Flowers, 2nd Grade

Happy Spring! 

Enjoy this Spring inspired project created by our 2nd Grade Artists!  Students were introduced to the work of Andy Warhol, through the use of an Emaze presentation.  Students learned the history of Andy Warhol and how he became the Prince of POP! After introducing students to the artist students used art criticism to answer questions, “What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder? when looking at his,“Flower” print.

Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1964. 

We also watched a neat video on Pop Art that my second graders just loved!

We got started by creating our grassy background. Students used repetition in lines to imitate the grass seen in Andy Warhol’s Flowers. Our second graders used a variety of lines (tall, thin, thick, wavy, straight) to create their grassy  texture. They also played with different  values of green and blue oil pastels to create depth, highlights, and shadows.  Next, we used our mop brush to paint green and black liquid watercolor over our entire paper. We learned that this is called a resist or as I like to call magic! 

On day two, we used simple shapes to draw flowers. Students drew their flowers on a small 4”x 4” piece of paper. These were then transferred to a Styrofoam board.  I have to give a big shout out to Cassie Stephens for her awesome printmaking techniques and videos! We traced over their lines two times to create an imprint in the foam. We used two different color pens to keep track of where we have been and to make our lines were deep enough. Next, we cut out our flower shape and prepared to print!  Next class students will be using the printmaking process to print their flower 2 to 4 times. Students use their knowledge of warm and cool colors and friendly colors. Students enjoyed taking turns at the printmaking station and pulling multiple prints (copies) of their flowers just like Andy Warhol did! I just love this lesson and couldn’t wait to blog about it. Inspiration for this lesson came from Deep Space Sparkle! 

2B’s Flowers are currently on display outside the cafeteria, just in time for spring! I couldn’t wait to get these artworks back from Square 1 art so that I could put them out on display for all to see and enjoy.

Monet Water lilies, 2nd Grade

Our second graders created these stunning water lilies inspired by Claude Monet. We added an element of dimension to this lesson with the addition of tissue paper lily blossoms. I just love how these came out! In addition to their individual paintings, students worked collaboratively on their classes’ art auction paintings. A big thank you to our parent volunteers, Mrs. Sanderson Bowden, Mrs. Deschapelles, Mrs. Gicquel for working with our second grade artists on this special project. 2B and 2C’s waterlilies will be going to the, Together for TG, Art Auction on March 18^th. Here is a sneak peak at our artists at work!

 

Students loved adding quick directional brush strokes and watching colors mix together on the canvas.

We focused our learning, on the last 20 years of Monet’s life, where he concentrated his efforts almost exclusively on the picturesque water lily pond that he created on his property in Giverny. We learned that Monet painting En plein air (outdoors) and observed how light and time of day inspired his subjects. This encouraged our second graders, to create their own water lily painting inspired by a time of day. They used color, value, movement, and texture to capture Monet signature style. They did so brilliantly.   Enjoy!

Kandinsky Paintings, 2nd Grade

When you see color, do you hear music? Wassily Kandinsky believed that color, line, and music went together like Yin to Yang.  A pioneer of the abstract art movement, Kandinsky approached color with a musician’s sensibility. We began this lesson by looking at Kandinsky’s work. We used two different painting by Kandinsky to create our very first painting of the year.

       Several Circles                                                    Yellow, Red and Blue 

 

Our discussions centered on color, line, shape, and emotion. To get us hearing in color we listened to classical music as we worked. We used the white side of our cardboard circles to focus on Kandinsky inspired lines. As we listened to music, we created a variety of lines. For example, spiral, mountain, curved, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal.

We then discussed how music can evoke emotion and used different colors to fill in the white spaces on our boards. We listened to different kinds of music and thought about how the sounds made us feel. We used the first color that popped into our heads to capture the sounds and emotion.

