November and December

Kindergarten Vase Art
Key Objectives: students use basic shapes to draw loose "vase-ISH" drawings, help students to simplify drawing and learn not to worry about the art being just right
Review: highlight and shadow

Materials: pencil, black crayon, tempera cakes, tissue paper squares and glue

Peacocks (K and 1st)                                                                          Key Objectives: In this lesson my students looked closely at peacock images and learned their basic shapes, colors and patterns.  It was emphasized that peacocks had long oval feathers with repeating circles on each one.  Also, students were encouraged to add texture lines to the feathers to make them look fuzzy.  Materials: pencil, colored pencils

 Primary Color Pattern Snakes (Kindergarten)
Key Objectives: students learn to recognize the primary colors of red, blue and yellow and know they are the original colors that mixed together in different ways make all the other colors, students recognize and implement an A-B-C pattern with color and triangle shape.  In doing this project they will understand the triangle needs to be turned from "point up" to "point down" to keep the triangles fitting together like a puzzle - this forms a straight line.  On a second day students then get to

 create a snake's head and tail thinking about the art word composition, or how an artist makes his/her artwork look interesting and makes our eyes travel around the paper - ie, curly tail, head down, etc.
Materials: pencil, tempera paints, triangle sponges, black marker, crayons

 Secondary Color Torn Paper Frederick (Kindergarten)
Key Objectives: After reading Frederick by Leo Lionni, we discussed how the illustration in the book appeared to be made out of collaged paper.  Students learned how to tear paper to make basic shapes for mice.  On a second day students used the primary colors to mix the secondary colors in a thought bubble above a mouse's head.  They finished their designs by adding a home.
Materials: black, white, gray paper scraps, pencils, black marker, glue sticks, oil pastels (red, yellow, blue) and crayons

 Native American drawings
Key Objectives: students studied many images of early Native American artwork, discussed how they used symbols to tell stories in their art, understood they used many natural materials to create art due to the time period, created their own unique Native American story art
Materials: brown "animal skin or bark" paper, pencil, crayons, feathers, glue sticks

 Pinch Pot Clay Monsters (Kindergarten)
Key Objectives: learn material of air dry clay (3-D Sculptures), clay tools, how to make a pinch pot, how to scratch and dab to make clay velcro to attach pieces, add texture marks
Materials: various clay tools, air dry clay, water, watercolors to paint when dry

 First Grade Cornucopias
Key Objectives: learn the basic shapes and lines to draw a cornucopia basket (oval, curved triangle, repeating lines for basket weave), oil pastels to blend
Materials: pencil, oil pastels, crayons, tempera paints

 First Grade Matisse style collage
Key Objectives: learn about the artist Henri Matisse, how he used bright colors, simple shapes and lots of patterns to bring his art to life, create their own unique cut paper still life/portrait in Matisse's style using simple shapes of brightly colored paper and lots of different patterns of lines and shapes to finish
Materials: pencil, scissors, glue stick, fine point markers multicolor

 Kintergarten and First Grade Winter Landscapes
Key Objectives: students studied artist illustrations of winter landscapes and learned that it is any art depicting the outdoors showing land and sky.  Students learned the objects in a painting the are bigger and toward the bottom are in the foreground and appear closer and the objects that are smaller and near the back are in the background - appear far away. They also learned the term horizon or ground line which is the line that separates the ground and the sky - usually a wavy one in a landscape.

Students had to complete this lesson in two classes - learning how artists need to make art in stages sometimes with layering.
Materials: tempera paints, small and medium brushes, q-tips for snow dots, pencil, oil pastels, glue and white snow glitter for tree branches

October

Mrs. Powers: 1st Grade Fall Trees with Leaf Prints
Key Objectives: drawing and shading trees trunks and branches from light to dark to show shape and form, printing with rubber leaves thinking about how to place them to make an interesting composition
Materials: pencil, crayons, rubber leaves, printing ink, brayers

Kindergarten Abstract sculptures

Key Objectives: Sculpting our model magic into a sphere shape by rolling in circles, drawing different line types then shaping wire into different lines, discussing the concept of 3-D art forms and abstract art

Materials: paper, pencil, markers, model magic, twisteez wires

Kindergarten Owls

Key Objectives: learn basic shapes to draw an owl-oval, circles, triangles and pointed talons, blending with oil pastels, texture (torn paper for feathers)

Materials: gray paper, pencil, oil pastels, glue stick, paper

  Kindergarten Name Collage

Key Objectives: learning letters of name by tracing, collage, pattern recognition and implementation

Materials: white paper, multicolored construction paper, black marker, glue stick, crayons

 Kindergarten Tree Sculputures

Key Objectives: cutting,  sculpting paper using our hands and fingers to bend and twist and shape a 3-D artform

Materials: scissors, brown paper bag, pencil, tissue paper, glue

 

Kindergarten Pineapples!!

