Grade 2: Clay Hearts

We found some time to make a little Valentine's Day gift this year. Here are some sweet clay textured hearts that my second graders made. 

Ok, so as a mom, these pictures just hit a very sentimental button!

The hearts were made out of clay, fired and decorated with color. 

A string or magnet was added to the back.

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 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.