Interactive Whiteboards, cont'd

Well, I have to say, the SMART board has been amazing so far!  I'm using it daily, even if just for simple things such as showing images and being able to "draw" on the pictures to point out certain parts.  I've also used it to put up the lesson directions and used the bottom portion of the screen to demonstrate drawing parts of the lessons.. or even have students come up and share their drawing ideas.  However, I then erase all the examples before students get to work to help curb some students' urge to copy.

Here's a lesson I just started with my 3rd graders.  Part of their art curriculum for the 1st quarter is drawing 3D shapes and demonstrating an understanding of foreground, middleground and background.  I combined the two objectives together:

I am excited about the drawings that they have started.  They've come up with great ideas on how to use the 3D shapes in their space scenes.  I will post pictures when they are finished!

3rd Grade - Eric Carle Collages

3rd Grade students learned about the author and artist, Eric Carle.  They painted A LOT of paper to use in their animal/creature collages, just like Eric Carle did!  In the process, they learned about several watercolor painting techniques; wet-on-wet, wax resist and adding salt to the wet paint. 

The following week, students used the painted papers and created a real or imaginary creature, animal or insect.  They drew backgrounds for their collage with crayon. 



Art Portfolios

I must say, it's great to be back at school!

I started all my classes out with a portfolio design lesson.  Each grade had a separate design, but all included their name or initials.  Here's an example from each grade:

1st Grade; Made a patterned "frame" around their painted first initial

2nd Grade; They first wrote their initials, then filled in the spaces the letters created with various patterns, using marker and/or colorsticks (and using only warm or cool colors).  When finished, they painted over their initials.

3rd Grade; Students started by writing their name in block or bubble letters.  They filled in each letter with a different pattern or design.  The backgrounds were colored with colorsticks.

4th Grade; Students learned about the "layering" style of Jasper Johns by looking at the painting "0 through 9."  They layered their initials, outlined in oil pastel, colored some of the spaces in with crayon and watercolor painted the rest. 

5th Grade; They created radial designs around their names using sharpie and watercolor painted it in.

 6th Grade; They had their first lesson in one point perspective drawing to write their names.  They used white colored pencils to outline and metallic crayons to color them in.

Kindergartners will be making their portfolios in the next couple weeks.  Stay tuned!  :)

3rd Grade - Coil Pots

Here are the coil pots the 3rd grade students made this past winter.  They could start with any shape of their choice for the bottom slab, and then build up the sides with any number of coil techniques.  They are beautiful every year!

2nd and 3rd Grade - Printmaking

This year, my second grade students used small styrofoam plates to carve out an animal and print with one color of ink.  They printed them in the center of a larger black paper.  When dry, they added a border with oil pastel around their print.  They also had the option of adding more color on the printed area.

 

Third graders learned about non-objective art before starting their printmaking unit.  Then they used a variety of plastic printing plates (cut from plexi-glass and thick overhead sheets) to practice additive and subtractive monoprints.  For additive, they painted ink onto their printing plate with a paintbrush.  For subtractive, they rolled one color of ink onto their plate with a brayer, and scraped away their non-objective design using a q-tip.  They were asked to explore both types of printing, and make at least three prints total.    They also added oil pastel to the dried prints.

 

 

3rd Grade - Stuffed Paper Masks

Students made a large scale, symmetrical paper masks.  They began by drawing the "mask" on one piece of butcher paper, adding eyes, noses, mouths, and designs that were symmetrical.  They cut out the front and back side of their mask simultaneously.  Before moving any further, they glued the two pieces together around the edge, making sure to leave an unglued gap, about the size of their hand, so they could open it up to stuff it later.  Next, they collaged and painted the front side of their mask.  After stuffing with newspaper, they stapled the gap shut.

3rd Grade - Pop Art Ice Cream Paintings

Students had a lot of fun creating the most wonderful and delicious picture of ice cream that they could think of.  These began as a pencil drawing and were painted with watercolors, mostly using the "wet-on-wet" technique.  The last step was to outline using black sharpie. 

3rd and 4th Grade - Rene Magritte portraits

Students in my 3/4 combo class discussed Rene Magritte's Son of Man painting as inspiration for this artwork.  They liked how the apple in front of the businessman's face really made them think and wonder why it was there.  They then painted their own portraits, but instead of adding their facial features, they created an object out of oil pastel on a separate piece of paper to glue on top.