4th grade Colorado History Mural Underway

We receive a grant from ROCV to create a mural depicting Colorado History. Students in 4th grade are studying this so they came to art class with a plethora of background knowledge for ideas.  We collaborated with Ms. Carabell or librarian for this project. Students did a significant amount research and then drew sketches. They have painted the background and they are now working on sketches for the historical events.  I will post more photos and the mural progresses.

4th grade scratch art

Students demonstrated using of a variety of line to show value and texture in their scratch art designs.

Linocut Prints

3rd Collograph printmaking

Collography is a  printmaking process process in which materials are applied to a rigid substrate (such as paperboard or wood).  Students learned about different forms of printmaking and talked about how the process of building a collography plate  is similar to making a collage.  Here are some students' work

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1st Grade using our imagination

We read the book, If the Dinosaurs Came Back, and students brainstorms how they thought dinosaurs could help people if they were alive today.  They drew form observation to create their dinosaur and also learned how to draw a cube shape in order to make  buildings look 3D.

Kindergarten Rainbow Fish

Kindergarten learned about oil pastel resist and how to do a wet on wet watercolor painting.  We reviewed line and shape to draw the fish and ocean floor.

Monochromatic Picasso Portraits

Students learned how to make tints and shades of one color using white and black.  We started this lesson with a blind contour self portrait drawing.  Some students chose to use the blind contour for the monochromatic painting to have a more abstract style work of art.

4th grade faux taxidermy paper mache creatures

5th grade Soft Sculptures

Stray Sock Sculptures 

This was a really fun project that integrated recycling, literacy, photography, sewing, sculpture and technology to create 3D creatures. Students learned various sewing stitches and they also learned how to sew on a button. Kids started by drawing thumbnail sketches and chose on creature to transform into a 3D work of art. They used stray socks and found buttons to be environmentally friendly.  

5th Grade Surrealism Collages

Students explored dreams and reality with Surrealism. They studied the surrealism movement; a period in art history in which artists tried to access the creativity of the unconscious mind.  Artists including Rene Magritte, Kay Sage, Hannah Hoch, and Salvador Dali created many works that blurred the line between dreams and reality. To start of the unit on surrealism students participated in the surrealist game called Exquisite Corpse, in which a creature is drawn collaboratively. It's a great game to play with the family at home, look it up or ask a 5th grader how to play it.

Students then investigated the Surrealist technique of "seeing into" or "Paranoiac Critical Method". This exercise was coined by Salvador Dali and is all about looking at things in a new way. Students delved next into the surrealist technique of collage. Students began with a magazine background and had the challenge of altering an image and thus creating a new work of art.

5th grade Exquisite Corpse

We embarked on our study of surrealism with a mini lesson on the Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original French term cadavre exquis) or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.The technique was invented by surrealists and is similar to an old parlor game called consequences in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution.

We had so much fun with this activity. Here is what resulted.

5th grade personal logos

This project is based on the career of a graphic designer. Students were asked to design a logo that represents themselves or to design a new logo for an existing company or an upcoming event. We really dove into a lot of professional examples and dissected them to figure out what makes a good logo work. Students started with sketching ideas. After a couple rounds of peer review, students drew a large version of the final logo. 

This project allows students to demonstrate their thinking throughout the entire design process. The final work turns out great and it provides and opportunity for  me to get to know my students a little better. We did a final gallery walk where students had the opportunity to comment on each others work.