1st grade- Caddo Animal Pottery

The 1st grade is learning about the Caddo Native Americans from Texas.  They are learning that the Caddo have a long history of being artists and are still making amazing artwork today.

We are learning that pottery is functional art, which means it can be used or it has a job.  The shape of a piece of pottery gives us clues about how it should be used.  A mug is shaped differently than a pitcher because they are used differently.

We are creating pottery that has a job and then decorating it with animal forms, like the Caddo.

An animal vessel
Many pieces of pottery
Caddo artist, Jerri Redcorn

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Friday 1st grade- Dessert Paintings

The first grade will learn how lines, shapes, and color all work together to give viewers clues about artwork.  We will learn about Wayne Thiebaud’s dessert paintings.  What kinds of lines, shapes, and colors do you see in these artworks?  How do they help you know what types of desserts these are?

Student example:

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4th grade- Stained Glass Windows

The fourth grade classes will be looking at Notre Dame Cathedral in France.  We will learn that rose windows are narrative (tell stories) and have radial balance (many lines of symmetry).  Students will create their own “stained glass windows” using black paper and tissue paper.  Ms. Baird will laminate the windows and put them against the windows in the foyer.  The sun light makes them look like they are glowing!

How is stained glass made? Could you imagine doing this on a large window?

Kindergarten- Paul Klee Neighborhood Collages

Kindergarten has been learning that patterns repeat.  Can you find patterns hiding in Paul Klee’s painting, Castle and Sun? Does this city look crowded with so many buildings so close together?  Does this city look like your neighborhood?  We will create our own city collages with patterned papers.

Castle-and-Sun-by-Paul-Klee

 

  1. Write your name and class. Draw a line for the land.
  2. Choose two pieces of paper. Find more like your two pieces to finish your pattern.
  3. Glue your pieces in a row, these will be your buildings.
  4. Draw details on your buildings, like windows, doors, and roofs.
  5. Color in your sky and the ground. Don’t forget- this is a neighborhood.

2nd grade Space Collages

The 2nd grade is learning about the neutral colors: brown, gray, white, black.  We learned that Russian artist, Natalia Goncharova, painted what she thought space looked like.

Your turn…Steps:

  1. Compare Goncharova’s paintings to the images from space. What are the differences? Similarities?
  2. Brainstorm what is in outer space, like asteroids, planets- so much more!
  3. Students have a large black paper for their background.
  4. Students need three, small pieces of neutral paper: gray, white, brown.
  5. Draw your outer space objects on the small papers. Cut them out and glue them down.
  6. Add details to your planets, such as craters.
  7.  Use shiny foil to add stars, spaceships, and astronauts to your artwork. Be careful, foil is tricky to cut!

4th grade Andy Warhol Pop Art Prints

The 4th grade is learning about Andy Warhol and starting an adventure into Pop Art. Click on the screenshot to go to Tate Kids’ page on Warhol.

warholtate

Here are some of Warhol’s artworks, do you recognize the celebrities in the portraits? Repetition and color are important in Andy’s artworks, why do you think he choses to repeat images and use non-realistic colors? (Studio Habit of Mind- Stretch and Explore, Express, Develop Craft)

5th grade Self-Portraits: Colonial American Art

The 5th grade will study Colonial American portraits and creating their own self-portrait drawings. Why do people take modern self-portraits (and selfies)? Are the reasons similar to why people had Colonial portraits painted?

Here’s our PowerPoint for this lesson: Colonial portraits

More information on portraits:

Screen Shot 2015-10-01 at 11.12.11 PM

This project’s rubric:

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Examples of artists’ self portraits: you might recognize a few!

And lastly, here’s one of Ms. Baird’s self-portraits:

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1st grade- Kandinsky Color Circles

The 1st grade has been learning about Wassily Kandinsky (pronounced Vas-silly Can-din-ski).  We learned that he loved art AND music.  He thought that colors could express feelings, just like music.  He even said that seeing colors helped him hear musical sounds!  We found patterns in his paintings and guessed what kind of music he was listening to when he used certain colors.

Squares with Concentric Circles, 1913
Squares with Concentric Circles, 1913

This video talks about how colors and feelings go together.

For our project, we are listening to music and painting with colors that reflect the mood of the music.  For example, if we hear calm, quiet music, we might use blue paint.  What colors do you think match the moods in these musical performances?  You might recognize the music!

Day 1: Draw fold your paper into 8 boxes. Trace over your folded lines. Write your name and class on the back. Neatly draw 4 concentric circles in each box. Concentric circles look like a target. Use different colors for each circle.

Day 2 & Day 3: Paint your circles to match the mood of the music you’re listening to in class. Paint each circle a different color and switch colors when the music changes.

 

1st grade- Matisse Organic Shape Ocean Collage

Last project, 1st graders learned that geometric shapes had straight sides and names (except for ovals and circles!).  We learned that abstract artwork doesn’t show objects realistically, like Henri Matisse’s The Snail.

We learned that Henri Matisse started to lose his eyesight and as a result, he started to make collages instead of paintings.  We looked at Matisse’s Betes de la Mer (Beast of the Sea) and learned that he used organic shapes, which have curvy sides and no names.  Students compared the organic shapes in Betes to the geometric shapes we saw in The Snail.