Laurel Burch Cats

Laurel Burch Cats

Today Second Graders began learning about the artist Laurel Burch, who is famous for her colorful, patterned cats.  We looked at some of her art and then drew a cat. We reviewed lines, shapes and patterns for the artwork. Students then made designs in their cats.

This week students worked on coloring in their cats with oil pastels. Some chose a color scheme, and some just used all colors freely.

This week students finished up their cats. They worked on coloring the cats, then outlined them with black oil pastels.

The cat was glued onto a colored background. The kids also reflected on their art by filling out a sheet with two things they liked about their cat and one thing they would have changed. This sheet was glued onto the back of their artwork.

I love how colorful these turned out!

Flower Still Life

Still Life of Flowers in a Vase

Today first graders learned about the artist Vincent Van Gogh. We looked at examples of his art. We also talked about what a still life is. We practiced drawing flowers together as a group.

A vase of flowers was put at each table. After the vases were drawn, students worked on drawing in the flowers they saw. Drawing the flowers "big" was a challenge for almost all!

Today students worked on coloring in their vase, flowers, stems and leaves.

Today students finished up their Van Gogh flowers. They glued a frame onto the art and worked on outlining with black oil pastels.

The final step was to watercolor the table and the wall.

Beautiful!!

Winter Mittens

Today we started our mittens. I began by reading the kinders a book.

We drew white stars in the sky and painted over the stars with glitter paint. Oh, if you could've heard the squeals of delight with the paint!

Tracing the mitten and drawing in 5 lines was the final step for the day.

This week, we looked at patterns and took turns coming up with different patterns using magnetic blocks.

Kinders then outlined their mittens with sharpies and added in different patterns.

They finished up the day beginning to color in their mittens with color crayons.

Kindergarteners finished up their mittens today. They glued on a frame, finished coloring the mitten.  A "wrist" was glued on and then the mitten was cut out and glued on.

 I love how these turned out!

Penguins

This is one of my students' all time favorite project so I do it every year!

We began by reading a book about penguins and discussing the word texture.

First graders colored with crayons and texture plates to create visual texture.

Painting the backgrounds was next. The kids used liquid watercolors to paint over the crayons.

They ended the class by drawing an iceberg with chalk pastels.

This week, first graders glued on a colored frame, cut and glued their iceberg and built a penguin.

Today was the final day for penguins. This is often a favorite day for first grade in the art room. I put out lots of supplies and let them just create!!  I love all of the different ways the penguins were decorated!