First Grade Cardinals

As I have posted previously first graders have been learning about painting and Cardinals. Since my last post about the Cardinal projects first graders have completed their cardinal paintings and they look fantastic! We learned a lot about drawing complicated objects by breaking the objects down to simple shapes. We also learned a lot about why it is important to paint from the background, to the middle ground, then finally the foreground. Finally, I loved that my first graders started to spot cardinals outdoors and would come to school excited to tell me all about their cardinal spotting the next day!

 

Our cardinals were drawn in pencil first. We then traced our pencil lines with a black marker so we would not become confused by all of the lines while painting.

We made sure to first paint the background, then the middle ground (branches) and then the foreground (cardinal).

     

 

We enjoyed adding our final details considering we used our fingers to paint the eye. :)



Second Grade Finished Birch Tree Landscapes

As I posted earlier my second grade students have been studying Gustav Klimt and landscapes. Second grade students had a lot of fun picking warm or cool colors for the background of their landscapes. We learned a lot about how different colors in artwork can make us feel different ways.

When we cut our Birch trees out we made sure to keep the edges of our Birch trees curvy just like the Birch trees we viewed in Gustav Klimt's artwork.

One of my awesome second graders even brought in a Birch tree branch he found on a hike with his family! I thought it was awesome he connected what we are doing in art class to the outside world.

We used liquid Elmer's glue and sponge brushes to paint on the glue.

Each table had a separate tray of warm or cool colored tissue paper. Students were able to pick their color family.

Finished!

Students also had the choice of overlapping and/or crossing trees over one another.

Also, students had to add a shadow. We discussed how the shadow had to stay consistent as we glued our trees down so it would be apparent where our sun was in the sky.

Kindergarten Wayne Thiebaud Cupcakes

Kindergarten students learned about the artists Wayne Thiebaud by studying his "yummy" paintings of sweets including cupcakes. After viewing his paintings we had a discussion about the difference between 2D artwork and 3D artwork and then proceeded to transform Thiebaud's paintings into our own  3D cupcake sculptures using model magic. We discussed how a 3D shape is solid and can be viewed from all sides, verses a 2D shape which is flat and not a solid shape.

To create the sculptures students had to first create a pinch pot for the base of the cupcake. We then created a coil (or snake) for our icing. The kids had a lot of fun seeing how long they could make their coils. The kindergartners did end up needing some assistance putting the icing on top of the cupcake.

Finally (and I think this part was the students' favorite) we got to decorate our cupcakes with sprinkles, stripes, and even a cherry on top.

Finished product!

Finished product!

Finished Product!

 

Just some of our cupcakes safely stored away. I have some of the cupcakes displayed in our wonderful display cases right outside of our cafeteria.

 

 We spent one class discussing Wayne Thiebaud and creating our pinch pots. I loved having colorful pinch pots around my art room for a week before my kindergartners finished their cupcakes their next art class.

Putting the final details on our cupcakes! We love our sprinkles!