Kindergarten House Drawings I do this project with Kindergarten in the beginning of every year. It's a great way to cover lines and shapes, and assess students' drawing skills. It also becomes the thing they will continue to draw over and over again- even when told they can choose anything to draw. It's a favorite. 1st grade Magic Carpet Collages First grade reviewed different types of lines, as well as practiced their cutting and pasting skills, for these magic carpet collages. The yarn was attached to the back using masking tape to avoid a huge mess!
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Well here we are, mid-September, and I haven't updated the ole blog until now... :) The first weeks of school are busy, what can I say? In both grades we've been covering the basic elements- line and shape. Kindergarten's Day 1 activity was just a free draw to let me see where they're at- many come to school and can't yet write their name or even hold a pencil so there's much work to do. First grade usually begins with a guided drawing of a cityscape, but after years of that same project I wanted to change it up. This year I decided to try out an underwater ocean scene and the kids loved it. They had so many of their own ideas and knowledge about underwater things (thanks, Finding Dory!) so they really turned out nice. I also decided to whip out the watercolor paint for this one, which I don't usually do this early in the year. I'm sure glad I did! These took about two 45min classes to do. This mixed-media project was a fun layering process for first grade students. We watched a video about Claude Monet and looked at his style of painting and subject matter. Then students created their own "pond" on a paper plate. They colored their plate blue or green with crayons, then we sponge painted some texture with silver paint to create the look of light reflecting in the water. The next class, students were given brushes to create small marks around their pond with blue and green paint which blended in nicely. Lastly, students created the water lilies with dark green paint, and glued on a small tissue paper square to create a 3D bloom.
Kindergarten was so excited to finally get their hands on some clay. These turtles were a fun challenge for them. They rolled coils to make the shell of the turtle and then used their leftover clay to create cylinder forms for the legs, head, and tail. There were only a couple of lost limbs out of all of kindergarten so I think these were pretty successful :)
Back in February I introduced a sculptor, Edmonia Lewis, to students and we began looking at sculpture. We looked at some of her figure sculptures like Abraham Lincoln, and talked about methods of sculpting with various materials. A great video I found for introducing sculpture to young artists is this Sesame street video with Jon Hamm! I had 1st grade create a quick figure bust of themselves using Play-doh, which was a fun and adorable challenge. Kindergarten also learned about sculpture around this time, and they worked with paper. I showed students some different ways to fold, bend, and roll the paper to make it pop up off their board and become 3D. After our visiting pottery artist, Diane Quammen, came in March first grade dove right in to clay! This project is an oldie but a goodie for me- I always love how these flower pinch pots turn out! We looked at artist Georgia O'Keeffe for inspiration. This is how the clay works are sent home. Inside the paper bag they are wrapped in a layer of newsprint. Kindergarten also looked at Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings and created these Tissue Paper Flowers! This was a challenge for their little fingers to fold and separate the layers of thin paper. Some needed help, but in the end all were successful! This years kick-off for Youth Art Month was our Art Show with Artome. Here is some of the wonderful work- 1st grade's project was Selfie portraits, and Kindergarten made Mixed Media Hearts. In addition to the Art Show we had a visiting pottery artist, Diane Quammen, show students how she works on the wheel! She was fabulous and the kids were in awe. She demo'd how to make a bowl and even let all of the students file through and feel the clay as it was spinning on the wheel- such a cool experience! |
Mrs. Carter
I teach art to grades K-1 at Riverside Primary in Mableton, Georgia. Archives
April 2017
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