Another Jasper Johns!

This is one of my all time favorite lessons. The results are always so colorful and dramatic! For this lesson, I made a simple line drawing of the United States map for students to trace. Once their map was drawn students then traced over the pencil lines with a black sharpie and erased any stray marks. Next, we used white crayon to trace just inside of each state's shape(this created a kind of reverse shadow once painted with watercolor). The students were instructed to choose either two warm colors or two cool colors to paint the area around the map and then a variety of colors inside of the map.

2009-2010 Student Art Show

These are some of the student artwork chosen for the 2009-2010 district wide art show. I am so proud of all of my student's work. I wish I could include it all!

Pearl Fryar Topiary Drawings

Pearl Fryar is an amazing South Carolina artist known for the topiary sculptures that he creates in his own yard! Students viewed and discussed images of Fryar's work and began by making several sketches of objects or people that would make an interesting topiary design such as a ballet dancer, a dolphin, a race car etc. Students chose their best sketch to draw on large green paper. Students were also instructed to add a horizon line and a couple of smaller topiary designs in the background to create depth and distance in their drawings.For color we used mostly green and brown crayons.

Painted Paper Weaving

This lesson is VERY messy but VERY fun and always impressive in the end! I gave students various tools such as small plastic cups, textured rollers, q-tips, and plastic forks to "paint" with. Students were given two similar paint colors such as green and blue or red and orange and also white. The painting process for this lesson is pretty much open, just let the kids experiment with each tool and mix the colors as much as they want! Once dry we used a ruler to mark off every inch on the back of their painting which will become the weft. Students then cut along each line careful not to cut all the way to the edge. I pre-cut various colored paper to weave through the painting. I demonstrated how the strips go "over" then "under" each slat in the weft. It may take a few times for some students to get the hang of it but practice makes perfect in this case. Once all the strips are woven, we added a dot of glue to the underside to secure them in place.

Scream!

This lesson is always a hit with students, the possibilities are endless! We began by viewing and discussing Munch's famous painting The Scream. We brainstormed ideas of things that would make us scream such as monsters, ghosts, broccoli, and in one student's case- dirty diapers! We began by drawing a figure similar to Munch's in the foreground and a background showing water and mountains in the distance. Students then chose the thing that scared them the most and drew that object many times as if it were floating across their page. We then traced with a black sharpie and added watercolor paint to finish the artwork.

Abstract Collage

I am always looking for kindergarten lessons that all children can successfully do and be proud of. This lesson is a great one to use early on in the year because there is no "correct" way to complete it. You can't mess it up! I started the students off with a 9x12 white sheet of paper and gave them various texture rubbing plates and crayons. We discussed implied texture- texture that you can only see and actual texture- texture that you can see AND feel. The students are always amazed at how the bumpy patterns from the texture plates show up on their page when colored over! Once our paper was covered with texture, we used a simple watercolor wash over the entire page. The following week we tore our papers into large pieces and glued them to a bright background. We then discussed and practiced drawing various types of lines such as zig zag, wavy, spiral, curly etc. and used a black crayon to draw each type of line across our collage.

Jasper Johns Flag Portraits

2nd and 3rd grade students learned about the artist Jasper Johns. Johns is well known for his American flag paintings. We took inspiration from his work to create our own unique flag designs using stars and stripes and the colors red, white and blue. Students then practiced drawing self portraits. Some students even chose to add patriotic clothing! The portraits were then cut and glued on top of the flag paintings.

Henna Hands

4th and 5th grade students studied the Art of Henna. Students began by tracing their hand 6 times across their paper. They were instructed to create variety in their artwork by changing the position of the hands, creating overlap and having the hands continue off the page. Students then added a different design inside of each hand. We looked at images of traditional Henna prints as inspiration. The small details were then filled in with colored pencil and watercolor was used for the larger areas.

Zebra Drawings

These zebra drawings were made by my K5 and 1st grade students. We discussed zebras and their habitat and looked at images of the animals. We first practiced using basic shapes to draw the zebra body. I let the students decide if they wanted to add any details in the background. Once the pencil drawings were complete, we used oil pastels to add color and glued the zebras to a larger piece of paper. We then looked at images of African clothing showing bright, bold patterns, which became the inspiration for the border.