Winter Greeting Card Contest

Every year our school district has a Winter Greeting Card Contest. There were over 200 creative entries, and I can tell students really tried their best! From Madison school there were 3 winners and 3 runners up. I also chose a winner from my 4th grade class at Pleasant Lane. The winners get their cards printed, displayed, and sent out around the district, as well as their winning design displayed on the local tv station (videos to come)! Runners up won the chance to get their cards printed out to take home and give to family members. Congratulations to all of our winners, and thanks to all who participated!

Here are some of our winners!

1st Grade Matisse Collages

      1st Graders had a lot of fun during this project. We took a look at the artist Henri Matisse, and focused on his cut-out artwork.

Our class learned about collage, and had a blast using this technique to create some beautiful Matisse inspired masterpieces.

What a creative collage! Some of these organic shapes look like something Matisse would have created!

Do you see any familiar shapes?

Look at all those geometric shapes!

Here is a little video of Henri Matisse putting together one of his collages!

2nd Grade Weaving

Weaving was the focus of this 2nd grade project! We started by discussing how weaving can be considered art, and how people have used weaving in the past and in the present. 2nd grade learned that weaving uses a lot of patterns. We focused on over, under, over, under for ours! Next, we cut our paper and students picked what colors to put into their weaving. Some students did patterns, while others used a variety of colors! By using what we learned we created some beautiful paper weaving art. At the end of class 2nd grade also got the chance to work with yarn on a real loom!

4th Grade Georgia O'Keeffe Leaves

4th Grade students spent about 2 weeks learning about the artist Georgia O'Keeffe! We started by taking a look at all of her nature inspired artwork. Students learned that Georgia O'Keeffe was an American artist who was inspired by some of the places she lived.

As a class, we discussed how Georgia O'Keeffe became known for zooming in on the subject matter in her paintings. 4th Graders noticed that some of the natural objects she painted even looked abstract!

When it was time to start our own works of art we briefly discussed analogous color schemes and how to use them in our own art.  We took a look at some more works by O'Keeffe that focused on leaves, which was something very apparent in our own environment!

4th Graders got to work using chalk pastels to create their own Georgia O'Keeffe inspired leaf artwork, and here are some of the results!

I love all of the colors in this one!

1st Grade Fall Folded Trees

This was a fun, simple, and quick project with 1st grade on symmetry! The whole project was made by creating one side of the painting using tempera paint, and then folding the painting over while wet to create a mirror image on the other side. We had fun looking at all of the fall trees outside to decide what colors to use on our own trees! Madison students can see these works of art hanging up in the 1st grade hallway.

3rd Grade Glue Pumpkins

In this project 3rd Graders learned all about value, and since it was October I thought that Pumpkins would be the perfect way to show it!

We started out by drawing out our pumpkins on black paper. We briefly discussed composition and placement of the pumpkins. Then came the fun part: drawing with glue! We used our glue to trace the lines we made in pencil.

We set out pumpkins to the side to complete this value worksheet:

In each row of squares students used oil pastels to color from light to dark by adding white, black, or a different colors. This gave students a chance to experiment with value and blending oil pastels. We looked at a real pumpkin to get a good idea of value and color to use in the future.

When our glue dried it was time to add some color! 3rd grade used oil pastel to fill in their paper. Value was demonstrated in the pumpkin, ground, and even the sky! Coloring around the glue allowed for a thick black outline that emphasized the pumpkins. With Halloween coming up some students decided to turn their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns!

2nd Grade Silhouette Project

   This silhouette project was a hit with the 2nd grade, and taught us about many new art processes! We started out the project by learning how to do a watercolor wash. Students painted their whole page with water first, and then chose any three colors they wanted for the background. After painting the water on their page, 2nd graders loved adding their three colors and watching the colors spread out and blend together on their paper.

   The next day we talked about negative and positive space, shadows, and silhouettes. With Halloween coming up students were excited to incorporate some of their own spooky ideas to their silhouettes. We drew out our silhouette scene in pencil first, and then finished it up by filling it in with black markers.

I think they all turned out great with some very creative touches!
Here area few finished examples:

I love the colors this student chose!

Look at that creative haunted house and the spooky twisted tree!

Kindergarten Mondrian Collages

Kindergarteners have been focusing on famous artists, and during this lesson we learned about Piet Mondrian. The class learned about vertical and horizontal lines, as well as primary colors. We watched this great video about color, and will watch it again when we learn about the secondary colors!

We made our project by using black paper to create our horizontal and vertical lines, and then coloring in the shapes using the primary colors.

Here is a look at our Mondrian inspired project:

3rd Grade Paul Klee Paintings

During this project 3rd Graders took an in-depth look at the artist Paul Klee. He is one of my personal favorite artists to introduce because of his interest in color!

Our favorite Paul Klee painting in class turned out to be "Sinbad the Sailor".

Paul Klee "Sinbad the Sailor"

Some of the things 3rd graders noticed about Paul Klee and his paintings were that he used a lot of color, lines, and that some of his paintings told a story. After looking at a few more Paul Klee paintings it was time for the 3rd graders to create their own.

Here is how we made our paintings:

• We started by folding a blank sheet of paper to create a grid
• Next, we painted each individual square in our grid using a different color. I emphasized warm and cool colors, and color mixing.
• To finish of the picture we used lines to illustrate a story or scene just like Paul Klee. 

Here are some of our finished examples! Can you tell which paintings were influenced by "Sinbad the Sailor"?

I love this snowy scene!

Look at that creative use of line in the sky!

2nd Grade Symmetry Bug Jars

2nd Graders had a lot of fun with this project! I got the idea from Artsonia.com, and it has been a favorite ever since. At the beginning of class we identified symmetry and played a "symmetry game". We discussed where symmetry can be found in the world around us, and some of the things we came up with were math, design, nature, and people! Next, I introduced the bug jars! Our goal was to create an environment in the jar and fill it with symmetrical or asymmetrical bugs.

I am so impressed with the ideas the 2nd grade came up with for their bug jars. Some of my favorites included symmetrical spider webs, asymmetrical worms, and beautifully decorated butterflies.