s artist Lisa Frank the Kinder art piece has so much to LOVE. Collaged hand painted papers embellished with glitter and acrylic paint set against a mat black background. This would be the perfect addition to any room.
the Kinder students created the color paper (acrylic paint) and cut out shapes to create a group collage. Fingerprint details on horn. Lots of imaginative fun and exploration. 

8-Penguins on Parade - 3 different body shapes to select . Painted background, color and collage. Discussion about penguin habitats

9/10 Red Rectangular Robots- 2 Part project, following a series of directions, adding details, construction paper, crayons and embellishments- What is your Robots Job or Special Skill?  Primary colors added details with drawing. 

11 Model Magic clay snails- color blending and building a coil shape with clay, Snails lives on  folded leaf with name/room number labels

12+-1 My own Unicorn- Using precut head shapes and scraps from the Event project and their own watercolor test sheet, students cut, colored and designed their own unicorn.

Extra-End of the year student self portrait

Kinder fun with lines

We always start our kinder year with and introduction to the elements of art and LINE is our number one focus. The great spaghetti project is always a memorable hit with all the kids, who doesn't like to eat their art too!

Electric Composition

Inspired by the work of Sonia Delaunay, this direct drawing project builds vocabulary and skill sets/using a ruler.

Sonia Delaunay, 1914, Prismes électriques, oil on canvas, 250 x 250 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre 
Pompidou, Paris

Kinder Pasta Art Day

What a fun way to learn about lines, cooked and uncooked pasta, make some art and eat some art.

5th grade Art Session I

The lone tree, the cool night...how does a picture tell a story? What is your story to tell? Using basic elements of a landscape students will develop a personal narrative. Starting with a direct drawing process the 5th grade artists will be introduced to the idea of creating a more dramatic picture composition by cropping elements and moving off of the picture plane.  Students will experience using a variety of mediums and techniques based on this tree/landscape theme-creating 2 very different individual projects plus a group piece.

1st grade Art Session I

Hands up if you are ready to have fun! 1st grade art apprentice started the year with a project that they will build on throughout the next 4-5 sessions ending with an amazing class art piece that everyone had a hand in creating...and I mean that literally! Using their pencil/drawing hand they traced around their helping hand (their non drawing hand). They will add patterns, designs and color to this shape-all the hands will be displayed as a group class project.

4th Grade Art Session I

Radial design and symmetry are two concepts that we will be visiting repeatedly throughout our 4th grade art journey. Our first project Sun Burst Flower is based on looking close observation of nature, in this case a flower. This unit connects to 4 grade Math curriculum and builds on Visual Arts Standards of Language and Skills.
What is symmetry? 
How do we evenly divide a paper using perpendicular lines? 
What do we call these 4 equal spaces? 
Using lines and a corner arch pattern, students drew their flower center.

This project will be developed throughout the year with patterns and designs then watercolor. Last they will be cut out and arranged as class quilt like finished piece. I am so excited to see how this piece progresses and changes as the students develop and explore new drawing techniques.

Kindergarten Art Session I-A

Kindergarten where it all begins! I so enjoy visiting with these little eager learners. Our art adventure starts wit a dot walking into a line. Looking at Van Gogh's masterpiece Starry Night we began looking and analyzing art what do you see, what do find interesting and why, what kind of lines are in this picture? We continued focusing on lines by making lines in the air, we moved around the classroom in a line (not a straight line) we looked for lines in our room and on our clothing, we looked at rulers and talked about how they are used to make very straight lines then the most fun of all...we ate lines! Using uncooked and cooked spaghetti as a teaching tool for "a line is a dot that goes for a walk" we made plate pictures with cooked pasta then the young artists could eat their creations.


Side note to parents: I did instruct our kinders that this was very special art pasta cooked by an artist and that it was not okay to go home start playing with their dinner food...but if they do, well you know it's based in creative hands on learning!

3rd Grade Art Session I

Pop Patchwork Landscapes is our first project for 3rd grade this year-students will work on this composition off and on all year, it is a perfect warm up to start the art day! Looking at famous art prints students will be introduced to the structural elements of landscape, foreground, middle ground and background. Observe seasons, weather, time of day and mood. Using lines and overlapping shapes they will draw a basic hill/tree landscape. Modeling the drawing techniques using Red Light Stop and Green Light Draw students will practice in unison then working in their sketchbook they will create their own unique landscape compositions. They must follow the guidelines of do's and don't regarding the elements for this project. This "ownership" encourages students to take a active part in their learning and  provides structure and direction withing a creative framework. Later we will add color and patterns to these landscapes frameworks to really make them POP!

2nd Grade Art Session I (and warm up for future dates)

Line Directional Dance is the on going line based drawing project for 2nd grade. After our meet and greet and art talk all students received a rectangular piece of watercolor paper, a drawing pencil and a ruler. Using a series of verbal instructions and the ever popular Red Light stop/freeze, Green Light draw students created their own unique line based composition. This project is a great way to evaluate skill set, work with rulers and use hands on experiences to express the understanding of line direction, plus it allows for a lot of individual creativity within an art frame work. The students will later add color to these creations and develop them into more complex compositions but for now we just had a lot of joy in moving our dot around the paper!

Line work, drawn with pencil the Sharpie 

Each class had a different set of line/shape/direction instructions 

Here is an Art History-Inspiration Snap Shot: 

In session II and III students warmed up with this line project adding color and patterns/blending.We reviewed line direction and ruler skills as well.  They began to see connections to the Inspiration pieces. Vocabulary word of the day concentric circles!

You can really see how the project is developing, the colors make it POP!

6th Grade Art Session I

A line is a dot that goes for a walk, and we are taking that line for a walk around our entire paper!
6th grade students started this project by dividing their paper into 4 equal quadrants-perpendicular lines-these very light guide lines will be key later in the project evolution. Next, make a dot in one corner of the paper that becomes a line and with purpose-move that line throughout the paper space allowing it to intersect and loop ending by connecting to the starting place. The outside contour must be enclosed and create a form that could later be cut out. This is the beginning of an on going project that will include pattern, design, color and transform a 2-D drawing into a 3-D sculpture.

Let's take that Line Around the Block and see what happens!