Grades 3, 4 & 5: Op Art

We enjoyed exploring Op Art as our first project this school year in these three classic projects. We viewed the work of Victor Vasserly (the 'Father' of the Op Art movement) and the mesmerizing designs by Bridget Riley. 

The kids were really into it and we could have viewed images on the Epson for much longer. 

Speaking of the Epson. This past summer, the art room changed drastically. The wall space that housed the SmartBoard that I have been fortunate to have for all these years was finally replaced, at my request a couple years ago, with an Epson projector and new dry erase board. The span of white board space now spans over 15 feet. The once cumbersome SmartBoard and wasteful wall space that it took up is now a clean and fantastic wall of instructional space that we use every single class period of every single day. We have always utilized the carpet space and SmartBoard but not to this degree. It's fantastic. Everything looks brighter.

Back to the Op Art. So we are viewing these incredible illusions and the kids could feel immediately what I was saying about Op artists trying to irritate their viewers eyes. Some of the illusions of the high contrast designs gave us headaches! In all of them we saw lines and patterns used to show movement and dimension. 

On the left of the white board I keep samples related to grade 3,4,5 projects and to the right are grades k,1,2. Closer to the door I have another board that has all of our current projects hanging along with objectives(not viewable in this picture taken in Sept, will post in the future). The kids see what Op art projects are planned for the other grades and ask if they can try the other illusions. 

So basically, 4th and 5th graders chose between the converging cones and the checkered spheres and grade 3 did hands and a few requested to try out the spheres. 

I am really proud of the results. The hands ended up being the most difficult of all. Each project required the use of a ruler, patterns, precision and planning. The STEM classes enjoyed these projects for their mathematical connections. 

Grade 3: Chinese Dragons

This picture is why I love being a teacher... And this one too...

I began blogging several years ago as a means of communicating our days in the art room with Bear Tavern families but found comfort in talking about projects just as much. There's SO much going on related to education right now but these pictures are my goal for each day. Despite paperwork and meetings and this and that... it's these smiles that keep me alive. I guess any mom reading those knows exactly what I mean and on a higher level of thought that we share. We do what we need to do for our children's smiles. 

If you have stopped by the room in the patsy few weeks, you know that we have major sculptural projects going on with 8 classes. I accidentally slipped and told my 3rd graders we would be creating clay dragons for Chinese New Year. Well, they have perfect memories for anything clay. So, although a neater, 2D project would have been easier, I couldn't go back on my word. So, out came the clay. And the rest became a magical moment. 

We tend to talk a lot and all sorts of conversations can come up while creating art but the conversation about our dragons as we created them were incredible. By the time class was over, the ownership of these dragons was through the roof and we had a clear idea of the personality of each dragon, storylines, fantasy thinking about where the dragons came from and where they are headed... When they say "get lost in your art" we definitely were there today 200%.

The process was an easy one. Begin with a body and let your imagination go wild! Some kids had wings, others had powerful tails. We added scales for texture on most but it was up to each artist to determine what their dragon needed. 

(Love the idea for spikes on this guy... They will have to be added back in after bisque firing in the kiln)

The kids are doing a writing piece with their homeroom teacher about their dragons. I can't wait to read them.

Hope you're all having a great week. Happy Chinese New Year!

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.