End-of-the-year projects

LE learned how to make a mosaic out of cut paper. The theme was dolphins.

As part of UE's Mesoamerican study, students made Aztec masks using cardboard and painted paper.

Following the Inca tradition, students sewed grave dolls out of fabric and yarn. These dolls were placed in graves and believed to carry the deceased into the afterlife.

MS students created sculptures using only marshmallows and toothpicks. They were judged on three criteria: structural integrity, originality, and aesthetic appeal. I was very impressed with the results!

LE: Fish Bowl Still-Life

Students painted a fish bowl in the colorfully patterned style of French painter, Henri Matisse. Oreo, the class fish, was our muse:)

Community Art Project finished:)

This was a collaborative mural painted by all grade levels. You can read more information about the idea here.

LE: Aboriginal Dot Painting

Lower Elementary students are studying different cultures around the world. Artist and traveler, Brendan Burns, visited the class and shared about his experience in Australia and how he fell in love with the didgeridoo. Didgeridoos are hollow wooden wind instruments carved by indigenous people of Northern Australia and often decorated with dot painting. To prepare students for this visit, I had them learn about Aboriginal Dot Painting. There is a lot of mystery behind the precise meanings of these paintings because clans imparted secrets into them; the dots cover up the secrets about the location of water holes and sacred ceremonies only revealed to the people in the clan. Aboriginal Dot paintings also have an underlying reference to the Dreamtime or the Dreaming, a sacred and complex set of beliefs of how the earth and all of its creation came to be. We chose to draw a lizard since it is an Australian animal prevalent in many dot paintings along with water holes, which you need for survival in the desert. Using q-tips and paint, students applied dots along the contour of the objects. Having Brendan show us the didgeridoos with the beautiful dot paintings on them really completed this lesson for the students. I could hear their brains click! I also included photos of Brendan playing the digeridoo and students dancing along to its deep resonant sounds. Thank you Brendan!!

LE: Cave Paintings

When I think of cave men, the "it's so easy, even a cave man can do it" Geico commercials come to mind. But a look at cave paintings prove otherwise. They are breathtaking, anatomically precise, and there's nothing easy about it. The purpose of these mysterious paintings are yet to be discovered, but one theory is that shaman (communicators of the spirit world) painted animals in order to capture their spirit and ensure the success of the hunt. Students pretended they were shaman and started their mystical process. They first crumpled up a recycled sheet of paper and painted an animal in earthy colors. They also added a layer of soft pastels and colored the background. When they were done, they "signed" their painting with their handprint, a symbol of the shaman's identity.

Community Art Project

This year’s community art project was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s Farbstudie painting. You may remember that I did this lesson with LE at the beginning of the year for the sole purpose of experimenting with color. I've expanded that lesson to incorporate the symbolic significance behind the Circle. According to Kandinsky, the Circle is the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul. Other meanings are unity, nurturing, and infinite energy.

The goal of this project was for students to explore different expressions of the Circle and communicate it through rings of color. After discussing extensively as a class, each student from LE-MS painted their idea on a small square canvas. Some students painted cycles, such as seasons, planets revolving around the sun, human and animal life, or time. Others painted the emotional quality of the shape. Teachers will be participating in this as well so stay tuned for the final product!

LE:POP!

Lower El. students learned about Pop artist, Andy Warhol, and painted his famous Campbell's soup cans. We talked about how Pop art was inspired by mass produced products and that Warhol turned them into art. Was he mocking Art? I don't know yet, but I decided to leave out the controversy for this one;-) Some of the flavors students made up are hilarious. My favorite is Zoe Free Hary Soup.... I don't even want to know what that tastes like, but I love it.

LE: More Castle and Sun

Triangles and circles and squares oh my! Such lovely things can come out of the simplest shapes. LE has been building their castles only using geometric shapes. They first built the foundation with rectangles and squares so that it would be stable to build upward. Then they glued down their pieces, added details like windows and doors, and colored their background with oil pastels. I love how different each castle looks! UE students also did a variation of Paul Klee's Castle and Sun in the beginning of the year.

Butterflies and Weaves

Here are some beautiful pieces for you to enjoy! UE made weaves using colored paper and LE learned about butterfly anatomy and created butterflies out of clay and tempera paint. Key terms were symmetry, hind wings, fore wings, abdomen and thorax.

Sketchbooks

one-eyed monster by Logan

one-eyed monster by David

make-your-own invention by Remy

For almost every project, there are always a few students who finish early. Since I can't start a new lesson, I usually have them do "free art", a time where they can draw/paint whatever they like. However, this is only enjoyable for students who are naturally imaginative and limiting for those who flourish within guidelines (like myself!). It also makes the rest of the class feel behind. As a way to keep finished students occupied, I had everyone make their own sketchbooks. Students selected different types of paper that I had cut down, designed their cover, and I bound them all together. It's funny because I required all the students to buy their own sketchbooks last year, but they weren't nearly as excited as they are about their handmade ones. That personal touch goes a lot way. Using a wonderful resource called The Drawing Lab, a book with quick and fun drawing ideas, I give the class specific activities to work on when they're done with their project, leaving no student struggling with artist's block.