Grade 2 learned about the work of surrealist artist Marc Chagall. They watched a slideshow of his artwork and learned that he got his inspiration from dreams and memories. Their project was to draw a picture of their own house from memory, then spin the page and draw a self portrait, spin the page again and add a new thing of their choice each time. They had to choose 5 things to draw in their dreamlike picture. Students presented the finished pictures to their classmates.

Third grade just embarked on a unit of studying ancient art history. We talked about the history and culture of Ancient Egypt, and looked at many artifacts to get ideas for a picture. Students were asked to imagine themselves as Ancient Egyptians and depict at least 5 details that they learned about. They started with pencil, then colored in with waterproof materials such as crayon. In the end, they made them look ancient by crinkling the paper and dipping it into an aging solution made from ink. They loved how the look made their work resemble papyrus. 

Grade 5 is working on a series of self portraits. They will be asked to represent themselves in a variety ways and with a variety of media. Our first portrait was a silhouette. They stood in front of a lamp and had their profile traced by me. Once this was done, they were asked to fill the inside with symbols, ideas, and favorite things that they felt told all about who they are. Some very colorful results!

Grade 3 studied color value by mixing shades and tones to paint a monochromatic self portrait. 

Some clay texture fish created by Grade 4. These were colored first with crayon, then dipped in diluted india ink.