Kindergarten's Take On Mondrian

Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie

Sooo... as I've stated... I'm not a pro on Kindergarten. I showed them Mondrian and we talked about his use of primary colors and shapes. Above you can see their interpretation (I asked them to show me squares, rectangles, and primary colors). I'm not sure how successful my lesson was... but they are all still talking about "Broadway Boogie Woogie!" LOL

1st Grade Toko/ Klee Cat Comparison lesson (watercolor and oil pastel)

I have no idea what the students know... and now I know that they're not quite used to watercolor! They painted so thick and heavy that they didn't really capitalize on the watery quality of watercolor paints. I've seen other teachers write about using liquid watercolor.... I'm going to try that next!

Kindergarten Kandinsky's

I'll be the first to admit it: I"m not quite comfortable teaching Kinders yet. Their lessons need to be shorter. The lessons are more about manipulating materials and the experience than the product. All art should be that way, I know, but for Kindergartner's it's more prevalent than any other grade. After years of middle school and high school "studio" art, I'm still adjusting. Anyway! Here are some of the Kindergarten Kandinsky's:

Here is the Wassily Kandinsky artwork we studied:

Here are the Kinders folding their black construction paper into eight rectangles (we strayed a bit from Kandinsky's circle-in-a-square theme):

Here are the Kandinsky's! Oil pastel on construction paper. I think next time I'll let them pick their background. The black was so faded. It provided a better texture than plain white paper (and looked more finished because there wasn't so much white showing when they were "done"), but the black is so faded ... it bothers me.)

I asked them what they think would happen if they used the black oil pastel on black paper. They all immediately tried... and seemed delighted to discover that black oil pastel is darker than black construction paper! Soooo cool!  ;-)

Dead Things!

My students have only known me three weeks , but they have already picked up on the fact that I LOVE DEAD THINGS! Bones, snake skins, shells, carcasses, insects... as long as it's dead and not smelly - I want it! I, personally, am inspired by nature. The hidden parts of nature are most fascinating to me. Got an empty turtle shell taking up space? Bring it to me!

        

Empty turtle shell...

 Dead butterfly... so fragile!

Lizard carcass! 

  

 Her expression is priceless!

Click here for the next Savannah Derby Devils bout -> SAVANNAH DERBY DEVILS bout... THIS WEEKEND! (I'm biased... it's my team!)

Kindergarten Klee Cats!

My Kinder's discussed Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" painting. We looked at the shapes and colors and discussed how we could draw a cat. Most of them said that they couldn't... but when we broke down the shapes and did it step by step, cats appeared on their papers! Amazing! Then they colored them with markers and colored pencils. We discussed how we draw BIG to fill the paper, how we don't scribble to cover space that's empty, and - most importantly - how we THROW AWAY DRIED OUT MARKERS instead of putting them back into the marker bins! Mrs. Lemke only likes juicy markers!  ;-) 

Here's Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" that was their inspiration:

Here are their artworks:

  

Here are the Kinders working on them!

 

 

1st Grade Cat Lesson: Cats!

The art history examples for this lesson were Paul Klee's "Cat and Bird" and Toko's "Cat and Spider". We compared and contrasted everything from the anatomy of a cat in each (the body parts and the shapes the artist used to represent that body part) to what they thought of their prey. The Young Artists had the choice of  drawing a more realistic cat (like Toko's) or a CRAZY CAT like Klee's! I can't wait to post these artworks! Like I've mentioned before... this is my first foray into elementary art. I'm not only trying to figure out what the students at this school have already learned, but I'm trying to figure out what each grade is "capable" of. It's been a looooong time since my elementary education practicum experience! The first graders really loved the oil pastel/ watercolor take on this... but I changed it to marker and colored pencil for the rest of the 1st graders. I need to spend a few more weeks on classroom flow before I introduce wet media. Right now we're all getting used to the schedule and each other. But more painting coming soon - I promise!

3rd Grade "Op Art" lesson on lines and values in drawing

So, I'm new to this elementary art ed thing... I tried this lesson with 3rd grade and after the first day, decided that it was a little too much for them. I tried it with my 5th graders, and it was perfect for them! So, this class of 3rd graders are doing it - but with much assistance. They love it, though! But who doesn't love drawing with Sharpies?!?! They're definitely my favorite!

Speaking of Sharpies... if anyone wants to donate some, we would appreciate it! The ultra-fine ones are what we are using here! Thank you!

4th Graders working on their Kandinsky's

Yay! Clearance to post!

I finally got clearance to post pictures of kids! Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

(These are all Kindergartners during the second week of school... it was dress-down day for school pictures)