Stamp Printing and Charcoal Drawings

The Bees experimented with stamp printing this week. First we looked at a variety of shape sequences and identified which ones were patterns because of repeated shapes. Next, students chose two pieces of sliced fruit, 2 or 3 paint colors and created their own patterns. This is an introduction into simple printmaking, we will return to printmaking later in the year.

The Elephants and Big Eagles created value scales using charcoal. We learned about the differences between vine (soft) and compressed (hard) charcoal, as well as how to use rubber kneaded erasers. 

Next, the Big Eagles divided a large piece of paper in sections and I challenged them to created as many different patterns and textures as possible. They did a great job! We'll continue after the break and eventually use these textures as collage material for a self-portrait.

The Elephants are learning a little more about values and practicing one method of creating realistic depiction. After their value scales, the students chose a black and white photo and matching the values in one-inch increments. This process breaks down how many artists create images that look very similar to reality. After this exercise, we will branch off to a more expressive project. More photos to come after the break!

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Self-Portraits and Animal Adaptations

The Bees and Little Eagles have completed their self portrait paintings. They're 6 feet long (!) and now hanging in the hallway by the Science Room.

The Elephants and Big Eagles have completed their Animal Adaptations Project. Included is a written description of how the new species was formed. 

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Autumn Leaf Books

This week, the Bees took a break from the self-portrait projects to make Autumn Leaf Books. We looked at different leaves and identified them together as a class. The leaves we identified are: oak, sassafras, birch, elm, and maple.

Each student received a book with 12 pages. First we created our cover with a title and byline.

Then we carefully drew the leaves from observation, paying special attention to the edges, veins, and other details.

Next we learned how to create rubbings with the flat side of our crayon and added them to our books.

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In Progress

Currently, all classes are in the middle of larger art projects. The Bees and Little Eagles are creating life-size self-portraits. They will create be created using 3 separate panels that will be taped together. This week they created the first panel, which included the head, neck, and shoulders. Before beginning the paintings, we learned how to mix our custom skin tone colors. 

Then we began painting our self-portraits and a background color of choice.

The Big Eagles and Elephants continued working on their Animal Adaptation project. They experimented using red, yellow and blue watercolor inks to create secondary colors on swatches of watercolor paper. 

Using fabric animal prints and textures, the students mimicked the repetitive textures using colored pencils. 

Next, the students began working on their final watercolor piece. They sketched out their animal and environment lightly in pencil, then began painting. 

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Animal Theme

Since our trip to the zoo, the subsequent art lessons for all classes have tied into an animal theme. The Bees are making animal sculptures using cardboard pieces. Together, we reviewed the different parts of an animal (head, paws, legs, ears, etc). We read the book, From Head to Toe by Eric Carle to examine how different animals move as well. Each student chose an animal to create and picked out correlating shapes for all of the body parts. The Bees have perfected the art of gluing by counting to 20 while applying pressure.

dog

elephant

tiger

peacock

kimodo dragon

The following class, the students painted their animals. The students now have a solid routine for painting, mixing colors, rinsing their brushes, and cleaning up. I'm very impressed with their good habits displayed in the art classroom. 

cat

dog

The Little Eagles, Big Eagles and Elephants began a new project called Animal Adaptation. First, we learned how animals adapt to various climates. We viewed examples and discussed common characteristics that animals display in 5 main climates: Frozen Arctic, Temperate, Tropical Jungle, Underwater, and Desert.  During the discussion, students filled out a worksheet to document what they learned.  Hint: animals in all climates have camouflage characteristics.

The students then filled out venn diagrams to guide the invention of their new species.  They chose an animal and their characteristics in the left circle, then placed the animal in a drastically different climate in the right circle. In the overlapped area is how the animal will adapt to that new climate, and thus create a new species. This was followed by a sketch of the newly invented animal.

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