Art Activities Update

As spring approaches, we are super busy in the art room.  We have learned so many new concepts, skills and techniques that have prepared us for a smorgasbord of art adventures!  Take a look below to see the wide range of art activities happening at English Landing.

Kindergarten used Play-Doh to practice their pinch pots.  We used texture to create designs.

After a lot of practice, we were ready for the real thing!  Kinders made these pinch pots out of air drying model magic....

and painted them with tempera paint.

A mountain of Kindergarten pinch pots!

First grade read the book Why Is Blue Dog Blue?  by George Rodrigue.  It is a great book about how artists make pictures to express themselves!  We carefully studied the blue dog illustrations, and then drew our own dogs.  We used only primary colors to paint our pictures.

Blue Dog painting in progress.

We outlined our Blue Dogs carefully with black paint.  What great practice for fine motor skills!!!

Completed Blue Dog

Completed Blue Dog

Completed Blue Dog

2nd grade is working on self portraits.  We spent a long time studying the porportions of the human face to make our drawings look realistic.  By looking in our portrait mirrors, we could include in our drawings the things that make each of us unique.

We also learned how to blend colors together to create realistic skin tones, hair colors, and shadows.

Completed portrait

Completed portrait

Completed portrait

Completed portrait

Primary Painter's Challenge!!!!  3rd grade made as many colors as possible using only red, yellow, and blue.

We cut our challenge paintings into tiny pieces and used them to create beautiful animal mosaics!

Beautiful!

Great job 3rd grade!

4th grade is working on a mixed media project.  We were inspired by the book Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold.  Our artworks depict special places or events in our lives.  We added a collage border around the edges to look like a quilt, since that is what Ringgold does to her artwork. 

Completed Tar Beach work

Completed Tar Beach work

Completed Tar Beach work

Completed Tar Beach work

5th grade is in the middle of a clay sculpture project.  Students were to design and create an imaginary creature or monster.  We used modeling clay to practice and test our ideas, and then created the final sculpture (seen above).  Soon they will be painted and even more awesome!

Art Club Update

I want to take this opportunity to highlight a couple AWESOME Art Club projects.  Art Club is made up of 5th grade students who meet before school to work on extra projects.  The small group settings enables us to experiment with some sophisticated techniques and ideas.

After studying the work of Frank Stella, art club made individual abstract artworks.  These were combined to create an amazing 3-D group project.  WOW!

Art club began this project by making a mask out of clay....

and then embelishing with rafia, beads, ribbon, fabric, and other odds and ends.

Close up!

Close up!

Close up!

Close up!

Close up!

We Love Weaving!

We are practicing a new skill... weaving!  Weaving can be done in many creative ways with lots of different materials.  When we first learn to weave at E.L., we start by weaving paper strips.  As students get older, they learn to weave using yarn, string, ribbons, lace, and fabric. 

Below you will find photos of our weavings in progress.  You will also find a few color activities!

Kinders turned their primary painters challenge paper into super cute and colorful owls!

Whooooo knows about primary colors?  We do!!

1st graders learned that sometimes art can show feelings.  We discussed several famous abstract paintings and tried to decide what feeling the artist expressed with his color and line choices.  Students then used crayons to make lines that were happy, sad, excited, relaxed, etc.

We listened to different types of music to get us in the mood as we drew our lines.  It was fun!

After drawing lines with feelings, we discussed how colors can show feelings too!  We read the book My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss to help us figure out how different colors can give a certain feeling, and then painted our papers with watercolor.

Beautiful abstract art!  Ask your first grader to explain the feelings he or she showed in this painting.

2nd graders turned their primary painter's challenge papers into a beautiful woven artwork.  This was their first experience with weaving, so we started off by learning the "over-under-over-under" technique. 

After weaving their paper looms with strips painted paper, some students got creative by weaving ON TOP of their weaving!

3rd graders build on their knowledge of weaving by using some new materials- YARN! 

When we finished our weavings, we were able to remove them from the cardboard looms.  Our fiber art is now ready to take home!



4th graders develop their creative and problem solving skills during their weaving unit.  After creating individual decorative looms out of clay, each student chose several different types of materials to weave within the frame. 



Ms. May has a GIANT collection of yarn, string, lace, fabric, ribbon, beads, sequins and other materials to choose from, and sometimes it's tricky to figure out how to incorporate items without them falling apart.  Building our weavings took a lot of hard work, but we successfully completed them...  and they look BEAUTIFUL!

5th grade Rene Magritte project.  Look familiar?  We based our project off the famous painting "Son of Man".

This project gave us tons of good painting practice.  Students had ONLY primary colors (plus black and white) to create all the colors they needed for the portraits.

After students finished painting, we used oil pastels to create smaller details on top of the paint.

Primary Painter Challenge

After several fun learning activities, E.L. students' knowledge of color is put to the test... it's time for the primary painter's challenge!  Students are required to create several different colors using ONLY the primary colors (red, yellow and blue).  Younger grades focus on making the three secondary colors (green, orange and violet).  Second grade is even attempting some tricky intermediate colors during their challenge (red violet, blue violet, yellow green, blue green, red orange and yellow orange).  Fifth grade students have the hardest challenge of all- creating neutral colors!  Have you ever tried to create a perfect peach using only primary colors?  Or tan?  Or cream?  Not an easy task! 

Why not just buy a bottle of paint in the color that you need?  Why take the extra time to mix?  Mixing colors not only significantly deepens a child's understanding of color, but the mixed colors have a much richer look than paint straight out of the bottle.  Take a look below to see the subtle beauty of our blended color experiments.



Kindergarteners were challenged to make all the secondary colors... without making brown!



What a great way to experiment with colors!



1st grade reviewed warm and cool colors during this collage project.  Students chose whether to make a warm colored sky or a cool sky, and then used torn paper pieces to make clouds.

Students got some painting practice by adding a winter tree over the collage background.  We studied tree branches closely to make sure our paintings looked realistic.

2nd grade primary painter challenge!  I think I see some blue green in this one!

2nd grade primary painter challenge.

2nd grade primary painter challenge.

3rd grade takes a break from color to begin a weaving project.  These kids LOVE to weave!!

4th grade clay projects are all painted.  Next step:  weaving fiber and textile designs in the middle.

5th grade color mixing project.  Students did a great job mixing the colors needed for their portraits.

What a gorgeous paint palette!!