Imaginary Zoo Pet Portraits

     In preparation for their field trip to the Akron Zoo, the kindergartners created these wonderful imaginary zoo pet portraits.  We started out by reading Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathman, and we then had some pretty funny discussions about the similarities and differences between zoo animals and domestic animals that we have as pets.  We realized that there are some pretty important reasons that some animals live only in the wild and at the zoo, and not in our homes!

     Because we can do anything with our imaginations and with art, the kindergartners made their artworks based on the idea that they really could have a zoo animal as a pet.  To help them draw, I had photocopies of the kinds of animals from Good Night Gorilla.  The students drew themselves and their pets in whatever environments they wanted to imagine.

     The students colored the smaller shapes of their drawings with watercolor crayons, and then painted the rest with regular tray watercolors.  We talked about how nicely analogous colors mix with one another, and students who were quick painters were encouraged to try this.  I absolutely love these paintings and took lots of photos!



Good Luck 3rd, 4th, and 5th Graders on the OAT's!!

Best of luck to all of our little Falcons taking the OAT's this week and next!!!!  Here are a few photos from our OAT pep rally last week.

O'Keeffe-style Flowers with Color Difusing Paper

     Ahhhh Georgia O'Keeffe.  Who doesn't love her beautiful flower paintings?  I have a few different lessons I like to do with different grade levels about Georgia O'Keeffe and this is one of my favorites that my dear friend Mrs. Peterson introduced me to a few years ago. 

    To start, we looked at lots of O'Keeffe flower paintings and discovered that some were cropped so tightly, and zoomed in so much, that they look abstract.  When the students drew their "zoomed in" flowers, they were challenged to have their flowers extend off their papers in at least two places.  Some students decided to zoom in enough to make abstract artworks, and those turned out great too.

     We used color difusing paper, oil pastels, and liquid watercolors to get these vibrant paintings that look so nicely on windows.

 

My Community Artworks

     The third grade just completed these artworks that examine the concept of community.  The students thought about the places they often visit in their communities and also the people they often see.  We started these drawing-heavy works with our wonderful art student teacher (Miss Marin Ryan), and we started by drawing the buildings or other places we often visit on the outsides of our papers.  We then drew at least four people from our communities (possibly family members, friends, neighbors, etc.) on the insides.  There really is no top or bottom to these artworks because our communities are not linear and can be thought of and understood from many different directions.

     After coloring our community places and portraits with crayons, we painted the interiors and exteriors of the artworks with contrasting Biggie Cake colors.

Expressive Ceramic Faces

     In 1st grade we've been talking about the ways people communicate without speaking.  We've discussed body language and facial expressions.  We looked at the ceramic creature sculptures of artist Nancy Krug and brainstormed all of the emotions that her various creatures might be feeling.  We learned that a smile could mean someone is happy and a frown could mean they are sad, but that smiles and frowns can communicate many other feelings too (excitement, guilt, surprise, fear, etc.).

    For these relief sculptures, we started with small slabs (about 5" x 4") of clay and small chunks of clay for adding features.  The students each chose an emotion to sculpt on their slab, and were encouraged to be as whimsical as they desired.  I demonstrated scoring clay pieces to attach them, and the students did a wonderful job with it!  They were required to sculpt noses, mouthes, eyes, and at least one "other" feature (hair, ears, glasses, eyebrows, etc.).  The faces were finished with tempera paint (mixed with an acrylic glitter medium) and Mod Podge.