First grade students have created beautiful spider web paintings and pumpkin paintings as well. Earlier this fall they studied how to mix primary colors in order to make violet, orange, and a green by creating beautiful symmetrical insects. Last week they made clay disc medallions using a slab method. They rolled clay with a rolling pin and cut out disc shapes. They carved or stamped a design into the disc using clay tools and linoleum block stamps. They also enjoyed the experience of working with clay and how it is very cold to the touch.
Second grade just finished their cool and warm color fall leaf painting and collages. They used tissue paper, crayon, glue, scissors, and watercolor paints. They learned a great deal about composition and collage during this project. Our goal was to learn about how to place things in an interesting way on the page.
Third grade students have been working on Cubist portraits for several weeks, our goal was to learn about different styles of portraits and throw the "proportional Rule book" out the window. We discussed Picasso and studied many of his off the wall portraits. Students were asked to follow along as I demonstrated how to draw both a profile view and a frontal view of a portrait. Students also learned how to navigate the use of oil pastels. What a mess! I think students enjoyed the use of crazy colors and the texture that blending pastels creates. Students also did a great job of adding details to give their Cubist portraits personality.
Fourth and fifth grade students have been studying proportions in drawing which is a very challenging skill to master. They have created beautiful oil pastel self portraits. I am very impressed at their patience with his project as the level of difficulty is high. I expect a lot out of them! Students used mirrors while drawing and drew and measured the proportions of their face. It is extremely challenging, at any level to draw what you see instead of what you think you see. It is a very complex higher order thInking skill and students have risen to the challenge. Fifth grade students had an extra challenge of attaching their portraits to accordion fold to make their portraits 3 dimensional. We've been referring to them as bobble-heads. 5th grade students at North Hill created bobble heads and students at Grimes did Cubist portrait masks on large brown paper sacks which was a challenge as it required thinking in three dimensional terms. They even cut eye holes in the bags in order to wear them. What a great variations on portrait projects!
Well that sums up October and November in the art room, until the next project my friends...
