Wednesday Works - pinch pot monsters

Pinch Pot monsters for 2nd grade

 With alphabet noodle names!   The pasta will burn out in the firing and we will be left with a very legible name. 

chroma.class on Instagram!

Did you know we are also over on Instagram?   I like to be able to post photos of artwork in progress right at the moment the students are working on them so stop by and see what has been going on in both the Elementary and the Middle school art rooms!

Wednesday works - 1st grade Line, shape, and pattern colorful snowmen

 If snow came down in colors

How wonderful it would be,

To make bright, colorful snowmen

For everyone to see!

 We used three sizes for our snowmen bodies.   Filled them with lines, shapes, patterns, and colors.   Two rules:  color each circle completely and no white paper showing! 

Monday Motivations - Legos!

from Brickshelf user Opabinia comes this wonderful cafe!   Looks like I know what I'm working on this weekend...

Wednesday Works (Thursday edition) Display walls around the school this week.

5th grade assembled this board as they finished projects this week.

1st grade 100 colors for 100 days wall.

and the last day for the 3rd grade gesture drawing figures.

Monday Motivations - Matisse Cutouts

I have already mentioned how fond I am of the Matisse cutouts.   I just love them and I love teaching them to children.  

Enjoy!

Wednesday Works - 100 colors for 100 days!

From this website ( www.teachkidsart.net ) and the Art Teachers group on Facebook came the idea to paint 100 different colors on the 100th day of school

They LOVED it!

100 squares template page from Teach Kids Art

Monday Motivations - first 2 minutes of Rio

I used this video clip to inspire my 2nd graders when working on their wax resist bird drawings.

Wednesday Works - lifeskills large scale "paintings"

I used paintings with the quote signs because they kids did not actually use traditional brushes for these, we used print making rollers and other assorted clay rolling tools, plus some plastic ceramic tools for writing into the wet paint.  

With this group I am finding more and more it isn't about the final product, it's about the process.  The textural paint, the motions of using a roller to spread the paint and mix colors, the way the papers feel when the paint is dry (or wet in some cases :) )   They engage much better and for longer periods of time when they have a real sensory experience with the art materials.

Monday Motivations - A Pep Talk from Kid President

Wednesday Works (Thursday Edition) - Aboriginal Animals

Started a new lesson with my 5th grade sections last week.  We talked a bit about Aboriginal Art, watched some video clips of traditional and contemporary Aboriginal artists like this one....

...and this one....

 (disclaimer....I did need to skip the first 115-20 seconds of the introduction to this video for showing it in the classroom) 

Then the students picked an animal and started on their contour drawings.

We painted in six colors with pencil erasers using dots only.   This is progress at the beginning of day two.

Wednesday Works - GYOTAKU printing

Fish prints!

First we watched this short introductory video on TedEd.

Then we began printing.    This will likely be a 2-3 day lesson as far as the wet printing goes.  Then I would like to take a day to talk about signing the prints, displaying them, and working in a short critique/rubric session with the class.

Monday Motivations - Van Gogh Parodies