 

On our second meeting day, we looked at the painting, Several circles, and used our observation skills to answer questions, what do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder? On the reverse side of our cardboard, students created several circles. We used white tempera paint on our black boards to create contrast. This created a background for color to be applied. I just love turning these boards over and over again,  admiring the contrast of line, shape color, and emotion! These Second Grade painting marked the first project of the school year! They have since gone home. However, I couldn’t help but share these gems on our art blog! Aren’t they fantastic!!!!

Enjoy these abstract painting created by our second grade artists. Inspiration for this project came from Cassie Stephens blog! Thanks for the inspiration Cassie!

2nd Grade, Starry Night Pumpkins

Happy Halloween! Enjoy these spectacular Second Grade, “Starry Night” skies behind a pumpkin patch. This project was so sweet from start to finish! We began by learning how to draw pumpkins using curved lines to make our pumpkins look rounded and 3 dimensional.  We then mixed primary colors, red and yellow to create our secondary color orange. To make our pumpkins look three dimensional we mixed more yellow paint to make our pumpkins lighter and red to make our orange darker. Next class, we cut out our pumpkins and composed them on black construction paper to create space through overlapping.  Students loved learning about Vincent Van Gogh and studying the famous “Starry Night”. They especially loved watching this starry night (interactive animation) video. Check it out!

You can purchase this awesome app for ipads and iphones! My second graders just loved this. We played it over and over again as we created our own starry night inspired skies. Students used oil pastels to create their swirling lines and quick dashes of color! They created movement through color and line! Enjoy the work of our 2nd grade artists!

Character Counts!

Our final three collaborative murals are now complete!  Take a look at the work of our Kindergarten, First, and Fourth Grade Artists. They used the elements of art to illustrate their grade levels character values.

Grade Four, Citizenship                                            Kindergarten, Caring 

Grade One, Fairness

It was so nice meeting my Monday classes yesterday, and finally getting to piece together our mystery murals. Students enjoyed working together to create one unified piece of art! I love the rainbow of color now filling the hallway outside the art room. Check out all six pillars of character! 

T.R.R.F.C.C. 

Character Counts!

Take a look at our latest collaborative creations! 

5th Grade Trustworthy 

2nd Grade Responsibility

Second Grade, Snails!

“Second Grade, Snail friends”

Our Second Graders just went home with these sweet snails!. We began by rolling two pieces of clay into a coil. Then, we learned a new skill for joining pieces of clay together called scoring and slipping! We created the shell of our snail by scoring one side of our coil, adding our slip or “glue”, and rolling our coil into a spiral shape. The second coil made the snails head and foot. We used our needle tool to create the mouth and even learned how to attached tiny coils for our snail’s lower tentacles. We also learned how to pinch our clay carefully to create a wavy look for our snail’s foot. After scoring and slipping our shell to the snail body, we began adding texture to our shell. We used toothpicks, marker caps, and needle tools to do this. We loved learned so much about our snail friends!

On our second meeting day, students got to see their snails and begin adding glaze colors. Our snail’s tentacles and eyes were added last, using colorful pipe cleaners and googly eyes. These final touches helped bring our snails to life!

Monet’s Water Lilies, 2nd Grade

Painting like Monet 

Claude Monet is considered one of the greatest French artists of all time. He is best known for leading the Impressionist movement and influencing generations of artists to come including Cezanne, Degas, and Renoir. With such a splendid and rich repertoire of work, it was difficult to select a period of his life to study.

(Post cards from the Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris, France along with one of my favorite books)

We focused our learning, on the last 20 years of Monet’s life, where he concentrated his efforts almost exclusively on the picturesque water lily pond that he created on his property in Giverny. We learned that Monet painting En plein air (outdoors) and observed how light and time of day inspired his subjects. This encouraged our second graders, to create their own water lily painting inspired by a time of day. They used color, value, movement, and texture to capture Monet signature style. They did so brilliantly.    

(We applied paint with quick directional brush strokes. From up close, we observed our individual brush strokes. From afar, colors mixed together creating our water lilies, water, clouds and light.)

