Folk Art Landscape

4th grade students have been working intensely on a Folk Art project.  Students were challenged to design a landscape focusing on foreground, middle ground & background with a windy road to capture the viewers attention through the picture.  Students committed to drawing in Sharpie, thus encouraging students to map out their ideas before drawing.  Once pictures were complete, students then used water color pencils to add color.

Owls in the Night

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2nd grade students embarked on a twilight themed picture based on this fall's super moon and illustrations from the book, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by, Jane Cabrera.  Students began by making a painterly background using long brush strokes of blues, purples and white for the sky.  It was encouraged to let the mixing of the paint happen on the paper rather than their pallets to achieve and expressive brush stoke that resembles wind or movement in the sky.   Next, students focused on making owl feathers using the same brush stroke techniques.  We wanted to make the brush strokes resemble individual feathers instead of one solid color.

On day two, students began their collage making.  They manipulated brown paper by crumpling to create texture for the bark of their tree branches.  Then, students drew gigantic letter "U"s onto the feather print paper to make the body for their owls.  After cutting the "U" out, any scrapes of paper was then used for wings.  They then traces concentric circles for the owls' eyes and jazzed them up by using oil pastels to make designs.  

 I just love how focused these students are working!

The final touch was adding stars to the night skies.  I can't stand how adorable these owls are!!!

Clay Penguins

 

First grade students began a clay exploration by listening to the story Tacky the Penguin by, Helen Lester.  The class then explored sculpture by making penguins and a pool of ice and water by making two different size pinch-pots.  Students learned the technique of rolling a ball of clay into a ball and then sticking their thumb into the center.  By using their thumb and forefingers, students then "pinched" around the shape to open up the clay in to a wide bowl type formation.  This became the base of our sculpture.    The second pinch-pot started off with a ball and thumb print.  However, student then pushed the clay over their thumb to make a taller tower looking pinch-pot which then became the body for their penguin.  Students then learned about the 'Scratch & Attach" technique of how to apply scoring and slip to clay in order to attach a detail such as a wing, tail or even beak.  I'd say this group really got the hang of it!

On day two, students listened to the story Sergio Makes a Splash by, Edel Rodriguez. 

 We discussed penguin attributes and how to paint our penguins with the right color choice: black, white and a touch of yellow.  Students had a great time painting their sculptures and the results are stunning!