Grade 1: Pinch Pots

Every year in first grade we create a simple pinch pot. Sometimes I couple the lesson with a holiday (Diyas from India or other types of candle holders) and sometimes I make the lesson part of a larger clay unit. Whichever direction we go, this is a project and experience that I cherish as much as my first graders do. Symbolically, teaching my students how to create a pinch pot reminds me of the journey of art-making that we will go on together for hopefully 5 full years.
Using their hands a primary tool, they shape and smooth the clay into a functional container. Motherhood has influenced so much of who I am as an art educator and on this project, I purposely do not require my students to smooth out the ridges where their fingers pressed and shaped the clay. I view these marks as adding character and creating a statement of "the beginning" and youth. As a mom, those little fingers grooves are so special and I prefer them to a perfectly smoothed pot.
If you are interested, feel free to look at previous posts about pinch pots. For this years post, I would like to share just two photographs. My hand underneath those of a student named Anna who is holding three pinch pots. Our hands together represent my influence and support in the art room. The other is just a photo of a few pinch pots.

Grade 1: Jasper Johns Number Paintings

I have blogged about my annual Jasper Johns 1st grade paintings in the past but wanted to share with you a few from this year. We made these back in January but this year, I saw a post where an unknown art teacher from Pinterest had the kids use their date of birth for the numbers instead of the classic 0-9 from Jasper Johns' famous painting. This was a neat new spin on one of my favorite American paintings. My first graders felt special thinking about their special day in numbers. We called their DOB their top secret code.

We explored primary colors through painting and ultimately we refreshed our memory about secondary colors as little bits mixed together. Students began drawing their numbers inside of rectangles followed by outlining and designing with oil pastels and finally tempera in the backgrounds.

0-9 by Jasper Johns

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Grade 1: Clay love

In life, the simple things are sometimes the most beautiful, meaningful and profound..
I love clay. Starting our adventures in clay always begins in first grade with a simple little pinch pot.
To get those hands on their very own piece of clay is one of the best moments in first grade each year. As they realize that their hands can build something special and beautiful. As they bring home their little pinch pot that has marks from their 6 and 7 year old fingers. They are making a piece of art no parent could ever muster the strength to throw away.
That little pinch pot. Holds coins and moms rings and whatever else.
We started pinch pots this week in first grade. It's a great week.

Grade 1: Fall Leaves

There are some projects (ok, you know me better...there are MANY projects) that I just cannot contain my enthusiasm for. These watercolor leaves made by my first graders is one of those projects. 

Watching them make decisions for layout, enjoy the process of using materials happily and successfully..... well lets just say this: I must have said "these are SO beautiful" at least 25 times. It got to the point where the kids were laughing at me. "Carlos, I love how you added just a touch of orange..your leaf looks so realistic!" "James, wow, you lightened the color in your background so well by adding water!", "Maeve, you swirled those cool colors together so nicely in the background..wow!" I couldn't control myself. Here are the kids in Mrs. McCann's class viewing their work that they knew I was rushing to hang up in the hallway....LUNCH CAN WAIT FOR THESE BEAUTIES!

1st grades view their freshly displayed work

Grade 1: For the Love of Nevelson

Every artist has a process that they go through to create art and materials that they are drawn to. My process, unfortunately, deals with collecting, using difficult materials, bulk and committing my studio environment to the materials in the art making process. Anyone that knows me well knows that I love green art and recyclables, installation art and have a passion for mosaics. 

Codeword=mess.

So I was grumbling to myself as I took out these bulky materials to let my 1st graders dig through and explore to create a found objects sculpture after we discussed Louise Nevelson's work. I knew as I pulled all of these assorted supplies out that they had the potential to end up all over the place and unsorted but that it was all for the love of Nevelson (and a deeper love for my students).

See exhibit A. 

Exhibit A: Messy table

Louise Nevelson is one of my favorite female artists and one of my very favorite sculptors. I love her use of found objects and the use of monochromatic color. The first art lesson that I ever saw taught on Nevelson was by Donna Cariola, art teacher extraordinaire at our local middle school. She teaches her lesson using a shoebox that the kids build in. Makes sense. Nevelson's sculptures tend to be built inside of square and rectangular structures.

 See exhibit B and C

Exhibit B

Exhibit C... love, love, love.

I wanted to capture just a little of Nevelson without using too much of Mrs. Cariola's project so I decided to have the kids search for objects, mostly all wooden and build with those objects on a piece of small cardboard. Here we are after about 35 minutes of building. The kids had a lot of fun. Next week they will continue to add pieces and then they will select a single color to paint their work. Check back next weekend for results. You will be amazed at how much more the kids add and how a single color unifies the piece.

And the first grade cell phones. 

 A few kids managed to sneak in these cell phones. Little flip phones. My gosh, they were so excited by this simple paper with the little numbers they added to them. 

When I was in 1st grade cell phones didn't even exist. When I was in high school they were just being introduced. Well, as long as they are happy creating!

Grade 1: Monet Bridge

Monet's Japanese Bridge  and Water Lilies one of my favorite Monet paintings and my first graders put an awesome spin on the famous painting picking a bridge color of their own and swirling their paint colors to make mesmerizing backgrounds.

Grade 1: Finished Cats

Back in early March I blogged about the start of a cat portrait project that I started with 1st graders. They have been hanging in the hallway for quite some time...here are the finished portraits.
We talked about Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" painting and had a few giggles discussing the cat sitting there with a bird on top of it's head. My first graders are quite silly so we are matched well.

