Third Grade Eric Carle Project Part Two...

by Lora

by Marina

by Kendall

by Hayley

by Jessica

by Ethan

by Tanner

by Abrielle

Here is a show of just some of our final third grade Eric Carle artwork - see the whole zoo in our school library!

Eighth Grade Art History Part Two...

It just wouldn't be fair to tell all about the artwork the kids are making and not show you the final result! Here is just a small showing of the final art history project - enjoy the show!

by Skylar

by Emily

By Alex

by Henry

by Josh

by Martha

Eighth Grade Art History

Eighth graders are reproducing artwork from famous artists as an art history/ international restaurant unit. They researched artists and artwork from Europe from anytime before the year 2000 (which is a HUGE volume of artwork to select from!) and found one to reproduce on an 18x24 canvas. They did an excellent job looking through artwork and deciding what challenged them, and they had to write down reasons WHY they chose that artist/artwork. Not an easy task.

After the research portion, they got to work trying to copy the artwork they selected. They are using their choice of medium - but it seems that everyone has chosen chalk pastel, oil pastel, and acrylic paint. Some are mixing mediums and getting good results. There was even a fresco created using acrylic paint mixed with cornstarch for a great textural effect!

I am very proud of their dedication and hard work with this unit. We can't wait to see all the artwork together on display next week at the international restaurant...the plan is to put them in order, timeline style. We will have over 600 years of European artists to show off!

Seventh Grade Monochromatic Portraits

Seventh grade has been working on some amazing monochromatic portraits. The had their photo taken and edited in Photoshop so they could see the highlights and shadows a little more clearly. They traced them on the overhead, and got busy selecting a color to use and practiced mixing tints, tones, and shades with acrylic paint.

Painting took about 2 weeks, with a lot of careful mixing and remixing!

The best part was seeing students' eyes as you held the paintings 10 feet away from them. "Wow, it really does look like me!" they would exclaim. Creating the art at 12 inches away from their face is not the same experience as looking at it from a distance. If you would like to see more, check the portraits out in the library - see if you can recognize them all!

Third Grade Eric Carle Project

Of all the authors out there for kids, I think Eric Carle is one of the best. His creative mind, simple rhythm of words just for kids, and especially his montage artwork that is so colorful and full of texture. Lovely.

We started by drawing an animal in a simple form - no background, no little details, and as simple of an outline as possible. It is tough for some students to draw an animal big enough to fill the paper. Then we looked at Eric Carle's website and his video of how he makes his colorful paper for his animals! I had decided ahead of time that we would be using tempera paint and heavier paper instead of Carle's acrylics and tissue. We looked at what colors the animals could be (real color or imaginary color? I let them decide) and they had fun with mixing colors and making great texture on their paint with rollers, stamps, and the other end of the paintbrush. We will definitely need a few more days to play with color and texture - this is very fun! After we paint we will start cutting and gluing our almost-handmade paper to make our animals come alive. By the way, the kids look unhappy and serious here - trust me, we were having fun! They were happy and intent on creating and when they saw me with the camera, they all clammed up!

Kindergarten Skyscraper Sculpture Project

Kindergarten came into the classroom wondering "What are we doing today?" (A favorite thing for every class to say as they come into the room!) We talked about "What is a sculpture?" and after some thought, they decided as a group that a sculpture is art that has sides and goes up...pretty good for 5K! We also discussed what a skyscraper is, and that they were going to make skyscrapers for ants! Exciting stuff!

We started by digging through some boxes of wood scraps (thanks to a generous parent) and figuring out which pieces would stack well and which ones would not. Some pieces of wood were so cool they used them in other ways, like skateboard ramps, bridges, windows, slides, underground tunnels, and other fun things that every architect should include in a skyscraper.

Right now, we are building and the skyscrapers are gaining height. Problem solving is a big lesson in this project, as students figure out what works and what doesn't. They are thinking about what an ant's-eye-view would be of their skyscraper city. Plenty of sharing of ideas (and wood chunks) is happening too. I will keep you posted as we add paint, glitter, and other important things to make our sculptures fabulous!