Hi friends,
Well, the school year is officially over and I am on suuuuummmmmmerrrrr vacaaaaaaationnnnn! As you can probably tell, I’m not at all excited, not even a little bit. ;) Ok, I’m thrilled to be on summer vaca. I can do all of my relaxing activities but I can also work really hard on ze blog for the year ahead. And while summer is going to be fantastic, I sure am gonna miss my kiddos.
The last quarter had quite a few art activities so it was super, duper busy. At the beginning of May I took a handful of kids to an art competition in New York and at the end of May we held an “Evening with the Arts” event and I put all of my students artwork out on display gallery-style. This is just one of the hallways that was filled with their beautiful art!
Even though this blog is mostly DIYs, it’s still a creative space for me and I thought I’d share some of the amazing work my students created in the 4th quarter!
Kindergarten
Like the quarters before, Kindergarten spent a lot of time learning about different artists. One of the artists we learned about was Paul Klee and we focused on his painting “Cat and Bird”. This was a two week project filled with looking at different works of art, watching a short movie about his life (seriously, the Mati & Dada series on YouTube is amazeballs for younger kiddos), drawing the cubism-inspired cat, and coloring it using either warm or cool colors. Using different shapes, lines, and patterns they finished the cat off!
1st Grade
In 1st grade we learned about the artist Henri Rousseau and his painting “Tiger in a Tropical Storm” (also known as “Surprised!”). They learned that most people consider his work to appear “dream-like” so they worked on creating their own imaginative jungles with their own tigers!
2nd Grade
The 2nd grade class spent a few weeks learning about my favorite painting, “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh. They learned that it has been recreated by numerous artists using numerous mediums. They looked at recreations on clothing, accessories, made out of paper, even balloons! After they learned that, they spent some time watching a couple videos of how modern artists recreated it with very unusual mediums, like dominoes and water! Realizing that they too could recreate it, they used whatever medium they wanted (although most of them chose soft pastels) to complete their project!
3rd Grade
One of the artists that 3rd grade learned about was Pittsburgh native, Andy Warhol. They looked at his work “Campbell’s Soup Cans” but couldn’t understand how that was considered art. They learned that he was very sick as a child and his mother would feed him Campbell’s soup every day for lunch, and was influenced by that to create his piece. They did a fun bonus project inspired by his work and created their own “wacky” soup can labels! Would you ever try sushi or watermelon flavored soup?!
4th Grade
In 4th grade they learned about the artist Roy Lichtenstein and his pop art work inspired by comic books. Using the coloring techniques of Ben-Day dots and lawnmower coloring, they created action words that you might find in a comic!
5th Grade
The final quarter of 5th grade was spent experimenting with different art mediums. One of the mediums they wanted to use the most was charcoal, so they used it to create their grid drawings. Each student was given a picture of an animal and their task was to recreate the picture on a separate piece of paper using a grid. They found it difficult to create different values with the charcoal, but I think they did an amazing job!
6th Grade
The 6th grade students spent a few weeks studying Panamanian culture and looking at the molas created by Kuna women. While it’s traditionally part of their clothing, we chose to create our molas out of paper instead of fabric. They first decided on the animal outline they wanted (we had everything from horses to hippogriffs) and then created fragments out of different layers of paper. They were a favorite among the art gallery guests.
7th Grade
During the 3rd quarter, 7th grade learned about Turkish art and focused on tiles. They first created a design that could be used to create radial symmetry and then transferred the design into each corner of the tile with Sharpies. Once they were done I sprayed a clear coat on top to seal the design. They thought this was such a cool project and could’t wait to take it home!
8th Grade
8th grade learned about Indonesian culture and focused on batik fabric dying. Both of my parents spent time doing mission work there so I was actually able to show my students an example of a batik dyed map. We obviously couldn’t use traditional hot dye and wax but we created the same effect with glue and paint! Students had the option of bringing a shirt from home if they wanted or they could create their design on a small fabric square. Every design was unique and beautiful!
Yearbook
One of the classes that I was in charge of taking over was Yearbook. It was actually one of the more challenging classes I had to teach but once the students and I found our groove it was smooth sailing! Our theme for the year was “We Are” and we focused on a color scheme of blue ombre and white (our school colors) and geometric designs. I am so proud of the work they produced to give our school a wonderful, quality yearbook!
So those are just a few of the projects my students worked on during their final quarter and there will be a ton of new ones next year! If you missed what my students made last quarter, check it out here!
Did you ever take an art class either in high school, college, or even your free time? What was your favorite medium you used?
The arts are always the first to get cut in Southern California. I’m so happy to see that you’re able to teach kids to love it :-)
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