Artist Studies-The Floral Kind

Spring=Flowers, am I right?  After winter we're all ready for a little bloom and pop of color, and the idea that summer is so very near (I heard there's only 31 day of school left).  

1st graders took on Van Gogh's,  Red Poppies and Daisies.  I think they darn well rocked it.  This two day lesson certainly blew my socks off.  The students loved making their textured and patterned backgrounds using foam rollers and funky brushes.  And who knew saying the word "poppies" over and over in 1st grade is soooo fun?!!?

3rd graders explored the world of Georgia O'Keeffe, I was inspired by this lesson.  Before I go any further, let's talk about "analogous" colors....and how painful it is for students to try and remember what (and how to pronounce) the word.  As long as they can tell me what they are and how to find them on the color wheel--we're golden! 

Anywho, if your school happens to have access to BrainPop there is a pretty awesome one on Georgia O'Keeffe and the kids will pretty much BEG you to take the quiz at the end.   

  

All right, this lesson here I WAS SO EXCITED about, but it kind of seemed to be a bust.  We win some, we lose some I guess...but boy do I hate losing.

We started by looking at this painting by Renoir: 

Students drew beautiful tulips in their vase and we outlined them with glue.  I'm kind of over oil pastels for the year--I'm just sick of using them for this school year, and for pete's sake who keeps taking all the black's and white's???!!  So I experimented with soaking chalks in sugar water and absolutely loved it, but the result didn't really transfer over that well with the 2nd graders.  I probably should have stuck with the oil pastels, but if this lesson wouldn't have flopped I would have never known! The more you know.  

I have two classes that are a little behind on this project so I think I'll go ahead and try out the oil pastels...I'll share those results later.

I'm yet to see the sun in the sky this week.  I know the clouds are doing their job to bring us our pretty spring flowers, but I need a little sunshine.  The second I see the sun, you'll know where to find me.

Happy Easter!

I can't remember a more beautiful Easter than this year.  In recent years it has seemed that Easter has felt a little more like winter.  This year the daffodils are starting to bloom, the tulips are slowly poking up through the dirt, trees are starting to bud, and everything just seems a little greener.  The early evening even brought a little rain, which was truly an Easter Blessing. 

This Easter season I relived a little bit of my childhood, and decided to decorate some eggs.  I can't even remember the last time I did this.  I have to say I think they are the best looking eggs I've ever made.  If this whole Art Teacher thing doesn't work out, maybe I'll take on a profession as a professional egg decorator? 

My brothers a plant guy--this was his gem.

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.  We are witnessed of this --Acts 3:15

5th Grade Van Gogh Irises

It's the first day of April, and as I sit in my classroom listening to the students yell "April Fools" in the hallway two thoughts come to mind: 

1.  Surprisingly enough it's April and there is a chance of snow later this week.

2. There are only two months left of school! Woo Hoo! (Every teacher loves summer)

Well hopefully the same yields true for April SNOW showers bringing May flowers?

Nonetheless, cold or springtime the hallways are blooming with color.

Here is a lesson done by 5th graders.  I love teaching about artists and art history, but I try not to get carried away or we won't get to any art making.  With this in mind I try to talk about the same artists from year to year, but having our focus be on a different piece then before.  I find this helps with the sequential learning process of students retaining information about the artist and the movement they were part of from year to year.  So we talked a little bit about Vincent Van Gogh, but looked at a painting most students had never seen unlike that of Starry Night.

Our focus was on The Irises.  I showed students how to draw an Iris and required them to have 5-7 on their paper.  Then we went to painting.  For the petals I gave students pinks, blues, purples, and white.  As students painted they were to keep in mind Van Gogh's iconic brushwork.  Next students used white and yellow for the flower centers and move on to green, yellow, and white for the stems and leaves. The ground was painted with yellow, brown, white, and a little bit of gold (I love an excuse to use gold).  I had students use the paints in this order so we didn't have to rinse out brushes and maybe we'd get some of the results of Van Gogh's optical mixing.  I did let students get a new brush or clean it out for the background.  I let students choose the colors they wanted to do on the background, while keeping in mind if there flowers were all blue it wouldn't be a good idea to paint the sky blue.  As you can expect my example was done with oranges and reds so most students went down that road, but not all.

I am very pleased with the results and the students really seemed to enjoy the project.  I think the students liked to have the time to just paint and paint where they wanted.  Our last few projects required a lot of specific thinking and directions, so I think this was a nice break.

Here's to hoping for warm weather of Spring and Summer, but chances are in 3 months I'll be longing for snowy day when I'm sick of the 90 degree heat.  But as my 4th grade teacher would tell me about Nebraska, "If you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes."

Kindergarten Spring Chicks

This funny spring chick lesson really captures the kindergarten attention.  We did the drawing together and outlined with a black oil pastel or sharpie.  Some of the classes used liquid watercolor to paint and other classes used oil pastels for the bird and pan watercolors for the background. I really love using liquid watercolor especially in Kindergarten because the colors are so much more vibrant.  However, the schools I travel from room to room I find difficult to use the liquid watercolors because of set up reasons (never knowing how many sets I will need because of seating arrangements).

Hope these cuties make you laugh, kindergarteners really "awwwwwwwed"at their cuteness.

Kindergarten Lupine Blossoms

Well we're just a couple days away from the official beginning of Spring.  Although, here in Nebraska we've had a cold winter we really didn't have a lot of snow (only one snow days worth to be exact).  The temperature is rising and it's been my mission to get anything with that winter feel out of the hallway and replace it with spring!

Here is a one day lesson I did with kindergarten.  I found the idea for this lesson here.  I don't know about you, but for me I love having one day kindergarten lessons.  I find going back for the second day can sometimes be chaotic as the students are always at a different pace and immediately need something to do when they are done.  Kindergarten is certainly a struggle for me.  I'm constantly trying to think of new ideas that are really process driven and not just "doing," but I find myself sometimes just "doing" more then I'd like.  

With that being said here was a fun one day lesson that was nice and springy and the kids LOVED it.  I first started out with my classes only using orange paper, but decided to switch it up and throw in some yellow and blue.  I think the blue is my favorite, what do you think?  I went around and gave everybody a little bit of gold paint and put it right on their paper. They spread it around as much as they could (most did not  cover the entire page) then they went in with a texture scraper or a fork. Kindergartners watched me paint two green stems and a few leaves and they followed suit.

The next and finals steps were a little scary.  As I have never embarked in "finger painting," we talked about what we can and cannot do.  When all of that was said and done I went around and gave each table a little purple paint.  When I saw that most students had a decent amount of purple dots on the paper I added some pink paint and finally finished with white.  I found that it was easier for students to make the blossom dots by using 2 or 3 fingers at the same time rather than just one.

If we had time at the end of the class I read "Miss Rumphius" by Barbara Cooney.  There are also a couple of good readings of the book on YouTube.