Shortly after Monet died, at the age of 86, the French government installed his last water-lily series in specially constructed galleries at the Orangerie in Paris, where they remain today. Monet’s water lily paintings were given as a gift to the French government in honor of the end of WWI. Monet once said, “ The Water lilies are an extension of my life. Without the water, the lilies cannot live, as I am without art.”

Monet’s Water lilies are considered to be the crowning achievement of his extensive career. This past summer I visited the Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris, France. It was one of the highlights of my travels. I was so excited to share this experience and artifacts with our second grade artists.

Monet wished this water lily installation would be a kind of Sanctuary where, “ nerves weighed down by work would be relaxed” and where one could experience “the asylum of peaceful meditation in the midst of a flowered aquarium”

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 Take a look at our second grade masterpieces

Square 1 Art Fundraiser

Square 1, Fun! Here is a sneak peak at our Square 1 Art projects!

Our 1st grade artists have been busy, “Finding Spring” through their Square 1 art creation. Through experimentation, we learned that when you combine any 2 primary colors together you get a secondary color. We used the milk changing experiment to explore this idea and test our hypothesis.    We then explored mixing colors with paint, and using tools like forks and tooth picks to create visual texture. On our second meeting day, we read another amazing book by Carin Berger, called “Finding Spring” We used our texture papers to create our birds and flowers shapes and collaging them together to create our Spring inspired artwork.  A couple weeks back I shared with our first graders, that the author of, “A Perfect Day” and “Finding Spring,” Carin Berger, saw our snow angels, on our art blog, and commented on how, “ absolutely charming” they are and loved the work they are doing in art! I hope she sees this blog post and knows, just how much she has inspired us through her writing and illustrations. Take a look at our spring inspired work!

Our 2nd grade artists created these beautiful symmetrical butterflies using contraction paper crayons on black paper. We created colorful abstract backgrounds using liquid watercolor! You may even notice the use of salt to create texture in our painting.

Take a look at the colorful creations of our 3rd grade artists! They created these whimsical peacocks using crayons and liquid watercolor. We learned so many cool facts about peacocks and put them to great use in our creations.

Our 4th grade artists created these tree silhouettes, using warm and cool colors! Students used color to create feeling of calmness, relaxation, or excitement.

Our 5th Grade Artists turned the letters of their first, middle, or last name into things about them.  They were so creative and imaginative in their illustrations. I just love these!

Our kindergarteners will be working on their Square 1 project this coming week! I’m looking forward to meeting and working with TG’s youngest artists. All artwork will be shipped to Square 1 on March 2nd. Families will receive their child’s personalized order packets (and sticker) around March 12th. Until then, enjoy a preview of work from our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade artists.

International Polar Bear Day, 2nd Grade

Love Polar Bears? If so, then you will love this blog post! Our second grade artists created these loveable polar bears to help illustrate their beauty and importance in our world.

One of our roles as artists, is to study and document our surroundings. The focal point of this lesson was the polar bear, which has become the iconic symbol of our troubled arctic ecosystem. Our second graders used their creativity and unique perspectives to bring attention to this threatened species. We spent time during the lesson, learning facts about the polar bear and thinking of ways we can help save them. Check out the below link to see how you can help.

Polar Bears International 

We began this lesson, by learning how to draw a polar bear using basic shapes. Using charcoal, we created highlights and shadows on our polar bears to make them look realistic. We created our polar bear’s home, the arctic habitat, by creating a gradient of color in repeating centric circles. We learned that when we mix white with a color, it is called a tint. Paint bellows were used to cover our polar bear scenes with snow.

Our 2^nd graders finished this project a couple weeks back, and have been eager to share them. This week, they will be on display outside the art room in celebration of, International Polar Bear Day on February 27^th.

Enjoy these polar bear portraits, created by our 2^nd grade artists.