Self Portraits for Everyone!

It's that time of year AGAIN...  Our students are making self portraits for the ART TO REMEMBER fundraiser.  We love this company.  They do a great job turning our kids artwork into wonderful keepsakes for their parents to enjoy.  Every year each grade completes their portrait in a different style and medium.  My favorite product is the magnet.  I have all of my daughter's magnets across the top of the fridge and have enjoyed them for many years.  It is fun to see the progression of their talents as they get older.

Third graders learn about Pablo Picasso and  review cubism.  They first learned about his blue period in second grade. Making their portraits in this crazy abstract way is really fun and allows everyone to have success.  Almost anything they do works in the cubist framework.  We also learn about complementary colors (colors that are across from each other on the color wheel) as we paint the face and analogous colors (3 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel)as we color in the "broken mirror effect" in the background.

   

                             

                              

We're Heads Above the Rest!!!

First grade artists started off the year reading one of my favorite books-    
"My Head is Full of Colors",   by Catherine Friend.
This book is newly back in print. It is a great springboard for this project.  The main character, Maria, wakes up one morning to find her hair full of colors.  As the story goes on all sorts of interesting things show up on her head!  In the end, she realizes all those things are really inside her head and they are what make her special and unique.   We began by making a self portrait on a piece of paper folded so that the paper opens right down the middle of the face...a good time to remind them of symmetry!  After the portrait is finished, they fill the inside with a collage of words and pictures they cut from magazines, thus telling the viewer about them.  We finish the lesson doing a gallery walk and exploring each others work and writing down one thing they learn about each of their classmates.  It is a fun
way to get to know each other at the beginning of the school year.

 
 

 

The Dot - Third Grade

Our third graders started off the year reading "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds.  Although International Dot Day is in September, the story is just tooooo goooood to wait that long!  Several years ago, I found a great project that I use with the story.  The kids use dots, draw straight lines with a ruler, and use a complex coloring scheme to complete.


Here are the steps:

1. On a 12X12 square of white paper put 2 black dots on the paper using a marker.  Next put 10 colored dots on the paper.  These 10 dots should all be the same   color.  The dots should not be too big, just a light tap on the paper.

2.  Using a ruler and a pencil, connect a colored dot to both of the black dots.  Continue until you have drawn straight lines from all the colored dots to both black dots.  When finished you will have an amazing shape we call a Starburst!

But the work has just begun!!!

3.  Next, artists must choose 3 colors of colored pencils.  They must color in each shape that is made as the lines criss-cross.  Our goal is not to have any shapes that are next to each other be the same color. In other words, two shapes that share a side can not be the same color.  This can be extremely challenging.  The easiest way to do this is to start on one side of your starburst and work your way across.  If they just color in random shapes, it never works!

When students are finished they are rewarded with a Starburst Candy.  My students love that each one looks different, depending on where each student puts the dots. Here are some finished projects and the bulletin board display.

Fourth Grade First Project

For the last several years, I have started off my fourth grade class with the book "Ish" by Peter Reynolds.  

He is one of my favorite author/illustrators and I am super lucky to have some of his original drawings!  Will share that later :)  After reading, we discuss how art doesn't have to be perfect! My goal for them this year is to think outside the box.  Put their personal spin on their artwork!  Next, I introduce them to the folk art of Howard Finster.  They are pretty much hooked when I tell them that he thought he was from another planet, put on earth to spread the word of God.  That always gets a big laugh...  His artwork is filled with bright colors, pattern and words.  We use this as a starting point for our first project of the year.  Each student chooses a simple shape that means something to them.  They fill the shape with repeated patterns and words that will tell the viewer something about them.  Here are some of their creations and the bulletin board they are displayed on-

I gave them the option to use all black and white or to color in their patterns with markers.  It was fun to watch them develop their designs and add their words.  They were totally psyched with their finished project.

Another year...A new Blog!!!

So... I have finally decided to leap into the 21st century and try my hand at Blogging!  I am quite apprehensive, but eager to show off my student's amazing art work!  I have learned so much from my fellow art teacher's blogs and am excited to try it.  Please be patient with me as I test the learning curve!!  The hardest part so far was finding a name for the blog that wasn't already taken!  I must have tried over 30 options before I found one that was available.  Phew- that was exhausting, lol.

This year, like always started off with a bang and over 800 bright and smiling students.  A new addition to our school was finished over the summer and already every classroom is filled and we are at capacity. It is great to have everyone under one roof and be rid of the 14 portables. We are the Shayne "Stars"...so you may be seeing lots of those luminous, celestial spheres :)
Each year it is my job to welcome our students with several large bulletin boards throughout our front hallways.  The task can sometimes be daunting, but it is a welcome challenge. Here are some of our creations!

                           Outside the Library...