Artist in Residence

What an exciting week!  We created 6 mosaic panels and Lizz was able to get the mosaic onto the column.  Monday and Tuesday will be cleaning up, filling in and grouting.  If you have never had an artist come and do a residency I highly recommend it. It has been an amazing experience.  We have been extremely lucky to have not only a talented mosaic artist to work with and learn from but also great volunteers.  I really enjoyed meeting some of the parents and getting to know them better.  Often as an art teacher I don't get as much contact with parents as I would like.  Here are some photos from the week.  I will post a few more when the project is complete.

Artist in Residence

We are excited to have Lizz Van Saun from Kast Hill Studio in Contoocook, NH come and work with us at BES.  We will be making a mosaic to decorate the cement column at the entrance to the school.  Friday afternoon we prepared the pattern and set up the glass.  Lizz did an amazing job incorporating the students' drawings for the template.  Here is a sneak peak of Lizz's design and the column where the mosaic will be attached when it is finished. I will be posting more photos as the week goes on.  It's going to be an exciting week here at BES!

Owls

In second grade we have been talking a lot about texture.  When we were drawing our owls we really looked at the feather patterns and textures.  We also added more visual texture to our trees with brown crayon.  While creating our collaged backgrounds we used torn paper towels from an earlier project that added another texture element to the project.  They came out great and the kids really worked hard on adding details.  

Free-form Shape Monsters

First grade students were learning about shapes.  We talked about the difference between free-form and geometric shapes.  After practicing drawing free-form shapes students drew 1 large one on construction paper and cut it out.  I didn't tell them what we were going to do with it yet.  After the shape was cut out and glued to white paper I read the story, "If you're a Monster and You Know it" by Rebecca Emberley.

There is also a song that you can download and play.  The kids had fun singing and acting the book out.

The next class we turned our free form shapes into monsters.  We brainstormed all kinds of details that could be added.  We used pencil and sharpie for this part.  Finally, we added color with construction paper crayons.  Here is a link to some other monster books for kids.

Look at the fun and creative monsters we came up with!

Art Room Robots - Grade 2

  Students designed robots to help out in the art room.  We talked about all of the materials we use in art and what types of clean up jobs our robots could do. Our robots clean the floor, the paintbrushes, sharpen pencils, stack chairs, pick up clay scraps, unclog glue bottles and lots of other helpful jobs.  We really tried to make sure that the details in our pictures helped show the robots job.  

I used the Fotobabble app on the ipad as a way for students to share their robots with others.  Fotobabble is an easy app that adds sound to any photo.  Once I had their photos and recordings I made QR codes that linked their artwork to the recording.  I printed the codes and attached them to the artwork. During class I allowed 4 students at a time to scan the codes and listen to other classes robots.

QR Code

Third Grade Radial Designs

Every year I try to do some sort of radial symmetry project with my third grade students.  This year I decided to use color pencils and black construction paper.  They turned out great.  We did talk a little about contrast when we were coloring them and students looked for colors that would make their designs stand out.  To create these designs we first practiced drawing a variety of lines.  After that we looked at some radial designs and talked about what makes radial symmetry (a circular design with a center point and designs repeating out from the center).  I gave them practice sheets with a bullseye design on them to make it easier.  Their assignment was to use a variety of lines to create a radial design.  Final designs were transferred to black paper and then colored in.  

While they were working on completing their designs students took turns using the iPad app Doodle Dandy.  This app allows you to make really interesting radial designs.  I always use this with my students and it is always a big hit.  It is a free app and easy and fun to use for all ages. 

Radial Designs using Doodle Dandy app

Artist Studios

Students looked at Henri Matisse's painting The Red Studio.  We also looked at other kinds of art studios and talked about what an art studio was.  There are so many great studio pictures on Pinterest!  Each student chose a type of art and designed their own studio.  The kids had fun designing their studios.  We talked about what types of supplies they would need, types of furniture and lighting.  I saw a similar project on Pinterest and thought it would be a great project for the start of the school year.  

Henri Matisse's The Red Studio