4th Grade Rock Art

4th Graders explored the ancient world of Rock Art.  Starting with the Paleolithic people ending with the Native American Pueblo tribe.  Students explored the caves in France and the cliffs in the Southwest United States.  They loved learning about these ancient peoples and looking at the way they lived their life.  We talked about how these people did not have a written language and creating art was a way for them to communicate and tell us their history. Our main focus was on animals because they were so important to these people.  Students chose an animal and made a pictograph on their rock-like paper using oil pastels.  Students also were able to use a hint of gold paint to add a more modern look.

Important terms we discussed:

Petroglyph- Carving into rock

Pictograph- Painting on a rock

Paleolithic- Stone Age

Examples of Cave Art in France:

To take a virtual tour click here.

Pueblo Art in Southwest United States:

   

We took a look at this book when doing this lesson.

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Student Examples:

1st Grade Giraffes Can't Dance

1st Graders read the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae.

Overview of Book 

Gerald the giraffe longs to dance, but his legs are too skinny and his neck is too long. His knees buckle whenever he tries to twirl. At the Jungle Dance, the warthogs waltz, the chimps cha-cha, and the lions tango. "Giraffes can't dance," they all jeer when it's Gerald's turn to prance. But there is one little creature who believes in Gerald. "Everything makes music," the cricket explains, "if you really want it to." So Gerald starts swaying to his own sweet tune.

With light-footed rhymes and high-stepping illustrations, this tale is gentle inspiration for every child with dreams of greatness.

The focus of this lesson is on movement and blending colors.  Through a step by step guided drawing students created their own dancing giraffe.  Students used yellow, orange, and brown markers to color there giraffes and then cut them out.  Students then created a nighttime background.  Using white, blue, and purple to paint the sky and green and yellow to paint the ground.

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Student Examples

2nd Grade Scream Portraits

2nd Graders focused on some art history for this lesson.  We took a look at Norwegian artist, Edvard Munch, painting "The Scream."  We discussed the style Munch used, Expressionism, and students were asked to give their thoughts on why the man is screaming.  We had a great discussion, those 2nd graders came up with some great ideas!  To find the real story about Edvard Munch's inspiration for "The Scream"  go here. 

Students were asked to recreate this famous painting looking closely at the use of color and how Munch blended those colors together.

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6th Grade Dale Chihuly Abstract Art

"I never met a color I didn't like." --Dale Chihuly

6th Graders have been studying the artist Dale Chihuly.  It's been a fun beginning of the school year project.  It's teaching the students collaboration and how to loosen up when making their art work.  Students started off this lesson by talking about abstract art.  We then transitioned into the abstract art of Dale Chihuly.  Students watched this video "Drawings in Jerusalem"and learned about action painting.  We then went outside and made our own action paintings.

After collecting hundreds of plastic bottles we then made a Chihuly inspired chandelier.  As Dale Chihuly is known for his large blown glass sculptures, we made our own.  Some of the students have actually seen pieces by Dale Chihuly as the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha has two pieces, shown here and here.   Using sharpie markers students colored their bottles and cut them in unique ways.  They attached them to a tomato cage, to aid for support.  I told them at the beginning of this project that this is something they would not be able to take home, but they were working together as a team to make a work of art.

Here are some images of the still work in progress.

 

3rd Grade Primary and Secondary Colors OP Art

3rd graders are looking at the color wheel focusing on the primary and secondary colors.   We watched this fun video to help remind us of our colors. We talked about the difference between 3D and 2D and how to make something look 3D on a 2D surface.  

5th Grade Wassily Kandinksy

This lesson was inspired by Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky is considered as the inventor and theorist of abstract painting in the 20th century.  5th Graders emulated Kandinsky's style.  We talked about the great influence music had on making his creations.  The black outlines were made with sharpie marker, students listened to classical music and draw how they felt the music.  We also discussed abstract art and how color can change a mood or express a feeling.  Students explored different watercolor techniques to fill their paper. 

"Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, and the soul is the piano with many strings.  The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."

--Wassily Kandinsky