Key Objectives: observing and drawing basic shapes of a pineapple - oval, pointed leaves, diagonal lines, cool color shadows, highlights and shadows

Materials: white paper, pencil, blue, purple and green marker, crayons, tempera cakes

 Indian Corn - Maize

 Key Objectives: shaping and cutting oval paper, repeating circle shapes for corn, highlight, shadow, using water colors in small spaces - small amount of water=juicier color

Materials: yellow construction paper, pencil, white oil pastel, black crayon, watercolors, tissue paper

Holliston Mill Open Studios!! This weekend!

Calling the community!!!!  This weekend, October 26th and 27th from 10-4pm, there will be an art show!  This display will have many local artists on display.  It will include some of our very own students as well as art teachers.  It is going to be a wonderful showing of talent and creativity.  Please stop in if you have some free time. 

The address of the Holliston Mill is 24 Water Street in Holliston.  The website is www.hollistonmill.com

I will personally be there on Sunday the 27th from 12-2.  Maybe I will see you there!

September

Since Fall is just around the corner and many people are out and about picking apples, I decided to start off with an mixed media apple lesson. 

Key Objectives: Apples are a round, circle shape

           Because apples are round and have shape and form, we need to show highlight and shadow to make them look realistic

Materials: pencil, crayons, tempera cakes

First Graders from Mrs. Powers class learned about the artist Piet Mondrian.  Piet was a Dutch painter famous for his simplistic and bright colored artwork from the 1900's.

Key Objectives: horizontal and vertical lines to create simple squares and rectangles, Primary colors to limit the color range and keep it basic and bold

Materials: pencil, tempera paints

Sunflowers are a big, beautiful flower full of texture.  This time of year they are standing tall and plentiful in gardens all around us.

Key Objectives:  circles, triangles, horizontal lines and ovals, understand visual texture

Materials: pencil, tempera paints, q-tips for texture dots

Back to School!

 My dad with my girls! Love!

I apologize about being out for the start of the school year.  Unfortunately, my father recently passed away unexpectedly and I was spending some time with my family.

On a happy note... here we are starting up a new year of amazing art lessons!  I can't wait to get back into the swing of things and meet my new little artists, and see a few friends from last year.  I am teaching a First grade (Mrs. Powers class)  along with my usual Kindergarten classes.  It will be such a pleasure to see some of my artists from last year continue to learn and grow this year.

Please bear with me as I get back to my room and get things in order.  September is already a busy time and I will be playing catch up!  I do hope to have some lessons and pictures up within a few weeks time!  Thanks for your patience and can't wait to get started!

Remember...art is therapeutic for all ages! Don't be hesitant to sit down and explore!

End of the Year!

I have had such a wonderful year teaching this group of Kindergarten students!  They have all grown and excelled so very much in just one short school year.  I am happy to be able to see them in the first grade hallway next year as they pass by my classroom.  Here are some of the last few weeks of projects....

 Porcupine Sculptures

Mixed Media - Caterpillar Collage

Zoo Animal Pattern Paintings

 Castles - Architecture, Lines, Geometric Shapes

 Franz Marc - Expressionist Painter

 Claude Monet - Impressionist Painter - "Haystacks" shows time of day

Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy Summer Break!!!!! Until the Fall........

Spring....busy as the bees!!

Wow, I cannot believe how time has flown!  With the Kindergarten Sing-a-long and Art show, as well as Art Saves Lives art show coming right up....I haven't had much time to update!  So...without further ado, here is a little peek into the latest projects:

Project: Rythym Line Designs

-color, torn paper, lines repeating and growing

 

 Project: Japanese Sumi-E Ink Painting

-loose and long brushstrokes, wavy lines, prints, traditional Asian signatures

Project: Pop Art Pizza (Claes Oldenburg)

-food sculpture, line and bright exciting colors

Project: Model Magic Porcupines

-3D sculpting, texture

Robots!!

After reading the story Boy + Bot, about a boy and his robot, the students discussed that robots are made up of geometric shapes.  Circles, rectangles, squares, ovals and triangles to name a few.  They had to decide on 6 shapes to draw on shiny metal paper to create a body, head, 2 arms and 2 legs of a robot.  They then cut, peeled and stuck each shape to their background paper.  They used marker to add lines and shapes to add details like eyes, antenna, ears, mouths, nails, and screws etc..  If time allowed they could use crayons to give their robots a place to live.  Check out the artwork from our robot factory.....

Ghost Trees

We studied and analyzed pictures of real ghost trees from nature.  Children noticed that they were probably called ghost trees because of their empty branches.  These trees were bare and their branches were made of wavy and bending lines.  The were almost white in color.  We also discussed how color can make the viewer feel a certain way.  They were quick to note that using whites and blues in artwork gave a calm, even sad feeling.  They were able to draw their own ghost trees using cool blue/white oil pastels and wavy lines.  The artworks are all beautiful and a little bit mysterious....