Second Grade Charles Demuth Inspired Still Life

Second grade has been learning all about Charles Demuth, (Lancaster native!) and his still life work. Second grade then practiced looking at flowers by completing a blind contour drawing (that was fun!). We then started our final still life paintings using contour line, colored pencils and watercolors. We discussed how we are taking 3D objects (the flowers and vase) and drawing them on a 2D surface. To add our finishing touches we talked about horizon line or table line, as well as the background. Enjoy the beautiful pictures below!

Kindergarten Illustration

Kindergarten has been learning all about illustration. Kindergarten read "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds. After reading "The Dot" kindergarten learned what illustration means and is. We then pretended we were the illustrators for "The Dot" and created our own book covers. Our process to complete the book covers included learning about the important parts of a book cover and what a book cover can tell us about the rest of the book.

We are in the process of completing our book covers. As of right now we have our beautiful dots drawn as our background. We will be building Vashti (the main character in "The Dot") from cut construction paper.

Enjoy the pictures! :)

Displays, Displays, Displays...and Zentangles!

Hello Everyone,

I have been busy creating displays down the "specials hallway". First grade warm and cool color "Great Waves" are in our beautiful display cases. I have heard a lot of wonderful student reactions to seeing their artwork displayed.

Kindergarten has been hard at work creating their primary color fall leaves. The leaves are now complete and are awaiting their chance to be hung on our fall tree. I found some brown paper in my storage closet and went to work! I think it turned out great. I will post more pictures once the leaves have been added to the tree.

Finally DPS teachers tried their hand at zentangles Wednesday after school. I was not able to get pictures this past Wednesday, but I will be sure to take pictures and post next zentangle workshop. Below you will find my example zentangle.

For those of you who are wondering what zentanlges are a "directed doodle". The images created from zentangles are beautiful and can be used as mini gifts/thank you cards (easy holiday gifts-zentangles look sophisticated when framed), or for your own personal enjoyment. Zentangles are said to be relaxing (does not apply to all :) ), but they are also known to increase focus and creativity. I think we had a lot of fun, and we may start a teachers' art work bulletin board-what fun for our students to see how creative their teachers can be!!!!

Have a great week everyone!

Second Grade Charles Demuth Contour Line Still Life

Second grade has moved on to learning about Charles Demuth and his watercolor still life(s). To begin this lesson second grade practiced seeing what is really in front of them by completing a one minute blind contour line drawing of flowers. We learned about what it means to only draw using contour line, as well as had A LOT of fun drawing without looking at our paper (no peeking!). We also learned a lot about the difference between drawing what we think we see, and what we really see, when we saw the diverse results of our blind contour drawings. Enjoy the pictures of second grade hard at work on their final drawings-this time we could look at both the flowers in front of us and our paper.

 My example of a contour drawing

Second grade also remembers to fill the page with the actual size of the flower- final results soon to come!

Kindergarten Fall Leaves-Almost Complete!

Kindergarten has been hard at work creating their fall leaves using only primary colors. We have learned so much about mixing colors by overlapping primary colored tissue paper. We have also learned about the parts of a leaf, and the season when leaves change color. Pictures soon to come of our leaves hanging on our fall tree!

It's Raining Color In DPS's Art Room!

Second grade has been hard at work creating their collaborative tints and shades, geometric and organic shape mobiles (whew-we have been learning a lot!). After students learned how to mix tints and shades students moved on to using their now painted tints and shades paper to create mobiles filled with shapes. Before students moved to cutting out shapes and gluing their shapes to string, students learned how shapes are formed and what makes a shape, a shape! Second grade students understand shapes cannot be formed until a line connects- until the line connects to close a shape, it is still a line. I loved watching students put their heads together to create their mobiles-coming up with a variety of organic and geometric shapes! Students had fun thinking of organic shapes they have seen in nature. We have some amazing collaborative artists in second grade at DPS. Enjoy the pictures!

First and Kindergarten students are still hard at work-post soon to come on their progress and finished products!

 

Students took turns naming and drawing geometric and organic shapes

Our first mobiles are hanging from the art room ceiling! Beautiful!

Great way to practice and refine color mixing skills, as well as paper cutting skills.

"Artists of The Month, October 2013!"

I am pleased to announce our October 2013 "Artists of The Month" have been chosen. Students first made their way into the "art bug bucket" by receiving a green ticket for being Respectful, Responsible, and Safe. Students who had their name in the art bug bucket were then chosen to have their names displayed on the "Artists of The Month" bulletin board for the entire school to see! GREAT JOB ARTISTS!! :)

Students will be informed if they made it to the "Artists of The Month" bulletin board during their next art class.