"Cat and Bird" by Paul Klee

From the original 3/11/2013 post

Grade 1: Cats, Birds and Sketchbooks

I just adore my 1st graders. On Friday, with Mrs. Weidman's class,  we had such a nice conversation about a new project we started. The kids really liked looking at Swiss painter Paul Klee's "Cat with Bird". We talked about how silly it is that the cat has a bird on it's forehead, among other things relating to the painting and life as a cat.

 The kids asked if they could draw a bird on their cats forehead or on top of it's head. My answer: OF COURSE YOU CAN...but draw it in pencil first to make sure you're happy with it :-)

I had some really nice scraps of paper left over and decided to make each of the kids a sketchbook to take home. 

Mariella's sketchbook and Aaron's day 1 cat w/ bird

Paul Klee "Cat and Bird"

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Grade 1: Ice Skating Penguins

First graders are currently learning about penguins in their homerooms so it is a perfect time to draw them in art! We talked about penguin facts and their habitats. We viewed where different types of penguins live on the world map and even observed penguins on the Smart Board at Sea World via a live cam.

We worked to assemble our penguin drawings by combining simple, geometric shapes as the foundation. We added smooth lines to connect our shapes and added fun, cartoon style accessories. Here are the projects that are almost done.

Grade 1: Marvelous Cezanne Paintings

There are times that it is impossible to contain my excitement over the art my students create, their wonderful creativity and the formulas for using art materials we come up with at the demo table. (see * below)

Chase

As my first graders finished up this project, I was overwhelmed with admiration, excitement, accomplishment, and a million other feelings. I stood there in the middle of the room beaming and mumbling how amazing the paintings were coming out...for a good 8-12 minutes. I just could not move past the beauty they had created. Here I go again.

Jeff 

These paintings were done much earlier this fall, but I kept forgetting to photograph them.
It is a spin I made on a project I viewed online.

I taught my 1st graders how to draw a large bowl sitting on a table and then how to fill the bowl with apples so that the apples were in the bowl and not floating. We used tempera paint and watercolor to make them the fantastic masterpieces that they are!

* At the demo table as I am explaining the project, how to use supplies, often a student will ask if they can use the materials a bit differently. Sometimes, the idea is genius or something I should have thought of and I call it a genius moment. These genius moments or just talking through the thoughts the kids have can enhance how we use the materials to our advantage.

1st Grade: Tooth Fairies

End of the year crunch and I was only able to squeeze this tooth fairy project in with my 1st graders at Toll Gate.
Next Year, I'll make sure my new group of 1st graders at Bear Tavern gets to do this project as well.
I saw a tooth fairy lesson on Pinterest that I modeled this lesson after. We talked about portraits and discussed the zillion ways a tooth fairy could look. Boy, girl, young, old. Next, I showed students how to draw a basic face and how to divide a face so that the eyes, nose and mouth looked correct. We added a simple body, hairstyles, toothy grin, etc. and then outlined in Sharpie. Students started to paint when finished. Day 2 was to used to finish painting and add glitter. The homeroom teacher also came in to work on a class gift with students for the 1st grade room parents. It was one of the only times this school year that I used glitter in the art room. It's funny because I never shy away from messy projects but there's something about glitter that gives me nightmares! Anyway, I manned the glitter table where the kids came to add the right amount of sparkle into their almost finished portraits and there was minimal mess.

We were able to critique the tooth fairies as a class on day 2 before finishing them. I will post detailed photos later on...

Grade 1: Blue and White Vases

I guess with it being spring, it's hard not to focus on projects relating to nature: trees, flowers and of course flowers in vases.

Tim and Jaina working hard

Detail

I saw a glimpse of a project at my daughter's school that her art teacher Ms. M worked on with students. It was a simple blue vase with flowers. Blue and white pottery is one of my favorite kinds. You should see our dinner plates! Anyway, I decided to teach a lesson incorporating geometric and organic shapes using the iconic blue and white colors. The kids seemed quite interested in hearing how in Ancient Greece the potters added designs to their vases in bands. We talked quite a bit about Contrast in art and why it's important. I also taught the 1st graders how to draw a vase in several ways. They all did an awesome job.
I will take more pictures in the next week and post the progress.
The green paper is for the background which kids divided so that their vases will actually look like they are sitting on a table. We will fill these vases with paper or painted flowers.

Flowers on my bookcase

Grade 1: Monet Bridge

Day one of Monet's Japanese Bridge at Giverny paintings= sponges only!

We painted tons of colors all over our canvas boards to create a blurry backdrop for out paintings. It was difficult to visual at times without the bridge in place and the flowers in detail but we really had fun mixing colors and creating texture with the sponges. Next week we will add our bridge in and create clear details on the flowers in the foreground.

1st Grade: Jim Dine Hearts

Jim Dine is an American Pop Artist. He does an awesome job using the heart (shape) as his subject.

 Kindergarten created oil pastel and painted hearts for their Square 1 Art project in September but I really wanted to show the 1st graders Jim Dine's work. So for this project, we did a Jim Dine spin-off.

After viewing Jim Dine's work and talking about the similarities, 1st graders practiced drawing hearts to fill a rectangular 5"x7" space. Next, they glued foil to a piece of mat board and smoothed it out. They transferred their heart drawing to the foil and outlined in sharpie marker. 

Next up was to use a ruler to make the hearts look abstracted and fragmented. Then they filled in their fragmented parts using repeated lines, shapes and/or other designs. 

and here's some examples of progress made today (unfinished)....