Puff Landscapes
Talk about arts integration!! The students learned about landforms in science class and Puff the Magic Dragon in music. We put it all together in a beautifully collaged landscape with Puff as our resident. Same assignment, but every work is unique!
Created Creatures Habitats
The Seeds have been working hard on their "Created Creations" Habitats. To integrate with their study of real habitats, but created imaginary creatures and imaginary habitats to support them. Their habitats had to have a water source, food sources and shelter.
Georgia O'Keefe and the study of size
The Seeds were working on a unit studying inventors, scientists and artists and discussing how new ideas come to life. We integrated this with our learning in art by focusing on Georgia O'Keefe and how she looked at objects in a new way. See our beautiful flowers below!
Seeds 1 and 2: Printmaking Unit
Students have been working in five different areas of printmaking over the last few weeks: stamping, monoprints, rubbings, stencils, and incised prints.
Seeds 2: African Wrapping Paper
Seeds 1: African Wrapping Paper
Both Seeds 1 and 2: Finished Germ paintings!
Read description below to see what we have been up to!
Seeds 2: Germ Paintings
Seeds 1: Germ Paintings in Progress
A Quick Upload of our clay exploration in Seeds 1
Seeds and Nocturnal Animal unit integration
The Seeds have been studying nocturnal animals in science. They showed their learning in art by choosing a nocturnal animal to draw up close, apply black glue to the lines, then add color using chalk pastels.
Seeds 2: Construction
Both Seeds classes have moved into learning how to use our construction studio. They have been collecting materials, cutting, gluing, painting and embellishing. Check out our process and results!
Seeds 1: Construction
Seeds and Clay
The Seeds are creating clay bowls for our "Fill Your Cup" Fundraiser! They learned how to create pinch pots, formed them and added glaze during the next session. See the final products at the fundraiser!
Exploring the Studios with the Seeds
The Seeds have been exploring each of the studios here in the art room and learning how to care for the materials, set up their working space, and put things back for the next class. So far we have worked in Drawing, Painting and Collage. Next up: Clay! See some of our work below.
Seeds 2:
Seeds 1:
2012-2013 End of Year Creations and Work
I cannot believe our first year at the Birches is nearly complete. What a blast we have had!
The art show was wonderful because of the great student work. Here are some pics of the seeds' final art adventures.
The art show was wonderful because of the great student work. Here are some pics of the seeds' final art adventures.
Clay
We are fully into clay here with the seeds! We just completed our first coil pot shown below. We will also work on a portrait and choice project.
Playgrounds
This is just a sneek peek at the Seeds' playgrounds they are building. Some of the finished products will be shown in the community at AC Moore and the Salem Town Hall.
Arts Integration
The seeds visited last week for a special art session focusing on the creation of their houses for a play they will be performing during the Science Night!
Bones
To fit in with the construction unit, the Seeds also created bones for the One Million Bones project. They each made a rib, and learned the very valuable albeit messy technique of paper mache! Thank you to the parents who helped out!
Construction
Ah it is with much joy that the Seeds have moved on to construction! They have been building building building from the moment I pulled out the materials. This is a great accompanying medium for their study of machines in class.
Painting
The paintings below were inspired by a children's book entitled "The Shape of My Heart". Painting is all about color and shape, and this particular activity allowed them to think about the shapes around them and how they could arrange them in an interesting way on the page. Color mixing was still a key component for this activity.
Painting
In honor of Valentines Day we just had to include some hearts in our painting unit! We have been free-painting with primary colors for the last few weeks. Students have been discovering what colors can be made from the primary colors. In this project they were given tempera cakes of red, yellow, blue, green, black and white only. As you can see, many of them continued mixing - notice some oranges, purples, and even some brown! The children also worked with pattern and repetition.
Collage Quilts
Our final collage was a simple quilt design with some stitching along the sides. We read "The Quilt Story" and used our own homemade painted paper for the design squares.
Collage Figures
The Seeds created collage figures using cardboard and collage. They created a background for their figure and wrote down what their figure was doing.
Collage Unit
We are continuing to work in collage with the seeds. Right before the holiday we created these fun snowmen from shaving cream and glue, then collaged their accessories. This work was based on "Snowballs" by Lois Elhert. Much of our open collage work in which the students are creating their own ideas while learning the basic techniques of collaging is below as well!
Collage Unit
The seeds are just getting started on their collage unit! The beginning of this unit includes a lot of practice with moving shapes around on the page, experimenting with composition, and learning to use liquid glue correctly. Our first activity is below!
Drawing Unit
We are coming to the final days of our drawing unit with the Seeds. Our next unit will be painting. We have been working with texture in our drawing and experimenting with different ways that texture and patterns can be created by line. Below is an overview of our work: first drawing the texture of a variety of items, followed by creating texture through blown ink.
Drawing Unit
Keeping with our pumpkin theme we created pumpkins in the patch on a sunny day. We talked about how the light hits the pumpkins and visually changes their color. Look for their first attempts at highlights and shadows!
Drawing Unit
Working with observational drawing and pattern.
Drawing Unit
Our finished leaf drawings!
Drawing Unit
Our most recent work is with observational drawings of leaves. The students are adding watercolor to them in the photos below.
Drawing Unit
We are well into our drawing unit with the seeds. We have begun by discovering line types, looking for lines, and beginning to learn how to see lines on the objects all around us. In the process work shown below the students are using lines and hunting for how lines make shapes as well as using basic lines to create a recognizable object (bird) and then adding their own developmentally appropriate drawings to create a background scene for their bird.
The Cardboard Project
Every student at the Birches began their year with a mixed media project that reflected something personal about them. We felt it important for the students to make their mark on the school early. To do this, we used the material that most of our school arrived in...cardboard! We began with a cardboard base and added construction pieces to represent the interests of each student. They then added paint, collage and drawing to finish off their personal project. It was an excellent introduction to the making of art and allowed the students to begin taking ownership of their school!