Preschool and Prekindergarten make Owls!

I was inspired by a cute project from another art teacher's blog last week and decided to try out this owl lesson in my own classroom! The preschool and prekindergarten groups watched an adorable book reading called "Little Hoot". The little owl in the story has to stay up late (because he is an owl and all owls stay up late!) but Little Hoot doesn't really want to. He would rather be sleeping like all of his other first friends!

After the video the students and I talked about shapes. The students told me that the owls eyes were made from circles. They also said his nose (which I taught the students is called a "beak") was the shape of a triangle. I am so proud of my three and four years olds are their ability to recognize shapes!

Here are their owl creations. I think the end results were so fun and whimsical.

Science & Art!

Last week the Kindergarten, First grade, and Second grade students at Langley had an art lesson that tied in with earth science. I had the students already learning about different kinds of lines, so I thought why not find some beautiful leaves outside the school and have the students use line to draw them! The results were great! The students were very focused on looking intensely at the leaves, noticing the smallest details. The room was silent as the students worked on their drawings.

Corcoran Gallery Tour

Today the first grade teachers and I took our students to visit the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC. First graders boarded a bus and headed across the city  to experience a "Five Senses" gallery tour. The students were broken down into groups and then were assigned a tour guide.

The museum tour guide then gave the students a card with a shape and a color on it. The students were instructed to hold up their card when they passed a piece of art work that had either their color or their shape in it. It was a wonderful way to keep the students engaged and looking at lots of art pieces in depth.

The students then observed many different kinds of art work including sculptures and paintings. The tour guide had them do exercises to experience the painting, such as posing like the figures in the painting or guessing what kinds of paint brushes were used to create the painting. They also related the pieces of art work to our five senses (touch, smell, see, hear, and taste) by asking the students what they thought the painting sounded like or how something in the painting might have tasted.

 

Then first grade was walked down to the Corcoran's basement where there was an art studio set up for them to make a hands on project! The students were instructed by a teacher on how to roll a piece of model magic into a ball. Then the students were taught how to make that ball into other shapes. Before we knew it the students were creating boats, birds, and snakes with their model magic!

After crafting a form, the students then used all kinds of special materials to decorate their projects. Feathers, sequins, pipe cleaners, and googlie eyes were used to adorn their sculptures. The end results were so colorful and fun!

 

I can not thank you tour guides enough for hosting us at the Corcoran Gallery today! They were so accommodating and pleasant and really beamed with happiness at the students' work. I am so proud of my Langley Tigers today!

Here is a short video clip of our gallery experience today. Also, remember that many more images can be found on the classroom's instagram: northeastcityart 

Observational Flower Paintings.

This week second grade was learning about different kinds of lines. They used white boards to draw as many lines as they could think of with a partner. Next, the students observed this painting by Matisse and as a class picked out different types of lines represented. In the painting the students spotted straight lines, curved lines, swooping lines, zig zag lines and wiggle lines.

Next, the students were asked to observe a bouquet of hydrangea flowers that were placed on their tables. They talked with their neighbors about what kinds of lines they observed in the flowers and leaves. Many of the students picked up right away that the out line of the leaves was formed from a sharp zig zag.

After observing the flowers closely, the students drew the lines they saw, in crayon, on white paper. Next, the students explored how to add more color to their drawings by using watercolor and tempera paint. The results were so lovely. I am so proud of my second grade students and their ability to notice small details. They did a great job representing nature by using line. 

Value Rocks

This week the 5th grade started to learn about value shading. First we started by observing a drawing that had good examples of value shading. The students observed that the shading was black to grey to white. They also noticed that the shadows were all going one direction, giving the drawing one light source.

Next, the students practiced a value scale and then labeled it from with the numbers 10-1, starting with 10 being the darkest to 1 being the lightest. Next, the students were prompted to stick their hand in a fabric covered box to guess what they were going to be drawing next. I filled a box with interesting rocks for them to draw but did not want them to see right away what they were going to draw. The element of surprise hooked the students right away! They were so excited to put their hand in the box and guess what was inside.

After each student had a chance to feel inside the box, the students chose a rock to draw. Then I prompted the students to use their observational drawing skills to outline their rocks. After the outlining was completed I showed the student how to refer back to their value scales and add it to their rocks. Many of the students made a great connection, adding a range of values, using their numbers. "I am using a 10 here and a 7 here!" said one student as she showed me her sketch.

As an extension to the project, the students are I are assigning a super power to their rocks. After the students pick a super power and write down how it can be used with the rock they are going to create an ad for the rock. I can't wait to see how the ads turn out!

International Dot Day

As a first day in the art room lesson, the students are I explored the world of dots! First we read the book, "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds and then watched the video of it on Youtube! The students loved the main character, Vashti, who at first can not draw, but learns to draw by trying! Next, the students expressed themselves through art by creating their own dot or dots! Kindergarten through 5th grade worked hard on their first art project of the year and I think that they are just colorful and lovely!

Outside of the art room we are showing the rest of the school our work on a display board for International Dot Day! (which is on September 15th!) I am proud of my students and they way they try new things and never give up!