Leaf Prints

The 4th graders were getting tired of their weavings and were begging me to paint since all the other grades have been painting. I let them and the students in the lower grades who were already finished with their Kandinsky circles do some prints with leaves. The leaves have been falling so I thought... why not! They LOVED it! Some of them turned out really great! The kids love painting and this was just an extra painting project they got to complete. 

Kandinsky's Circles

While 4th grade was completing their Native American weavings, I wanted to start a painting project with my other grades. The kids never got to paint with the previous art teacher... I was prepared for an undertaking! Ha! I have Wassily Kandinsky's painting above my smart board so I wanted the kids to complete something similar. They still aren't sure what red and yellow make or what blue and green make so I encouraged them to mix colors and see what happens. I also have them white to mix with. We talked about what white would do when mixed in with a color and I demonstrated color mixing with the paint. I gave each student a 6x9 sheet of heavyweight painting paper. Being my first year teaching, I haven't decided exactly the best process for painting. I put trays with color on the table and had the kids share. They had a paper plate to mix colors on, a water bowl, and a sponge to blot their brush on after washing it. There was a process they followed each time and for the most part, they did good! Check out the photos below!

Self-Portrait Folders

How adorable are these?! OMG. I am SO impressed with these self-portraits! They are on the front of their art folder that they keep in the class. I gave them a face shape to trace and they drew in and colored the rest. We discussed shapes of the facial features and I let them experiment. They were all lovely!

Geometric Shapes VS Organic Shapes

My Kindergarten - 3rd grades studied the two different shape families. We made organic shape monsters using a string to create an organic shape for the body, and then we used paper scraps to create a geometric shape robot. Both projects have been lots of fun for the kids! I have several photos to upload! We began our shape unit completing a Henri Matisse inspired collage... pics to come!

The first few weeks...

We have been extremely busy these first few weeks of school! We started off studying the color wheel. Each 3rd and 4th grade class collaged six hands (one for each color of the color wheel) as a group project. I then used the entire project as my "Welcome back!" bulletin board. It ended up looking super cool!

Kindergarten - 2nd grades did a line study wax relief. They used crayons to draw and many different types of lines they could think of on their paper. Then, they used watercolor pencils (seriously the BEST thing I've used in my classes so far) to color in the shapes that the lines make. Water was later applied to the watercolor pencil using a watercolor brush. The results were just beautiful!

My watercolor station set up at the back of the room!

3rd and 4th grade are in the process of finishing an Andy Warhol inspired piece, and they (+2nd grade) are beginning a project inspired by Henri Matisse.  Kindergarten and 1st grades are beginning a study of geometric and organic shapes. All my grades are working on a self portrait that will be on the front of their portfolio's I'm making for them. They are too cute. Will post pics of each soon!

Welcome to the Art Room!

 My whiteboard closet door :)

 Supplies bookshelf... Waiting on a bulletin board to put above!

 View from the front of the room! Yes, that's a broken seat. It will be fixed... soon.

 The classroom mascot... Mona Lisa. She likes to dress up every month! Got this idea from a blog found on Pinterest!

 Artist of the Month bulletin outside the class!

 Class work bulletin... Adding collaged hands from my 3rd and 4th graders this week!

 ART.

 Color coded tables... view from the entry door

 My personal area :)

 Kandinsky around the SmartBoard

 Some of my artwork... and my Instagram magnet photos!

 Curtains my mom made and my standards displayed!

 Masterpieces made from masterpieces

Rules...

Organization: Every student has a folder that I made from tag board and masking tape. They drew a self portrait on one side and I store them by day and class.

Welcome to Ms. Rachel's art class! It's going to be a year full of fun projects and lots of learning! We have started the year studying about color... one of the elements of art. Hello, color wheel! I will be updating with kids work soon!