Kindergarten Gets heARTsy

What would Valentine's Day be without a little lesson about Jim Dine?  Jim Dine: I know you're out there, here's my question for you--"Do you love or hate that you've become the iconic artist that most art teachers (elementary) love talking about right around February?"  Really though...I wonder.  I searched for Jim Dine on twitter, no such luck, but boy would I love to tweet him that question.  So if anybody knows how I can get in contact with him (like maybe he's your cousin or uncle or something),  let me know it'd be pretty rad. 

I did this lesson with kindergarten last year, so go to this post to see more of the "how to" details.  There was a slight change to the lesson.  Because of time constraints, instead of using toilet paper rolls to stamp hearts around the border students just drew their own with sharpie markers.  Although, I thought the stamping was pretty cool, I love the personalities of the hearts the students drew. When a heart all of sudden turns into a little person or magically develops a weird growth--I dig it.  

  

With all the Valentine's Parties underway in classrooms this is what the Art Teacher's Valentine looks like:

If only the colored pencils were always that sharp...

What are you doing for V-day?  I'm attending a super awesome Vintage Valentine event at the Joslyn Art Museum, you can call me Zelda Fitzgerald for the night.   

4th Grade Van Gogh Sunflowers

Spring has sprung (in the art room). Flowers and colors are filling the drying racks and shelves.  Well, I mean there are always plenty of colors in here as you can usually see the color of my pants illuminating through the hallway. BUT I think we are all ready for a little green to start showing through.  

This is a lesson I did with 4th graders last year.  I LOVED it so I tried it again this year.  We talked about Vincent Van Gogh and looked at his "Sunflowers" painting.  The first day of the lesson was dedicated to drawing.  Students went ahead and drew a vase and 5-6 flowers using a white oil pastel.  I then gave students yellow paint to fill in the flowers.  I came around with some white to put on top of the yellow.  WITHOUT rinsing out paintbrushes I gave them some green paint for the stems and leaves and finally some brown paint for the centers.

On the second day we reviewed Warm and Cool colors. Using oil pastels (in the short brushstroke way like Van Gogh used) students filled in the vase, table, and background with oil pastels.  Most of the students finish in two days some needed a little more time at the beginning of the next class. 

They all turned out beautifully.

Kindergarten Warm/Cool Colors Jim Dine Batik Hearts

Kindergarteners learned about warm and cool colors.  This really is a simple 2 day lesson that I really liked.  I did something different last year and I love these results even more!  

On day 1 of the lesson we simply drew a heart on a 9x12 piece of white paper and then discussed warm and cool colors.  Students were then given warm colored crayons first.  They were to choose if they wanted the heart or the outside to be colored in using warm colors.  I told them they could make patterns or just use the colors, BUT everyone must press hard and leave no white spaces.  When students finished with the warm colors students were given the cool colors to finish the remaining uncolored portion.  Most students were able to finish the coloring portion in the first class.

Day 2 of the lesson was the fun day.  I wanted the hearts to have a "batik-esque" look to it so after students got their hearts back they were instructed to crumple up their paper 8 times as if they were going to throw their paper across the room.  When I started crumpling my heart drawing the faces of those kindergarteners look horrified, but I promised them there was a good reason we were doing this.

After this portions as done students gathered around to see the next step.  Using watered down black tempera paint we painted over the entire paper and then using a paper towel the paint was dabbed off not wiped.  Students then got an orange or green piece of construction paper and glued their hear onto it. I then demonstrated stamping around the border with black paint to make hearts.  For some classes I used toilet paper rolls simply folding them in to make a heart shape.  The hearts that are a little longer I made out of strip of oak tag paper and stapled the ends in a heart form.  Those hearts did look nicer, but they were a bit time consuming to make.

Here are the lovely results just in time for Valentine's Day!

3rd Grade Positive/Negative Shape Leaves

3rd graders explored positive and negative shapes.  We watched this video:

Students than used a 5in by 5in square to create a leaf, having it touch all four sides. Students then cut out their leaf and traced into onto a black piece of paper.  I instructed students to trace around their 7-8 times having at least 3 go off the page.  Using silver paint students painted around the leaves.  On the second day of the lesson students used oil pastels to create a pattern inside the leaf.

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4th grade color theory

4th grader dove into color theory.  They were to paint a background by mixing colors in the order of the color wheel.  We then used warm and cool to create circles and glued them on top of our paint background.

5th Grade Picasso Cubism Portraits

5th Graders are learning about the Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso.  They are learning about the art style Cubism, invented by Picasso.  Students made their own cubist portraits in the style of Picasso.  Students paired up, one student posed while the other drew their partner and then they switched.  The student posing was to have two different poses.  The student drawing drew both poses and combined them to create one portrait.  

Here are the important terms we focused on when making this project.

Portrait:  The drawing or painting of person.

Geometric Shapes: Precise forms such as squares, circles, triangles, and rectangles.

Cubism: An artistic style, that describes painting of a person, place or thing that are made of geometric shapes and many different perspectives.

Here are some of Picasso's artwork we looked at in creating these portraits:

      

 

  

We also discussed warm and cool colors.

Warm colors are your reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, and browns. (think of the sun)

Cool colors are your greens, blues, and purples. (think of water or a winter's day)

Students were asked to use warm colors on one side of the face and cool colors on the other side of the face.  We used oil pastel to add color and practiced blending techniques.

Teacher Example

Student Examples