4th Grade Winter Trees

    I know I am posting this past winter (at least it is way past it here in Texas!), but, in some parts of the world, this may still be relevant.  I wanted to do a poetry/art lesson with my fourth grade students this year, one that tied together nature poetry about winter and and a winter landscape painting.  So, I chose a poem by a favorite American naturalist poet, Robert Frost, entitled "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".  I found a website that has recordings and animated videos of poems, so we listened to the illustrated poem to begin our lesson.  We discussed the poem and the way it made us feel and what we visualized as we were listening.   Then we sketched winter trees, to get a feeling for what a tree looks like with bare branches.

    Next, we made a watercolor background with a blue wash and salt technique that gave it an effect of a snowy winter sky/ground.  The next art class we had, we painted our trees on top of our background with black ink.  I instructed the students to make horizontal strokes of the brush across the ground and not to paint it all in, the effect was a snowy ground with shadows.  Perspective was used in painting the trees, first larger at the foreground then gradually getting smaller as they became closer to the horizon line.  These paintings turned out beautiful.  Robert Frost would be proud!

5th Grade Monochromatic Paintings

5th graders learned about how to mix tints and shades, made freeform lines that intersected and added a closed shape over those intersecting lines.  That shape then will become the point of emphasis.  Students can choose to either make the shape in all tints and the rest of the painting all shades, or vice/versa.  We looked at Picasso's Rose Period and Blue Period for a fine art reference, depending on what color I had chosen to focus on for that class.  It was a good exercise in mixing paints and thinking about emphasis in art.  The students enjoyed the mixing and painting and the results are striking!

2nd Grade Georgia O'Keefe Inspired Flowers

     All I can say is...never underestimate the creative ability of a child!  Our lesson on Georgia O'Keefe's style of painting magnified views of flowers, was a simple and easy concept for 2nd graders, one that I thought would be more challenging.  I thought it would be more challenging because children have a difficult time with drawing and thinking big.  This is a concept that I am constantly reinforcing in my lessons.  

    We not only looked at O'Keefe's paintings of flowers, but also looked at real photographs of flowers (laminated calendar pages) to get our inspiration.  I demonstrated examples of how to draw the simple lines and shape of the flower and stressed that they must take their petals off the edge of the paper, just like Georgia did.  I also showed them what I did not want to see them do, by drawing a small flower in the middle of a large square of paper.  They really understood and it was immediately apparent in their drawings.  

    We used 10" x 10" squares of white posterboard (yes, I sacrificed my posterboard for this- I wanted them to have a sturdy surface on which they could build their paintings on).  We used tempera cakes to paint with.  I told them to choose one or two colors for their flowers, that I did not want to see rainbow flowers- with each petal being a different color.  That there are no flowers that actually grow like that (at least not to my knowledge!).  We talked about either filling their space with all petals, or leaving some room between the petals for green leaves.  Also, I showed them how to add white to their paint to make tints of the color they chose.  

    They totally amazed me, as usual, with their art work!  And inspired me.  I love my job!

"Under the Sea" Recycled Art/Mixed Media

    This is probably my favorite elementary art project to date...for sure my favorite 1st grade project!  Ocean scenes are a great theme in elementary art, incorporating science into the art curriculum.  I also tied math into this project, by reading a great book by Lois Elhart- "Fish Eyes", a counting book.  Lois' books are beautiful in their vivid simplicity, her artwork uses bold color and simple shapes combined for eye popping visuals.  The students loved the book, and as we read I pointed out the bright, beautiful fish they could get ideas from.  

    The first step in this multi-step project, was to create the ocean water.  Using a 12" x 18" sheet of white sulphite drawing paper, green, white and blue tempera paint and a 1" brush, the students created their ocean water by blending the paint on the paper.  I gave them their paint in one small metal pan...3 blobs of each color paint- they shared a pan to a group table.  I demonstrated for them how to pick up 2 or 3 colors with their brush at a time and then blend them together by brushing them out on the paper.  I emphasized they should not stir the paint in the pan, making it into one color- the beauty of the water was in all the tints of blue and green they could make on their paper.  They were to start at the top, painting from side to side, back and forth all the way down the paper- never painting in another direction.  Once they were done with the water, we set the painting aside to dry.  

    Next came the recycled portion of this project.  Laminating scraps that I had been collecting in the workroom for some time were my inspiration for the fish.  I have been experimenting with many different recyclable materials this year, and laminating scraps were one of the most challenging.  (By the way, if you have any ideas or suggestions for using them, please message me, I would love to have your input!).  I tried to warp them by applying heat from the oven, the microwave, a hairdryer, a heat gun- they are not to be warped!  If only!  Dale Chihuly projects were my first thought, and still are not out of the question, but they would have been easier to accomplish had I been able to warp the material.  I have other project uses for these that I will be sharing in future blogs, but I digress...

