8th Grade: Principles of art

Last year eight grade learned about the art elements. This year they learned about the principles of art, emphasis, contrast, unity, pattern/rhythm,  movement, and balance. Students made a small book using each page for a different principle. On each page they created a little piece of art the represents that principle, combined with an element.

5th Grade: Melting Clocks

Have you ever seen the paining of "melting clocks" by Salvador Dali? This famous painting was created from a dream that Salvador Dali had. The students and I discussed the meaning of "surrealism" and looked at a few more of Dali's paintings. If you have not seen the painting "The Persistence of Memory", by Salvador Dali, here it is.

These "melting" clocks were made from clay. Since St. Elizabeth does not have a kiln, the students use air dry clay to build their clocks. As the clocks dried, we draped them over the edge of a table to appear as if they are melting like the one in the painting. Without a kiln, the students also can not use glaze, so they used acrylic paints to add color to their clocks.

This photo shows how the clocks will look draped over a shelf or table.

2nd Grade: Radial Weavings

This weaving may be beautiful but they sure took hard work! Second grade discussed what radial design is, meaning a circular design. They first used lines to paint a radial design on their paper plates. The next part of this project was to weave yarn in a radial design. For some this was quite challenging, but with the help of my self AND help from there peers we were able to grasp the idea. The results were amazing!
To see a close up of the line rugs, check out first grade's post.

1st Grade: Line Blankets

Marker lines, paint lines, oil pastel lines, yarn lines! First grade created tons and tons of lines for this project. First we looked at different blankets and rugs from around the world and the different lines patterns they have. For example, Kente cloth from Africa, Mexican textiles, Navajo textiles, etc.

I'm in love with all the colors and texture on this wall! To see the radial weaving, check out second grades post.

3rd Grade: Superheroes

If you could have any super power what would it be? Time travel, lightening speed, talking to animals, these are just a few of the super powers that third grade wishes they had. For this project we took a look a cartoon superheroes. We talked about the characteristics of a cartoon, such as the large head, big eyes, exaggerated muscles. Third grade chose a super power they wish they had, and then designed their own superhero. The super uniform had to somehow express their power. Students also water colored a back ground to glue their superheroes onto.

4th Grade: Turkey Pinch Pots

Fourth Grade used air dry brown clay to create these adorable turkey bowls. Some terms and skills we learned for this lesson were pinch pots, scoring, slip, and slabs. 

8th Grade: Graffiti

Graffiti art can be a controversial subject to teach in the classroom, being that we do not want to encourage vandalism. I discuss with the students the difference between vandalism, and the graffiti art style. We take a look at the difference through photos as well, showing the time and effort put into some graffiti work. We discuss where the idea of graffiti was believed to have started, with a man named Daryl McCray. We also take a look at some of the mural arts, and discuss their meanings.
   For the project, students were required to create their name and three words that describe them using graffiti lettering.

Kindergarten: Model Magic Owls

Kindergarten's model magic owls turned out OWLfully cute! Students used model magic form they owls. We used out hand to flatten our owls like a pancake, straws to add some texture to our owl bellies, and then learned how to fold our owls into shape. Students pinched the ears and rolled clay into little balls for the eyes.
The next class students used water color paints to add color to their owls and used oil pastels to create the night time sky in their background.
I really love the texture and dimension this project has in the end.