Fifth graders made miniature clay animals using a simple pinch technique. For decoration, they were inspired by looking at carved and painted wooden animals from the artists of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Some very festive results!

Zebra collage drawings in K-1!

We studied how to search for familiar shapes when looking at an animal that we might like to draw.
Beginning with these basic shapes, we built a zebra, then trimmed the pieces to make it look more realistic. We added the black parts, then after a discussion about where these animals live in Africa and what they need to survive, they finished the picture with the goal of filling in all of the background space.

Grade 2 studied Still Life composition by making a colorful fruit bowl collage. They began by cutting a symmetrical bowl, then had the goal of filling the bowl to the top and sides of the page with fruits and vegetables made with folded symmetrical cutting. Once the collage was finished, the created a table at the bottom, covered with a patterned table cloth. They filled in all of the rest with colors and patterns of their choice. These beautiful colors livened up our hallways in the middle of March!

                

           

           

           

Grade 4 completed a unit on Japanese art that included Gyotaku fish printing, calligraphy practice including how to write their names in Japanese (putting my 2 years of college Japanese to use!), and creation of these beautiful tea bowls. They learned a little bit about the traditional tea ceremony, then made three pinch bowls that nest into each other as small, medium, and large. When they were fired they painted the bowls with underglaze, then dipped them into a clear overcoat.

Clay work by Grade 5: we practiced hand building with coils. The pottery was finished with a ceramic stain to highlight the coils, and glaze inside to add a splash of color!

Grade 3 artists are studying Ancient Art History! In this unit they will learn about the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece, and Australia. They will learn about cave art and eventually they will get a real sense of time when they make a dinosaur sculpture from several hundred million years ago...

Here are some of their first results:

During our freezing cold snap in January, K-1 artists were thinking of staying warm and cozy in their beds!
They practiced using proper brush technique to paint squares neatly and smoothly, then with just a very small amount of paint left on their brush after each square, having painted most of the liquid carefully off onto the paper, they quickly dipped the brush into another color of the tray and painted again to create a mixed color. When they were finished, they practiced using a very small brush with watered down tempera to paint lines between the squares. After all of the painting was done, they drew a self portrait sleeping. They had lots of fun seeing some of the finished results hanging in the hallway.

I originally saw this lesson done by one of Mrs. Maheu's classes, thanks for the inspiration!