Aquariums

Today second graders began a project in which the concept of printmaking was introduced. We began by painting in a background with colorful, glittery paint (which they went CRAZY for!).

Styrofoam was handed out and students worked on drawing four different ideas to press into their styrofoam for next week.

This week students worked on choosing two fish designs from what they drew last week. They traced/pressed them onto their styrofoam squares.

The printmaking came next. We used markers to create prints. Students colored in their fish, sprayed water on a square of paper and pressed the paper on top of their fish to make a print. There were many varying degrees of success with the kids. Overall, they were a bit frustrated. I showed them the "bad" prints that I"d made and told them we'd keep working on them. This is a project that is more about the process then the product!

This week students worked on creating the inside of their aquariums. I love the variety in what they created!

Second graders finished up their aquariums today. They worked on making new prints of fish if needed, cut out and glued on their fish and added final touches to their aquarium.

These sure turned out creative and while this project was frustrating to some, it was a good introduction to printmaking. I think they did a great job!

Spring Flowers

Today kindergarteners started a collage of spring cut flowers. We began by reading a book about flowers.

Students glued on a table and designed a vase after we brainstormed different ideas.

Shapes and details were added to the vase to make it decorative!

This week students worked on adding leaves and stems to their artwork.

Kinders finished their flowers today. They began by gluing on a colorful frame and added small circles of decorative papers on the insides of the flowers.

Masterpieces!

Farmyard

With spring just around the corner, it's time for farms, grass and baby animals! We began this project reading a book and drew the different parts of the farmyard with oil pastels.  We learned that landscapes have three parts to them: background, middleground and foreground.

After drawing in hills, sun, clouds and trees, the background was painted in.

Today first graders drew barns and silos after looking at examples. They got to choose how to color them in. 

After the coloring was finished, students cut and glued them onto their backgrounds.

This week the students finished up their Farmyards. They added a frame, a fence and animals. 

I think they turned out great!

Owl Family

Owl Family

Today we began a new artwork. We started by reading a favorite book Owl Babies by Martin Waddel.

Kindergarteners began with texturing a background and adding a branch.

We then drew an owl together and they colored the head and tummy in with white pastel.

Finally, the kids cut out circles for eyes to use next week.

This week we painted the owls. We talked about the word overlapping before all the painting started. We were working on making our owl look like it has feathers and texture.

Eyes, a beak and feet were put on after painting.

Finally, we drew the three babies, Sarah Percy and Bill. We talked about drawing large, medium and small.

This week we cut out the mommy owl and glued her on the background. The babies were colored, cut and glued on as well.

The last step of these was to detail the mommy owl with more texture, add details to the eyes and add fluff to the babies.  The kids were so excited with how cute these turned out.