1st Grade: Primary Color Shape Monsters

The first grade students learned about Primary colors. which was a review for some of the students. We then took a look at some basic shapes, and thought about how we could use just the simple shapes to make monsters. The students also practiced cutting out simple shapes from construction paper and gluing them together to make their monsters.

The students seem to have so much fun coming up with the look of their monsters. I tried to allow them to be as creative as they would like, and we turned out with a lot of unique shape monsters!

4th Grade: Movement Using Line Design

The fourth graders learned about one way to create movement in a still image. We looked at cartoons and even watched the opening song of "Roadrunner" to see how cartoon artists often add lines behind a moving object. We then thought about different types of lines such as straight, zig-zag, curly, etc. The students chose anything they wanted to draw, as long as it was in motion. We talked about how we could EXAGGERATE those lines by making them varied and colorful!

1st-5th grade: Where's Waldo Board

       Back to school, which means back to art class! While some students did art camps over the summer or created art in their spare time, most students were busy swimming, going on vacation and hanging out with friends. So, it is always nice to have some type of back to school art project to get warmed up again! This year the first through fifth graders, created a giant Where's Waldo board, but instead of searching for the infamous Waldo, they were looking for me, Miss Dwyer. 

       The students were asked to create a mini portrait of themselves to create the big St. Elizabeth Where's Miss Dwyer. Being new to St. Elizabeth, this project gave the students a chance to show off their drawing abilities to me. 

Kindergarten "The Dot" Paintings

For our first project, I read the story "The Dot" to the kindergarten students. This book helps to teach young students that everyone can be an artist, and it only take one mark to get start. The little girl in the book makes all of her paintings out of circles and dots. We discussed how she mixed dots to make one big dot and how she even made a dot without painting a dot!

The kindergarten students then created their own dot art work. They practiced listening to directions, by either painting only inside the circle to make one big dot, or to paint around the circle to make a dot without painting the dot.

I love the way the watercolors blended together!

2nd Grade: Underwater portraits inspired by David Hockney

Many of the students spent time this summer swimming in the pool or the ocean, so being the beginning of the school, the second graders created underwater portraits. The under water portraits were inspired by this painting, by David Hockney.

The students and I discussed how the sun's light creates the white lines that we see rippling from the pool water.  We also discussed things like what happens to our hair when we are under water, or what type of position we may be swimming.

The students then you crayons and watercolor to create their underwater portraits. 

1st Grade: The Dot Group Painting

"The Dot" Group Painting 

For the students first project, we read the book "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. This book helps to stop students from thinking they are not an artist. It shows that all it take to create art is to "just make a mark and see where it takes you".(Peter H. Reynolds)

We talked about how to create art like the girl in the story, using only dots and circles. The students started with a single dot and went from there. The project also provided the young first graders a chance to practice working together. they worked very well in sharing their paint colors and well as their art beginning to touch or overlap to create one large painting.