Community ART Mural : Art classes K-5 started off their year in art by making a piece of a school wide mural. Each student got one square paper with a quarter circle drawn through one corner. They were decorate and design it as they wished, with a focus on making the circle part stand out from its background. 

To get started, they watched a slideshow with many samples of murals and discussed murals that we see in downtown Belfast. I borrowed this idea from Hilltop Elementary School in Ohio:  http://www.readingschools.org/2/News/2634#sthash.2K0ftBtV.dpbs

New paintings from K-1! We started by drawing animals from looking at magazine photos, then added patterns with markers, did a double tracing in oil pastel and finally painted the background with a solid color. This lesson originally came from here:  https://artlessonsforkids.me/2011/02/13/textured-animals-in-grade-one/ 

These lovelies are from Mrs. Brita's class:

Mixing colors in K-1

Grade 2 Creative pictures based on the work of artist Marc Chagall: Dreams and Memories

Self Portraits from Grade 2:

Grade 5 Cakes in 3-D:

Grade 4 collages after Picasso's Three Musicians:

 Robins in the Grass by K-1!

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.