Recent Clay work by 5th graders:

Grade 1 Pattern Animals!

First graders practiced observational drawing by looking closely at an animal photo of their choice from Ranger Rick Magazines. After drawing the animal, they were to fill it with the biggest variety of patterns they could, to give it a party suit. Once they finished filling it, they gave it a double outline with oil pastel, then finally painted the negative space of the background. The lesson came from here: https://artlessonsforkids.me/2011/02/13/textured-animals-in-grade-one/

Grade 2 Artists learned about Expressionist painter Marc Chagall (1887-1985). They discovered in his paintings how he used memories of childhood in Russia in combination with his fantastic dreams and imaginary pictures of animals, musical instruments, ceremonies, and circus characters to create excitingly creative and colorful artwork. They made their own "Dreams and Memories" pictures by starting with a self portrait, then spinning the page once to draw where they live on the next edge of the paper. They continued the process, draw something, spin the paper, 5 more times adding pictures of things that are meaningful to them.
We began the work drawing in sharpie, then colored with Prismacolor art stix, dipped into liquid watercolor, and finally touched it up with some biggie cakes tempera.
The idea for this lesson came from here: https://artlessonsforkids.me/2009/04/21/chagall-inspired-dreams-in-grade-2/

Grade 1 Artists studied the work of several abstract artists during the month of October. We began looking at the mobiles of Alexander Calder, who used simple colors and organic, free form shapes in his work. The kids found it exciting to use their imaginations when trying to decide what the shapes looked like to them. We discussed how abstract art can be very interesting in the way we all see something different in it. Lesson found here: https://www.katiemorrisart.com/2011/07/1st-grade-mobile-marker-drawings.html

We also studied the work of Dutch Abstract painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). We discussed his simple use of line, shape, and the primary colors. The students tried out his technique, constructing their own Mondrian masterpieces, and in the process practicing techniques in painting, cutting, gluing, and measuring. Lesson found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb1__xAJwBA

The third artist they studied in this unit was Jean Dubuffet. They had a great time bringing their drawings to live by cutting and building them into 3-D sculpture that stood up on a piece of matboard.  This lesson came from here: http://artipelagoteacher.blogspot.com/2012/11/jean-dubuffet-sculptures.html

Grade 3 Tree house drawings. This project is a fun way to start the year working with line, shapes, and color and delving into our imaginations to design a dream tree house. Some classes listened to read aloud stories from The Magic Treehouse Series by Mary Pope Osborne. The goal was to fill all of the space with color, including a horizon line separating the ground and sky, a tree with branches, a way to get in and out of the tree house, a background setting, and at least ten details showing things they would like to have in an imaginary tree house. They were challenged to keep it “unplugged,” without electrical devices.

Grade 4 studied the work of artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Practicing with view finders and flowers from our school garden, they learned about zooming in and cropping a picture to make a composition with interesting negative space. Some very successful results! When adding color we discussed using families of color, layering, adding texture, and making a focal point.