Action Painting

Awesome kindergarten artists are learning about famous artist, Jackson Pollock....aka...Action Jackson. We are discussing his abstract paintings and creating our own action painting by tap, tap, tapping and wiggle, wiggle, wiggling our paintbrush! As you can tell, the day is very messy!! I have asked all classroom teachers to give parents a reminder about providing a large tshirt/art shirt for their child, but many children are showing up without one. I cannot provide extra art shirts for multiple children to share due to health reasons; lice, flu, etc. going around. Our paint is soap and water cleanup, but might be difficult to come out of clothes depending on the fabric.

Below is a link to some of Pollock's paintings and information about his life. I probably wouldn't share info on his life with your child, but the link shows many of his paintings.

http://www.jackson-pollock.org/

 Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)

 

2nd grade Radial Designs

2nd grade artists are creating a Mexican Mirror. We discussed Mexican Folk Art and radial designs along with what it means for something to be symmetrical. The children received black construction paper, traced a large plate for the circle and cut it out. Then, children folded their paper into a taco shape, then again into a pizza slice shape. When the artists opened their folded paper, they noticed 4 different quadrants. They traced a small circle in the middle then refolded their paper to the pizza slice shape. They drew 2-3 different lines in the one quadrant, then opened their paper to a taco shape and drew the same lines again, making sure it looked the same as the first. Artists continued until all 4 quadrants were complete, then they added shapes. After editing their drawing to make sure each line and shape matched up, they used metallic Sharpies in gold, silver and bronze to trace their design.

After artists were finished tracing their amazing design, they painted mod podge over the top to give it a sheen. While their art was drying, they received a piece of metal/tin and had to make another radial design by pushing into the tin (the tin was on top of Styrofoam, so it could indent). After their tin design was complete, we glued it to the center of their paper.

Winter SCSF Art

My SCSF students are working on winter-themed art. Some of the papers were finger painted and dried before creating the snowman or creating mittens, some used chalk pastels for the background.

Pinch Pots coming home next week!!

Kindergartners will be bringing home their amazing pinch pots next week!!!! They have been waiting very patiently for them to be done. The children will be wrapping their pinch pot in a paper towel and placing it in a brown paper lunch bag in hopes they don't break on the way home from school. The pinch pots are safe to eat/drink from.

Y Trees

Kindergarten artists reviewed what a landscape is (picture of land) and learned how to draw a winter tree. We looked at different trees and their tree trunks and branches. While looking at the trees, the children noticed that the branches resembled little letter "y's" which is why their tree is a Y tree.

Children first started using 2 different color chalk pastels to color their paper. After coloring their paper, they used a paper towel to blend the colors together, which also created a beautiful background. Then, with pencil, they drew the ground; bumpy, curvy or straight. They followed with using brown oil pastel and drew their Y tree, making sure the tree trunk was fatter at the bottom and had various sizes of branches. When done with their tree, they used white paint and painted the ground and used a Q-tip for the snowflakes. I topped their art off with iridescent glitter once it was on the drying rack. They look beautiful!

Children using chalk pastels and blending the chalk pastels with a paper towel for their background.

Children starting to draw their "Y" tree with brown oil pastel

Winter tree almost done

Snowflakes added with a Q-tip (although I think in the picture she used her paintbrush)

Some of the winter trees finished. I sprinkled iridescent glitter over the top of the art for an added sparkly touch. :-)

Model Magic Snowmen

The week before Winter break, the kindergarten artists received model magic and sculpted a snowman. This was a great lesson to do after using 2 types of clay the month prior. We reviewed how to roll balls and talked about the different sizes of balls to make the snowman. The children used toothpicks for the arms and markers for the face and details. They turned out adorable! Since my storage room is limited on space right now due to all of the pinch pots, the children took their snowman home with them. I hope they made it home without breaking! Model Magic takes 24 hours to dry, which the children were told too.

Printmaking

Before Winter Break, 2nd grade artists learned about printmaking. Printmaking can be practiced as  engraving, etching, drypoint, woodcut or serigraphy. 2nd graders started making bubble prints with a watercolor/soap mixture. Then, drew a special design on a separate piece of paper and engraved the design onto Styrofoam. They made sure to press hard enough when tracing their design to make the engraving lines deep enough.
In a separate art class, artists learned how to use a brayer (a small roller for inking),and ink to make their print. Artists pulled 4 prints from their Styrofoam design and printed it onto their bubble printed paper.

Professional Day and Conferences

I will be out for professional days on Wednesday 1/21 (there will be another day of training but I have not been told when that is yet) for training on Google Apps. My Wednesday classes are aware that I will be out and I will let the classroom teachers know too (so they can remind the children). My student teacher, Hannah, or Miss Zimmerman, recently got on the sub list, so she will be my guest teacher. I am SOOOOOO excited that I can leave her actual art lessons to teach the children and I won't have to worry about the lesson getting messed up! :-)

I will be in my classroom for conferences Wednesday the 14th, Tuesday the 20th and Thursday the 22nd, along with all day Friday the 23rd with the exception of time from 11-12 when I will be teaching 2nd grade. If you would like to discuss your child or have questions, please send me an email. 

Returning from Winter Break...

Wow! What a return we've had! A 2-hr. delay and a snow/cold day this week. Kindergartners did a quick revisit of the classroom rules and procedures along with getting new tables to sit at. Children also colored a coffee filter with the COOL colors, painted water over the top and let it dry to eventually make a snowflake. I plan on having children cut the coffee filters into snowflakes in the next couple of weeks. After they finished their coffee filter art, they practiced their cutting skills and cut out a paper snowflake (I had 4 options they could choose from). So, not a whole lot going on this week due to the crazy schedule, but next week will be back to normal (hopefully) and we will start a new project.


2nd grade artists also got new tables to sit at and finished up art from before break. They were working on creating birch trees with a cardinal bird. We discussed how to create trees and branches from cutting paper and then drawing a cardinal bird. Artists used liquid water colors, Sharpie, pencil, glue and scissors for this project.

2nd grade art

2nd grade art