5th Grade - Triangular Design Color Wheels

5th graders reviewed the color wheel, and with this, made a 6-color color wheel.  However, instead of just mixing colors and painting them in a circle, they created a line/shape design inside of a triangle template I gave them.  This design was then traced onto tracing paper and copied onto the larger white paper 6 times using the graphite transfer technique.  To do this, students colored the back of their design on the tracing paper with a graphite stick.  They then turned it back around and traced over their design with the pencil, leaving the graphite marks on the white paper.

Each section of the color wheel was colored with one crayon.  They made different values of the color depending on how hard they pressed with the crayon.

2nd Grade - Zoo Animal Drawings

Our 2nd graders recently went on a trip to the zoo because they were learning about animals, habitats and adaptations in science.  To go along with this unit, I decided to have them each draw a zoo animal.  I have many old "zoobook" magazines and I randomly chose students to each pick one, therefore everyone in each class was drawing a different animal.

They learned how to look at the pictures in the magazine and find the big shapes that make up the animal.  They drew the shape of the body first, then the head and legs/arms.  All the other smaller details go last.  They were asked to draw at least 3 different poses of the same animals.  Next, they added the animals habitat.  Horizon lines were reviewed in this step!  The practice drawings were then traced onto the nice white paper using the light box or a window. 

The animals and habitats were colored with oil pastels.  The skies were painted with a tempera wash. 

Student Blogging

This year, one of the other teachers and myself, started up a Photojournalism Club at our school.  The kids are acting as "reporters" by taking pictures and writing about special events and projects that go on during the school day.  They have a blog, which is now coming along very nicely, and I wanted to share!

RumseyEngineers.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

6th Grade - Surreal Hands

This was a lesson I did with my last year's 6th graders.  I just came across the pictures and wanted to post them!  This was a somewhat challenging project, but well worth it in the end.  Students learned about surrealism and had to come up with a sketch of their hand as some kind of surreal scene.  Next, they turned their drawings into clay sculptures.  Each person's sculpture started with clay slab, where they traced and cut out their own hand.  Next, they added details to the hand, make it more realistic before bending it into the particular pose they needed.  They got more clay to add on their "surreal" parts to the hand.  The sculptures were then fired and painted.

6th Grade - Rainforest Drawings

6th grade students had a great time drawing colorful birds as part of a rainforest scene.  They looked at various pictures of rainforest birds and animals and focused on a balanced composition for their artwork.  The drawings were colored with oil pastel and backgrounds painted with a tempera wash.