Jim Dine's Valentines

I have to say I am loving these Jim Dine projects! I totally love everything and anything about February because of Valentine's Day and Jim Dine. Who wouldn't want to create something totally fun and colorful out of hearts! These three lessons were done by second graders and first graders.

Second Grade- Heart Collage

The Heart Collage idea came from Artolazzi blog, http://artolazzi.blogspot.com/2012/01/jim-dine-heart-collage.html. I changed my a lesson just a tad and tried black and white paper for the the background. I am running out of construction paper!!

This lesson took a total of three days.

The first day we painted on colored construction paper. They were to paint one painting of lines as a pattern and the other painting they printed shapes with found objects in the art room.

Next day I had cut their paintings into fours and we all shared. They were to cut four symmetrical hearts and paste them on four rectangles. If there was time we pasted four valentines on a 12x18 sheet of paper.

Next day students added the border with torn scraps. They could add some sequins on top of some of these to make art shiney.

I taped yarn on the back of these I hung up in the hallway.

First Grade Jim Dine Paintings and Heart Clay Medallions

This art lesson I saw in a School Arts Magazine a couple of years ago. These below are bone dry and waiting to get fired in kiln. Next week students will use glaze and I will hang raffia through hole. I did this lesson two years ago and they are beautiful when finished. I will post the entire lesson with finished heart photos.

Snow Flake Banners and Snowy Landscapes

I have to admit I have been slacking off on the blog. My students have been doing such wonderful stuff in the art room and I NEED to share it!

Kirigami Snowflakes

In second grade I always like to do a lesson on symmetry. I go this great lesson from Dali's Moustache,http://dalimoustache.blogspot.com/2011/12/kirigami-snowflake-banners.html. This project took me about 2 to 3 days for the students to complete. Cutting the snowflakes was a bit challenging to them, but I really think it was something learned and remembered. Several told me they went home and made their own.

I hung several in the hall in January with yarn.

Things to remember next time I do this lesson, purchase more liquid glitter! Easier for the students to use and less messy.

This nine weeks with my other set of second graders we will be working on Japanese Notan. Lesson on the balance of light and dark and incorporates symmetry I think as well.

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.....

Robert Frost
This winter lanscape project was a great one. First nine weeks my students did the tint and shade lesson "Ghost Tree". Second Nine weeks I needed a value lesson for this set of third graders.I found this one on another teachers blog, and totally forgot, where. I will found out and post that! I changed mine just a little and used shade too. This lesson also incorporates space as the color gets lighter and shapes get smaller as they go back.

Tint was used in the blue for the snow and shade with green trees.

This lesson took al total of two days. But we were pushing it. Maybe next time Ill take my time and stretch it out.

The paint spatters by far their favorite!!

Gesture Drawing

Great 1 (50 minute class) or a 2 day project, depends on how detailed the wash is and how many gestures they draw. A fellow art teacher in the county gave me this idea years ago, and it rocks! Thanks Martha.

We do a lot of drawing lessons in art in 5th grade. This is a great beginner lesson on gesture drawing.

I put a wooden mannequin on each table in a different pose, that I have already made, and a basket of oil pastels. Students get 2 minutes to draw their mannequin. I demonstrate this first.

When time is up they move clock wise to the next table. 2 minutes again, with that gesture. I do ask the kids to turn their papers each time they move tables to get a different direction for the mannequin. If I don't they will draw all 6 in nice neat little rows, however some still do.

Also I do encourage overlapping and running the shapes off the paper for a great composition.

Students keep moving around to each table drawing for 2 minutes each, until they have completed 5. Then I, or I choose a student, to stand for 2 minutes in a pose (see picture) for students to sketch as well. They are to do this in shapes as well.

I do have 7 tables, and sometimes if time permits and space on their papers they do all 7 poses.

Water color wash on top. I think I let this class choose 4 colors, some did 5. Usually I make them pick a color scheme such as primary, secondary, warm, cool, analogous, etc. This day I didn't.

Starry Night in my Community

In their classrooms second graders learn about their community. I thought this would a great lesson to tie in a little art history and what they are working on in their rooms. This lesson is from, http://pantherspalette.blogspot.com/2011/02/2nd-grade-starry-night-paintings.html. She does a great job discussing the project and how to begin. I did not have the metallic markers, so we used metallic colored pencils instead. Both Ithink work great.

This lesson was done in about three days. I have 40 minute classes.

Students learned all about the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh, especially his painting "Starry Night". We discussed landmarks in our community such as, our school, fire departments, stores, neighborhoods, farms, office buildings, etc. these were drawn in metallic pencils. We also really talked about his use of dashes of color to show movement.

Great job second graders! Love these.

Kindergarten Initial Paintings

Great 2 day lesson on the letter recognition, shapes, lines, and intro to painting.

This lesson I have actually borrowed from the teacher I student taught with over 10 years ago. I haven't done it in a long time and thought it would be a great one for my kindergartners this year.

It is a great lesson to introduce painting. We discuss so many things with lesson such as how to hold a paint brush, how to wipe the brush, how to get paint and carry it back to their seats (see photo at bottom on how I set up paint in room), how to carry a wet painting to the drying rack, etc. Also we practice lines, shapes, and I introduce the concept of outlining. So many times kids first start painting the inside the of the shape first. Outlining keeps the shape of the letter and helps students to stay inside the lines of the shape.

This lesson is a little time consuming for me because I draw their initial first before hand in pencil. To start the lesson I ask them why do they think they have that particular letter. Then we talk about what an initial is.

First day:

We discuss all the basics with the brush, paint, etc. This takes a while.

out line and paint the letter one color. Then they can pick a line for the top and another for the bottom of the paper. I have the lines written on the board.

Second Day:

when they walk in the room I give them a card with one shape on it. We used triangles, circles, squares, ovals, and rectangles. We talked about the shapes and how they would use their shape five times in their letter, and the shape had to be the same size as the their shape in the card. Very helpful because they usually paint either super large or too small and would fill their letter with a thousand shapes.

They outlines their letter with another color. If their letter was a light color they needed to use a dark color for their outline. If the letter was a dark color they needed to use to use a light color for the outline. This adds contrast. Some got that concept, some did not.

Then they could use additional lines across the paper going behind the letter.

Student chose one color at a time. They pick it up behind the magic line and put it back behind the magic line. This picture is from last year. This year the table is in the middle of the room and the line and paints go all the way around the table.