Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Roosters inspired by Picasso

Here's Picasso's Rooster, drawn with pastel in 1938.
 
Check out this slideshow of third and fourth grade roosters!

Friday, October 14, 2016

Kindergarten Chalk Pastel Spiderwebs

Any art teacher will tell you that Chalk Pastels vs. Young Artists can be a tough match! However, with some careful modeling, monitoring and let-it-go-ing, this colorful dust storm can be turned into beautiful artwork! 

Kindergarten artists used Elmer's glue to trace a spiderweb design on black paper.  After it dried, they used chalk pastels to fill in each closed shape created by the glue. 


 
Of course we started this lesson by reading Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Outdoor Art



Fifth and sixth grade artists took advantage of some fine fall weather to enjoy the outdoor spaces created with our Artists-in-Residence.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Painted Trees inspired by "Where's the Elephant?"

 
Elephant, snake and bird live in a beautiful jungle. Then someone starts cutting down trees and soon their home is destroyed. This book uses colorful, whimsical illustrations to make kids think about the effects of deforestation.

Artists in grades K-4 read "Where is the Elephant," by Barroux and discussed the author's message.  Then we used Sharpie markers and liquid watercolor paint to create many different types of trees inspired by the illustrations in the book. To inspire our tree paintings we went outdoors to observe our surroundings and used the inspiration guide below.  This reminds us that there is no "right way" to draw a tree.  Our bulletin board also features a hiding elephant, snake and parrot, just like the book.