    Paint will not stick- at least not water based- I do not use acrylic with my elementary students, though I could with the older grades, and that could probably work.  I wanted to be able to color the plastic, so I kept at it.  I found that permanent markers work beautifully, and I had some with wide tips.  They colored large areas more quickly than a fine tip marker, of course.  So, I made some drawings on the clear plastic scraps and one was a fish...my project was born!

    Once the fish were drawn on the plastic, the students cut them out and we glued them on their ocean scene.  For some fun detail, we used glitter glue on top of the plastic- sometimes this can fall off when it dries, but I had very few incidents.  Overall, the glitter glue adhered nicely and was a beautiful touch.  The project was going to end there, except for a few white oil pastel bubbles in the water, until a student grabbed a colored oil pastel and without my knowing began drawing some sea plants in the water.  When I saw what they were doing I got so excited!  Oil pastels are beautiful on top of tempera paintings...why hadn't I  thought of extending the lesson with that?  My students ALWAYS come up with better ideas and surprise me with their creativity!  So, out went all the trays of oil pastels and the bottom of the ocean came alive!  

    These projects are so impressive and gorgeous!  The students had a blast creating them and were proud to turn trash into treasure!  I told them that I am a proud dumpster diver...especially when it means that we turn something discarded into a thing of beauty.  :)

Mexican Folk Art

     Last October, we studied the Folk Art of Mexico.  Los Dias de los Muertos (The Days of the Dead) is traditionally celebrated on Nov. 1st (All Saints Day) and 2nd (All Soul's Day) in Mexico.  Family and friends gather to pray for and remember their lost loved ones.  Private alters (ofrendas) are built to honor the deceased using items like pictures of their loved ones, candles, marigolds, the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and most popular, sugar skulls.  

    Leading up to the Day of the Dead, students at all levels learned about the folk art associated with this holiday and other types of Mexican folk art, as well.  When the art projects were completed, we made a beautiful art display in the main hallway of our school.

    Kindergarten contributed decorated cones filled with tissue paper flowers to hang on the walls and brightly colored lanterns to line the hall. 

    1st grade painted brightly vivid Zapotec Rainbow Blankets to hang from the ceiling.  They were a cooperative learning project, for which each student was responsible for creating rhea knots along the edges of the blanket for the fringe, and a specific color of stripe in the blanket.  They created a pattern with their colors, waiting to take their turns, encouraging each other and problem solving along the way. 

    2nd grade painted this gorgeous flower mural; each class contributing a different layer to it in another cooperative learning effort.  One class made the initial drawings of the flowers in oil pastel, another painted them in with tempera, another added more details with oil pastels, such as insects, butterflies and veins in the leaves, and the last class added more paint. This project was found on the Painted Paper blog.  It was a wonderful success and added so much to our display.

    3rd grade learned about the art of Mexican folk art of metal tooling.  Embossing designs like suns, maracas, parrots, flowers, birds and lizards on the surface of the metal, the students then colored them in with brightly colored permanent markers.  I found this project on the Kinder Art website.  Each classes' projects were made into long connected hangings with beads on the top and bottom.  These were one of the favorite parts of our display!

    4th grade watched a video on Dias de los Muertos, which highlighted the making of sugar skulls and the bright, ornate decorations that adorn them.  Oil pastel "portraits" of sugar skulls were drawn and decorated with flowers and fun patterned backgrounds to add to their whimsy.  In Mexico, during Dias de los Muertos, there is a spirit of poking fun at the dead and honoring their lives with laughter and joy.  Our sugar skulls definitely put a smile on all our faces!

    Finally, 5th grade learned about the skeleton, making these wonderful reliefs out of art straws called "Funny Bones".  Skeletons (calaveras) are seen everywhere in Mexico during this time of year, dressed in all kinds of costumes or clothing; it is tradition to dress the calaveras up just as the departed loved ones they are honoring dressed.  We thought about someone we might want to honor and how they would have dressed.  One student made a military uniform in honor of her deceased grandfather, another made a flower printed dress in memory of her grandmother.  Most made clothing that represented their own ideas of how they wanted their skeleton to look; like a skateboarder or a rock star.  They embellished their art with yarn for hair, sequins and buttons on the clothes, and even beads for the skateboard wheels.  Skeletons were shown in motion; dancing, skateboarding, rocking out.  We discussed how the parts of our body would realistically move into different positions.  

    This unit was a wonderful way to tie in social studies and health science to our curriculum and brought so much cultural and community pride to our school.  We looked at the areas of Mexico we were studying on our world map, often making personal connections to the places and people who lived there.  We discussed the traditions and beliefs of our neighbors to the southwest of us, and learned about the art history and processes used to create the art in another country.  We found similarities and differences in all of these areas as we immersed ourselves in the rich art and historical traditions of Mexico.  Most of all, we discovered a real spirit of cooperation and team work in the art room.  This is what community is all about!