Tots on Tour: Elephants

It was a great (and packed) day at Grounds for Sculpture for my two Tots on   Tour sessions. I was a bit surprised because today feels like a day for families to be at the beach or "the shore" as they say in Jersey.

We began by reading 'Elmer' by David McKee

and then dove into creating these awesome elephant paintings.

Every month I do my best to connect the project with a related themed book. It has been one of the best parts of running Tots on Tour for all this time and I've read hundreds of great children's stories.

Elmer is a pretty popular book that is in most classrooms of early elementary level. Art teachers enjoy using tissue paper squares to create the lovable elephant.

I chose to go with a grey elephant and interesting background because it related more to the realistic colors of elephants which was what we were discussing today. We loved the idea of being unique and how special a patchwork elephant is.

I was really happy to see the kids make these elephants their own. One of my frequent students who is a huge shark fan, put the eyes on the ears and before he made mention, I immediately thought his elephant looked like a hammerhead shark. As Picasso said- Every Child is an Artist.

Watching the kids cut and arrange and glue their pieces in creative ways is the best part for me next to how happy they are to have spent the morning and early afternoon creating.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Grade 3: Value Words

In third grade, we've been working on monocramatic value studies. For this project, we selected a positive word that could fit inside of 4 square spaces.

They learned a super easy way to draw block letters and set about drawing the letters. I have to say, I was happy at how excited some students were to draw their awesome block letters. Next, they selected a color to make tints and shades from. Most students used a color that was different from their value puzzles  (see earlier post).

However they spin it, monocramatic color schemes are so pleasing to the eye and the range of colors is impressive! 

I joked with this talented student that she was so focused (and so close) to her project that she could probably smell the paint and good thing she didn't wind up with paint on her nose. 

"Hope" and "Love" were fairly popular words. The kids wanted to do "Swag" but the focus was more on positive vs. just fun/cool words.

So, now my value making masters are set for the next challenge. 

Grade 2: Winter Cardinals

Early last month, the super second graders finished these gorgeous paintings of cardinals. Using the iPads, we viewed cardinals and learned about the types of foods they like to eat. We reflected on how excited we are when we see a red bird fly by-- it's always a cool sight.

                         

We analyzed a cardinal and figured out the many different combinations of simple shapes that make up its body. From there, my lovely students set out to draw their cardinals and built an interesting composition using trees in the backgrounds. 

One of my favorite parts of this lesson is always in the branches. However, this year, I really enjoyed watching my students explore mixing colors to make the scene feel cold. They shared lots of ideas- even among classes- and I think they turned out beautifully!

Keep up the great work 2nd grade!

Grade 3: Leaves, Lines and Repetition

I love this lesson as it touches on many subjects that I enjoy (fall leaf colors, repetition, warm/cool colors and resist). Last year, we worked smaller- on 9x12 horizontal paper. This year, I bumped the size up to 10x16 and we created a vertical composition that had between 3-6 leaves. 

 We discussed warm/cool colors, line, repetition, contour lines and fall leaf colors for this project that couples oil pastel and watercolor. Originally, the cool colors were to be in the background and the leaves were to be painted in fall/warm colors. Last year, I was quite impressed that my students asked to use their artistic license and deviate away from this plan. I had just designed this lesson and was curious as to how it could change into a better lesson.

 I had a boy walk up to me with a straight face and say "Mrs. Johnson, I feel that I need to use just a touch of warm colors in my background. I think that it will make the painting look better..." This year, I mentioned to students to use the colors that they felt were best at the right time but to utilize cool colors as much as they were inspired to. Some students even added in black with great success. They excitedly asked my opinion of their use of color. I love discussing art with children in a way where it's a consultation and they know that their opinion about their art matters the most. So, taking risks, and use of artistic license is what they did and I am, yet again, quite pleased with the results.

Grade 5: Finished Candy Paintings

It has been a truly Sweet Year and these candy paintings make the hallway at Bear Tavern all the more colorful and sweet. 

Earlier this month, I blogged about the candy paintings that my 5th graders were starting and the similar lesson that I taught during Art in the Park over the summer. Read more in the original post Click Here

Here are the delicious results that I hung in the hallway yesterday, Can you recognize the assorted wrappers?

Nice job Fifth Graders!

Grade 5 (and Art in the Park) Candy Paintings

Fifth graders are finishing up candy wrapper paintings right now. The focus on these has been...sweet! 

I will post the images as they are finished but wanted to share photographs from this past summer when I taught a similar lesson during Art in the Park.

We began by selecting a wrapper that had a composition that appealed to each student and had awesome colors. 

This summer at Art in the Park, we did not have access to computers so the kids worked from real wrappers vs. my 5th graders had time to use online resources to find a wrapper from present day or decades ago.

My 5th graders cropped their wrapper down and enlarged the image onto to their paper. 

We spent a full class period observing and drawing the enlarged design followed by fun times painting in the wrapper as realistically as possible. 

Yummy, candy wrappers drying in the summer air

Students hard at work carefully painting in their drawings

Stay tuned for more delicious results!

Grade 2- Cubism, Self- Portraits and Painting Set-Up

Why would we draw lines through our faces to fragment them? It's all making sense to my students as we explore Cubism more. Georges Braque's "Violin and Candlestick" helped more so than Picasso's work since we are working to abstract our self-portraits by painting in segments that divide the background as much as the actual face.
My second graders are doing a nice job. We talked about how delicate watercolors are and how to treat them carefully. Mrs. Finnegan's class was the first to use the brand new watercolor sets for the year that have 16 colors. Students gasped as they saw the beautiful color choices in the set. I have to say, I was quite impressed as well.

What supplies do you need for painting? It was a joy going over materials needed and the uses. 

Violin and Candlestick

Last week we looked at some of Picasso's work and then drew a self-portrait that was "a little bit off". We used rulers to create lines all over the paper being careful not to create too many spaces. Next up was a Sharpie, erasing and painting. students will work to finish in the next two weeks.

Grade 1 and Grade 5: Mixed Media Sunflowers

This was a fun one. When I was a child, I was OBSESSED with drawing sunflowers... and I wore a t-shirt with a huge sunflower on it and I doodled sunflowers on my Converses. Nature was a huge part of my formative years which made these two projects based on my favorite painter Vincent van Gogh a pleasure to make. 

The first is this slightly mixed media project in which the 5th graders used a dictionary page to draw a sunflower. Outlined in Sharpie and painted with a wash of color, the kids did a nice job capturing 'Sunflowers"

The second project was a ton of fun to make. We read a book about van Gogh's sunflowers and discussed the content in the story which talked about van Gogh's passion for painting and the struggles he encountered along the way.

We examined sunflowers..the center, the petals and referred to "Sunflowers" to see how van Gogh painted these top heavy flowers in different stages. 

We began by mixing colors for the background and added texture. The kids created their vases with a simple line drawing followed up with an oil pastel outline. Next up was painting the vases. Finally, we had a fun time creating the sunflowers and adding details to them after they were glued down.

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

American Painters Rock!