Thursday, May 31, 2012

2nd Grade Fool-Proof Portraits!


     These easy portraits were a great way to wrap up the school year in 2nd grade at Brimfield.  I was inspired by the article "Contour Line Portraits; Excited About Artistic Abilities" from the March issue of Arts & Activities  of this year.  The article is written by Kari Gertz Neal and I loved the polished look of this tracing process that is so simple I feel like I should have thought of it myself!  I also found a very similar project over at Dali's Moustache that turned out awesome too.


    We've already done portraits and abstract paintings in 2nd grade this year, so the students were already familiar with the vocabulary and concepts for this project.  They chose either warm or cool colors and created abstract paintings (with Biggie Cakes) while I took their photographs one at a time.  During our next class we taped transparencies to the black and white photos that I printed for them and the students just traced all the details they could find with Sharpies.  To complete them we made nametag titles and stapled the tracings to the paintings.  The kids were amazed by how much their "drawings" really looked like them and I was really happy with the success the kids clearly felt with their work.








Friday, May 25, 2012

5th Grade Abstract Expressionist Inspired Paintings


     In fifth grade at Brimfield we made these tempera abstract paintings after talking about Abstract Expressionism.  We talked most about Kandinsky's music-inspired paintings, but also looked at Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, Barnett Newman, and Willem de Kooning.
    
     We started with just the primary colors of paint and then we added more options for each class.  I also did a few different demonstrations for various paint application techniques.  The goal was for the students to have their painting be abstract but meaningful.  I made a point to speak with each student at some point during our studio process about what their work was "about".  Many had some really great ideas and some students chose to make artwork that was very personal.  We talked about the mysterious nature of abstract artwork and how it can really lend itself well to personal meaning.

     This was a fun artwork for the kids to make not only because they got to paint so freely but because I also gave them the responsibility of completely setting up the room to paint and then completely cleaning it up on their own.  Students had specific jobs that they did at the beginning and end of each class and they seemed to really like this.



These 18" x 24" paintings are too big for our drying rack, so we used the carpet!












Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Kindergarten Flower Update


     At Brimfield, we are currently working on our flower unit where we sculpt clay flowers and make a flower painting.  You can see this lesson here.  At Suffield, I usually take the kids outside and we draw the tulips in our front yard.  At Brimfield we don't have flowers like this, so I was trying to think of a solution when I ran across a great lesson from Art with Mr. E.  Instead of reading Fredrick we read a few books about spring and talked about the similarities and differences between 2D and 3D artworks.  Instead of going outside, we drew pictures of flowers that I have from old calendars and magazines and loosely followed Mr. E.'s studio process.  I love the results and thought I'd share! (We're still working on finishing the sculptures!)






Friday, May 4, 2012

Jasper Johns Flag Design Challenge for Fourth Grade



     In fourth grade at Brimfield we are just finishing up these design challenges.  This is a quick,simple lesson that I've done before that gets some really creative results.  After discussing Johns a bit and looking at some of his artworks of flags, targets, numbers, and maps the students respond to this design prompt:

"Using only red, white, and blue stars, stripes, and color fields, create a new and unique design.  How creative can you be??"

As the students work on their construction paper collages we discussed balance and overlapping, and here are some photos of the results!  (I had some scrap-booking-type star hole punches that the students realllllllly enjoyed using too!)