Kindergarten Self Portraits

Kindergarteners learned what a portrait is in Art. A portrait is a picture of a person. A self-portrait is a picture of you. We looked at American Gothic by American artist Grant Wood. We discussed what we saw-two grumpy, old, wrinkly people, a pitch fork, a house, and a barn. What do these details tell us about these people? We figured out that they must be farmers and that life on their farm must be hard. We then began our self portraits. Our goal was to draw ourselves using mirrors to help us see our hair style and color, eye color, clothes, etc. In our self-portrait we had to include details that told other people about our lives. We also had to include a background. We traced a circle for our head and a triangle for our bodies. Students used the triangle in different ways. Some girls used it to create a dress or skirt, while some boys flipped it over and added pants or shorts. If you ask your kindergarten artist, they should be able to explain how their self-portrait reveals details about their lives.

3rd grade landscapes

 Third grade artists used crayons in a layering technique to create highlights and shadows and try to make our pumpkins look three-dimensional. We looked at photographs of real pumpkins and tried to recreate the textures found in the skin and in the stems. Lastly, we used liquid watercolors to paint our backgrounds a dark blue. Most students used this blue as a night-time sky; some chose to make it day time.

First Grade Alphabet

First graders read the book "The Missing Piece." We talked about the difference between a line and a shape. Lines are open. They begin and end at different points. Shapes are closed. The begin and end at the same point. Using the the letters of the alphabet as lines, we filled our papers with the entire alphabet.  The rules were that the letters did not have to be in order, they could be facing different directions and at different angles. However, they had to touch. When the letters touch they create shapes. After outlining in markers, we used watercolors to paint in the shapes different colors.

Hot and Cold hands

Second grade artists looked at the difference between warm and cool colors. Warm colors are found in things like fire, the sun, and lava. Cool colors are found in things like ice, water and snow. Our backgrounds have one shape that echoes or repeats, creating a  pattern. It is painted with cool colors. Our foregrounds (the hands) our painted with warm colors.

Spaghetti Art

4th grade artists learned about the seven Elements of Art. They are LINE, SHAPE, FORM, COLOR, VALUE, SPACE and TEXTURE. Our artwork features all seven of these elements.

3rd grade scribbles

Third grade artists read the book "The Dot." It's a story about a girl who thinks she can't draw but is presently surprised when she tries and succeeds. It's a story that suggests that effort is the most important aspect in learning something new. We began our art project by "scribbling" a lines that filled our paper. Our line had to be loopy and created about a dozen shapes as it overlapped itself. Within it shape we used thin drawing markers to fill each shape with pattern. We looked at the artwork of Brazilian artist Romero Britto whose pop art features thick black outlines and many colorful patterns.

First grade name patterns

First graders reviewed different types of lines we learned about last year in kindergarten. We looked at artists who repeat lies and colors in their art to create pattern. Using our names as a focal point, we began by drawing our names largely in the center of our paper. Using markers we added glowing lines around our names. Then using rulers to help us draw straight lines, we divided our background into about eight spaces and filled those spaces with patterns created from lines and colors.