So Long to 2014

Happy New Year 2015!!!

Paul Klee Poetry and Art

I wanted to collaborate with a classroom teacher for a writing project recently and found this idea in a book about Klee for children.  Students wrote a five line poem on a subject of choice.  Line one was a noun, line 2 was two colors to describe the noun, line 3 was three words to describe the first word, line 4 was four words to describe the first word and line 5 was one word that reinforced the word in line one.  The ELA teacher worked with students to create the poems and then sent them to me for the art portion of the assignment.  Students began by painting a paper with their two colors using watercolors.  They were to be abstract in nature with students having full control over the look of their painting.  Week two, students visualized their poem and created a line drawing that would  represent their thoughts.  These images were drawn on paper the same size as the painted work.  Using carbon paper, students transferred completed images to the watercolor painting.  Most of my students had not seen carbon paper prior to this experience and found the process to be magical!  The poem was transfer to the image in a like fashion.  I was a bit stress about the outcome of this project after the initial watercolor painting was created but the end results thrilled me.  I think my students did a terrific job matching artistic interpretations to poetic work.

Let all the celebrations begin!!!

Happy Hanukkah everyone!  I just lit the first candle on my menorah but this time I had a little help from my new "friend" Mensch on a Bench!  After watching Shark Tank the other night, I shared that I thought my family needed one of these little guys to add to our family celebration and a friend showed up Saturday night to gift us with one.  Hymie, his name, has visited both of my buildings this week to both delight and curiosity.  Most students wanted to know what he was and if he was an elf.  They immediately connected him to "Elf on a Shelf".  Hymie was a busy guy assisting in the art room in any capacity I would allow him to.  Here are a few photos from his visit.

Testing out my new pencil sharpener 

Measuring up to the Primary Colors

Attempting to gain some attention

Finally, taking some time to participate in a project.

Charley Harper Cardinals in the Evergreens

This year second grades placed their cardinals in evergreens.  Connections were made to science as the discussion was opened up about what an evergreen was and where we might see them.  The birds were drawn with black crayon and the evergreens were made with shades of green.  If you haven't purchased liquid watercolors for your classroom, they are wonderful.  Younger students can use them much more easily that the semi-wet watercolors in a tray.   I can better focus the lesson on technique and brush use rather than concentrating on the water/paint ratio.

American Artist Charley Harper Bluebirds

Last year I introduced my students to the work of American Artist Charley Harper.  They created some wonderful cardinal paintings.  This year I decided to try his bluebird with second grade students.  First off I need to share, this bluebird was pretty hard.  I only did this lesson with one class and returned to the cardinal for the others.  This was our first day back after Thanksgiving break.  We had a huge snow storm that took down a lot of trees and one of my favorite trees outside of the Art room suffered a huge loss.  I stepped outside the room during my prep and picked up one of the fallen branches and brought it inside of the room.  It is still hanging on my whiteboard.  I decided to have the second graders observe the branch and attept to see it like a scientist.  They started the lesson by first practicing on a small sheet of paper and then they drew a larger second drawing.  To this one they added the Charley Harper bluebird.   All the drawing was done with black crayon and they painted with watercolors.  Students chose to make the night sky a dark purple or to make an orange early morning sky.

Monoprints - City Lights

As a part of my November Month of Printmaking, 2nd grades created these really cool mono prints.  I loved their reactions when they discovered the image appear as if it were reflected in water.  A few students grabbed paper and continued to do their own additional compositions with more of a seasonal theme.  It's so much fun as well as rewarding when a lesson really goes over well.  This one will stay in my list of curriculum regulars.

Printing a winter scene

I found this project on Kid Artist along with several other wonderful winter projects.  I was winding down with printing projects late last month and had one class that was ahead of all the others.  I needed one more lesson to keep this group on track and not too far ahead of everyone else.  My November focus was printmaking and this definitely filled the bill.  The tree is printed using cardboard and the owls were fingerprints.  Week one, students colored in the full moon, printed the tree overlapping and added the fingerprints that would become the owls.  Week two, they added details to the owls using drawing pens and stamped snowflakes using commercial stampers from the dollar store.  Really cute, don't you think???