4th Grade Abstract Kandinsky Murals!

4th grade artists studied the abstract art of Wassily Kandinsky. The learned about his life and artwork. They even learned about a strange condition that he had called synesthesia cognate. This condition is one that a person's senses get mixed up and he/she can hear colors and see sounds. Because of this, he would always paint while listening to music. We worked individually to create our own personal abstract artworks, then combined our smaller works into large abstract murals!

4th Grade Fashion Design with Clay

4th grade artists studied various art professions that they could be if they decided to pursue art in a career. One of these jobs is a fashion designer.  We watched a news article about a 13 year old fashion designer named Cecelia Cassini. She is so young but making a big splash in the fashion design world even at her young age. Sometimes it pays off right away to follow your dreams and sometimes it takes time. We tried our hand at fashion design when we created our own sketches of various outfits, then chose our best own to craft out of clay. (art element = form).

The slideshow that I created to go along with fashion design is viewable on the below link:

Fashion Design Slide Show CLICK HERE

The write up of the lesson plan is below:

Fashion Design Lesson Plan CLICK HERE

Kindergarten Rainbow Order Stars

Kindergarten artists read the book, "Draw me a Star" by the author and illustrator Eric Carle. We learned how to draw stars in a few different ways. We also sang the Roy G. Biv song that teaches us about rainbow order. We drew our shooting stars, and and the shooting lines be all different types of lines! (one of our art elements).  Next, we colored our shooting lines in rainbow order. 

Kindergarten Primary Colored Pete the Cat

Kindergarten artists have been learning about the art element of color. One of the aspects of color that they have been studying is primary color. We noticed how in one of the fun Pete the Cat books, his clothes were mostly primary colors. We used the art element of line and shape to draw our own Pete the Cats.

3rd Grade Jackson Pollock artworks

3rd Graders had a blast choosing a color family/scheme and then using watercolor paints to blow through a straw. They watched the colors mix and their finished product is reminiscent of Jackson Pollock's splatter painting. We learned about his life by reading a book about him, watching a youtube video, and of course, observing and talking about his works. 

1st grade Illustrators for the book "Rainbow Fish"

1st grade artists talked about the many art professions that they could be if they wanted to grow up to be an artist. We landed on the profession of illustrator and looked at the way the illustrator in the book, "Rainbow Fish" created his illustrations. We used huge paper, markers, sponges, glue and glitter to create our own Rainbow Fish.

Jamestown Elementary Awarded as a "Blue Ribbon School!"

We are so proud to be awarded as a blue ribbon school! Check out the slide show and article at:

http://photos.mlive.com/grandrapidspress/2014/11/jamestown_elementary_a_blue_ri_11.html

The reporter even snapped some photos in the art room! :)

1st grade Scarecrow Portraits

First grade artists are practicing their knowledge of portraits by looking at a fall scarecrow! We colored them using fall colors and then added straw and buttons to make it into a textured collage.

4th Grade Edgar Degas and Figure Drawing

4th grade artists are learning about the art of Edgar Degas and how he did a lot of figure drawing. We are studying how to draw proportions of the human body correctly and to scale using mannequins and even real models! Students drew their own figures and are coloring around them using their choice of patterned color schemes.

Kindergarten "Pete the Cat" & Primary Colors

Kindergarten artists read the book "Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons." We used our skills at finding shapes to help us draw Pete then learned about Primary colors when we colored him.

You can also see the book's video and song here on youtube: We had fun dancing and singing along!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEhdqbQ5N88