Positive/Negative Designs with a Twist - 4th Grade

 

One week of school down after a week off for Spring break...  My Fourth Grades started some Positive/Negative designs before vacation.  I was inspired by the beautiful designs from Art with Mr.Hall.  Tuesday I took a look at them and thought they need something else... 

 

I decided to have them add some color and design to them.  I had the kids pick three colors of their choice.  Each negative space was to be designed using any combination of the three colors, line and shape. 

Detail close-up of student work

The students thought the original design was interesting but they really thought they were cool after they added their details to them!

 

Thanks again to Mr. Hall for the inspiration!  Enjoy the rest of the pieces!

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd Grade - Collaborative Group Painting

 

Third grader: "Mrs.C , Why are we painting these?"

Mrs.C:  "Because it's fun.  Sometimes you need to do things just because it's fun!"  :)

My third grades have been finishing up their One Point Perspective pictures.  Some classes are done and some were trying to get finished up.  Instead of diving right into the next project before all the classes were done, I decided to have my third grades work on some collaborative  paintings.  As second graders these kids were great at working in small groups on large painting projects.  The first three classes last Thursday started by painting in four large panels of bulletin board paper.  One had circles, one had squares, one had ovals and the last had triangles.  I gave them blue, purple and white for the shapes in two of the panels and orange, red and white for the other two.

They painted in the shapes with one group of colors and switched the colors for the background.  At the end of the day we hung them up to dry and I contemplated what to do next with them.

This afternoon when my next group of thirds came in, I had them working on one project at their tables and called them back four at a time to paint if they wanted to.  Most of the kids helped with the paintings.  Maybe 5 or 6 students out of four classes opted not to paint and just worked on their drawings they were doing at their tables. 

 

I started them off outlining all the shapes in black, (still thinking about our next creative move) when one of the kids said; "Can I outline the outline?"  "Sure, why not!"  and so the design was born!  The kids continued to paint around the shapes, stopping and starting as the lines touched one another.

 

Some kids remarked that the paintings started to look like sound waves and water ripples! Yeah!  Creative thought and observation!

 

Some of the kids commented that the squares look as though they were stacks of squares and we were looking down on them!

 

Here are the panels drying at the end of the day clipped to my supply shelves.  The kids helped me carry them over before I ran to bus duty.  (One more day of outside bus duty in the frigid cold!)

 

Things kept piling up on my paper cutter table while we were working!  We were painting at the table I normally use for storing the supplies we are using during the day.

 

 Ignore the messy shelves!  I would love a day just to re-organize my shelves!

Close up views... 

 

 

 

 

I think the circles and the triangles are my favorites...  Thursday morning when I am back at the 3-5 school I will look at them again and decide how I am going to display them in the hallway.

Sometimes the best things happen when you are just doing it for the joy of doing it!  (not for a grade, state standards, the curriculum, etc...  etc...  You know what I mean?!  :)  

Shape Abstracts - 1st Grade

 

My first grades created these shape abstracts back in September.  This lesson focused on shape review, proper painting technique/procedures and following directions.

 

 

I instructed them on which shape to draw and how many.  Three circles, three triangles and two squares.  They placed them randomly on their paper, positioning them how ever they wished.

 

The kids traced their pencil lines in black oil pastel and painted them in with tempera cakes.  Everyone did a great job!  

 

Here's hoping that Hurricane Sandy does not hit New Jersey in the way they are predicting! Not looking forward to days of no electric again this year for Halloween!  Lost power for four days this time last year in a freak blizzard that took down several the trees in the area!  I was supposed to be attending a workshop on STEM to STEAM on Mon and Tues but it has been postponed due to the impending weather.  Of course I got the notification right after I finished writing and putting together two full days of  lesson plans!!!  Instead of a nasty trick from Mother Nature, I am hoping for a Treat!  Be safe and good luck to all of you in the area!  :)

Klee Inspired Abstracts - 3d Grade

 

I love how this lesson turned out!  My third graders just finished working on these Paul Klee inspired abstracts.  I got the inspiration for project from a lesson I saw on Arteascuola.  It was from her April 4, 2012 blog post (I couldn't get it to link directly to the exact page.  

The link is located on her side bar in popular posts.)

 

 

First I had the students watch this short three minute video (above) of Paul Klee artwork.  The video is one I found on Pinterest.  It is on my "Videos for the Art Room" board on my Pinterest page.  I also printed out several of Klees paintings and created posters about his life and work that are laminated and placed on each one art table.  We discussed the paintings on the table posters as well as a few they viewed on the video.  We also discussed what an abstract piece of art looks like, and how Klee used abstract elements in his art work.

The Rules Were Simple:

First:  They had to use simple shapes, circles, squares ,triangles, etc. as well as lines.

Second:  They couldn't use detail to help describe the subject of their picture, only shapes and lines.

Third:  They had to draw on the paper I gave them and could not flip it over to the blank side.



The paper I gave them to draw on had writing all over it. It is text from the fairytale Thumbelina.

I then copied several passages from the fairytale "Thumbelina" and pieced them together randomly to fit an 8.5x11 piece of paper.  Then made copies of the page for the classes to use as their drawing paper.  The concept of drawing on a piece of paper that had print all over it was exciting to some of the students and frightening to others!  I told them they could not use the plain side of the paper as the words were going to become part of their background design.  They drew their pictures in pencil first.  Then they were allowed to choose any subject matter they wished.  Some chose buildings and castles after seeing my examples but others chose to draw animals, landscapes and people.  When the drawing was complete they outlined it with a black Sharpie marker so that the sketch stood out from the print on the paper.  I had them color them in with construction paper crayons.  These took about two 30 minute classes to complete and the kids enjoyed making them.  Some even asked for extra sheets of the printed paper to draw on when they were done!

Below are some of the finished pieces.  I love how they came out!  I hope you enjoy them! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th Grade - Flower Watercolors

Things are crazy around here lately!  Third, fourth and fifth grades are testing for the next several weeks and we are trying to wrap up projects that started before vacation.  Due to the Spring Break, class trips and assemblies...  We are very behind in getting our art work done!  We only have five more weeks of school left until summer break and I have to squeeze in a few more projects!

I was looking in my archives of art work from this school year and found these watercolors my fourth grades created back in September.  It was a great starter project.  We looked at Van Gogh's Sunflower paintings and talked about how they could create their own flowers using simple shapes.  We also discussed ways they could draw their vases and reviewed using pattern to highlight parts of their picture.  The students began by drawing with pencil. When they finished their sketches, we outlined everything in oil pastel.  To finish up, they painted the everything else in watercolor.  This project covered a lot of the basics to get us out of our summer mode and back into thinking creatively.  We covered shapes, lines, pattern, drawing with basic watercolor technique and painting procedure. 

Enjoy!