Pictures of early year projects

I keep thinking that I am going to actually write about each of these but it just won't happen.  So here are the photos of some of my September artwork.

These are 1st grade number drawing based on The Figure Number Five by Charles Demuth.   I used it as a way to get started with procedures for the year and review crayon use.

 
This was borrowed from a blog (sorry can't remember which) But they were complex pattern kimonos with second grade. 

 

These are 4th grade abstraction of a hand using values in 2 colors only using crayon.

 

These were third graders working with overlapping and review of material use.

 

Again, I borrowed this and can't remember from where.  But I really like how they came out!  Still life of a bike with and analogous glow. These are by second grade.

This project kind of bombed, but I show it anyway.  Started out great, bug pics made symmetrical by drawing only half and mono printing to the other side.  That's where it went down hill.  Probably should have waited a little further into the year, lots of not following directions led to unidentifiable blobs.  These are the more successful ones.  The biggest mistake was when I had other classes cut them out to mount on new paper.  Now I have piles of blob scraps, EEEKKKK!

  After the introduction to art with The Dot, the next logical place was to create with dots.  We talked about Georges Seurat and spent a large amount of time talking about how to use paint properly.  The lesson was less about art and more about material control.  I talked about why we wear paint shirts, where the paint belongs and what happens if paint gets in the wrong place. 

Another very successful art experience for Kindergarten.

Our next adventure was in figuring out what happens when a dot moves.  I gave each student a 5mm slice of crayon and had then push it around a paper.  We talked about what the mark it made was called, line.  I read several books on lines to students and we even went outside to move in different lines.  I teacher them straight, curved, squiggly, bumpy, wavy, curly, zig-zag, broken, dotted, spiral and castle. After they learn the names and how to draw each one, we drew several on 12x18 paper.  Next we drew in glue over each and sprinkled sand on top.  This gave us a textural line like the book Lines that Squiggle. Students thought this was very cool. 

During the next class period we painted over the lines with tempera cake.  This was again more of a lesson about materials use not art terms.  I did point out that the style of art we were creating was non-objective, and therefore they didn't have to worry about what they were painting, just to focus on using the paint correctly.

Again the next logical step was to discover what happens when lines come together.  So back outside we went with jump ropes to make shapes from straight and curved lines.  Students worked in groups of 3 or 4 to make giant shapes.  They had a lot of fun and it was great problem solving and cooperative learning for everyone.

  

Team working on a heart.



 

Students making a square or rectangle.



 







Once students have an understanding of how lines work together to make shapes, we trace and try them on a worksheet.  Shapes we learn are, circle, oval, half circle, triangle, square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, heart, star, hexagon, octagon and pentagon. 

Next up Joan Miro pictures with lines and shapes together.