3rd Grade Aboriginal Boomerangs

3rd Grade artists have been working on their 2nd Aboriginal art project for this year's cultural study of Australia. They were so excited to get to utilize form in their artwork while shaping and designing their own Boomerang! One of our student's father brought a real boomerang back from Australia and we had a little show and tell!

2nd Grade Da Vinci Invented Robots

2nd graders studied the life and art of Leonardo Da Vinci! They learned that he was practically a genius  in all the amazing inventions that he had and art that he created. We studio The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.  In addition to being an amazing realistic painter, he drew in his sketchbook the first helicopter, tank and even a robot well before these were even created!

After studying the robot invention, 2nd graders created their own robots and used random gadgets to do some printmaking in the frame!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw9aQPtQ5VU0cHVwcE9MczlWWFE/edit?usp=sharing

Download Lesson Plan Here

4th grade Mary Cassatt Self Portraits

4th grade artists have been busy studying the life and art of the Impressionist named Mary Cassatt. The learned about how she loved to paint children doing everyday things in a style that was new for her time. We created self-portraits on a piece of scrap lamination and laid it over a painted background.

1st Grade Aboriginal Snake Dot Painting

1st graders are studying the life and art of the Australian Aboriginees. We looked at the country of Australia, the historical Aboriginee lifestyle, and the many types of paintings that they were known for. We noticed how they often painted dotted animals that were important to their ancestral stories. We chose the story of the snake and drew him with aboriginal inspired patterns and a very "dotty" background!

2nd and 3rd Grade's Cartoon Pumpkins!

2nd and 3rd grade artists had fun creating these expressive cartooned pumpkins that show value in their shading! 

1st Grade Aboriginal X-ray Fish

1st graders are studying the life and art of the Australian Aboriginees. We looked at the country of Australia, the historical Aboriginee lifestyle, and the many types of paintings that were common for them.  We looked especially at the x-ray style painting that was used to paint animals and people often on the inside of cave walls. They would paint the outside of the animal and the inside at the same time like an x-ray. 

We traced our shoes for the shape of fish and then drew them in an x-ray style. We used Aboriginal types of colors to color the patterns and decorated the frame in an Aboriginal style tribal band.

Kindergarten Cut and Paste Ladybugs

Kindergarten artists read "The Very Grouchy Ladybug." We looked at the many shapes of the ladybug in order to draw them for the different shapes of the body and leaves. We then patterned the bug's body like a real ladybug!

3rd grade Aboriginal Figure Drawing Dot Paintings

3rd graders graders are studying the life and art of the Australian Aboriginees. We looked at the country of Australia, the historical Aboriginee lifestyle, and the many styles and designs in typical Aboriginal paintings. We noticed how they often used many dots and spirals in their work. We then combined this lesson with our figure drawing lesson to create these Aboriginal dancers on the Aboriginal style background. We looked at the proportions of the human body and had students pose as models in various styles to help draw the many dancing positions. 

4th Grade Aboriginal Bark Paintings

4th graders are studying the life and art of the Australian Aboriginees. We looked at the country of Australia, the historical Aboriginee lifestyle, and the many styles of Aboriginal painting. We noticed how the Aboriginees painted on the ground, on rainsticks, boomerangs, and even on bark! The subject matter of their art was often animals that were special to their ancestral stories. They also often used many dots and patterns it their art. 

We were inspired by their painting style and drew our own patterned animals on crumpled bark paper! We then used Q-tips to create the decorative dots on the frame. 

2nd Grade Cave Art of the Australian Aboriginees

2nd Grade artists are studying the life and art of the Australian Aboriginees. We looked at the country of Australia, the historical Aboriginee lifestyle, and the appearance of cave art in the Outback. We also looked at the types of cave art that have appeared in other places in the world and talked about why they painted the things they did. We saw how they used their own handprints as a type of signature on their artworks. We created our own handprint signatures with cave art designs and a patterned frame! 

Aboriginal Patterned Metal Masks!

5th graders are studying the life and art of the Australian Aboriginees. We looked at the country of Australia, the historical Aboriginee lifestyle, and the uses of the Aboriginal Mask in history. We then drew our own relief masks into foil, painted them black, wiped off the black paint to create an old look with the black filling in the lines, and then used Aboriginal inspired patterns to decorate the frames! 

Kindergarten Warm and Neutral Turkeys!

Kindergarten students are learning about warm and neutral colors while using shapes to draw their Thanksgiving turkeys. You might even hear these kids singing "Five Fat Turkeys Are We...... Who Sat All Night in a Tree....." It's been a real hit! :) 

Miss Hawkins! Our fantastic Student Teacher!

We have welcomed our wonderful Hope College student teacher to art: Miss Hawkins! She has been doing a wonderful job of taking over instructional duties as well as creating meaningful relationships with kids. We are enjoying the fresh ideas and energy that she brings to our art room. WELCOME Miss Hawkins!

Third Grade Spooky Silhouette Architecture

Third graders are looking at art professions. After brainstorming many of them, we settled on the art profession of architecture. We noticed the many types of buildings that an architect can create. We blended our warm sunsets or cool moonsests in the sky with watercolor paint. Next we drew some spooky architecture inspired by the season! Finally, we added details with white oil pastel. We had such fun! :) 

Kindergarten Shape, Line, and Texture Trucks

Kindergarten Artists are thinking about shapes, lines, and texture! We looked for shapes in images of trucks and used rectangles, square and circles to draw their own vehicles. Next, we talked about how texture is the way that something feels. We used texture rubbing plates to put under our trucks to create color and texture on them. Finally, we looked at the many kinds of lines that artists use. We drew some of them to decorate the backs of our trucks.