Starry Night

Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, is a very kid friendly artwork.  It can be used to teach some of the basics of landscape (horizon line, foreground, middle ground, background) and also for teaching about using our imaginations.  Did you know that the village nestled quietly beneath that windy night sky does not actually exist?  Vincent made up the picture from his own imagination!

My first grade students created their own 'starry night' paintings using oil pastels.  I wasn't interested in getting a room full of Van Gogh look alike paintings.  However, you can tell from the similarities amongst the designs that I did do an example drawing on the board.  Example drawings are a catch 22.  You need to show the students what to do, but then you end up with a room full of the exact same image.  That is one I am still working on.

"I'm no good at drawing."

This is a common phrase that many children will say at one time or another.

My answer is simple.

"Of course your not that good at it, yet! If you were good at everything, you wouldn't need to go to school!"

Children have the mistaken idea that they have to be good at art the first time they try to draw a picture. I try to set them straight by comparing it to learning to play the piano. The first time anyone tries to play the piano, they are guaranteed to make plenty of mistakes, but that seems to be okay because it is expected. Everyone knows that if you want to get better at the piano, you have to practice. Visual art skills work the same way. Of course you will make lots of mistakes at first! That is completely normal! You will get better with practice!

This is true for all of those adults out there who decided sometime before 6th grade that they were "no good at drawing", too! You just need some lessons and lots of practice!

The amount of practice = the amount of success

If you don't practice at all, you'll never get better.

If you practice a little, you'll get a little better.

If you practice A LOT, you will be AMAZING!

1st grade - Kandinsky Inspired Pictures

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), a famous painter, painted these fun, free-formed circles.  The first grade students created their own Kandinsky inspired circle pictures, using circles they cut themselves out of construction paper!  It was great cutting practice and they had lots of fun!

Here is Mrs. Oxborrow's Kandinsky inspired artwork...

Here is Mrs. Watson's Kandinsky inspired artwork...

And, finally, here is a collection of the students' work!

1st grade - Textures

Today in class we used rubbing plates and crayons to explore textures as a topic for the first time. The kids had such a fun time that they had a hard time putting the crayons and plates away at clean up time!

Here is a 'homework' challenge! As a family activity, go on a texture hunt through your house! Using a crayon and a piece of paper, create rubbings of as many different textures as you can find. After 5 minutes, gather together when the timer goes off and see who found the most different textures!

This is not required homework and does not need to be brought to class for credit.  It is just for fun!

1st grade - Line and Texture

My first grade students spent a couple of days working with lines and textures. Each student placed several different kinds of lines on their paper with a black crayon. After placing the lines, the students used texture rubbing plates to fill the paper with colorful textures. They were encouraged to try multiple layers of textures and multiple layers of coordinating colors. Everyone had lots of fun!

1st grade - facial expressions

This week in art we are going to focus on drawing faces as portraits.

We will look at images of children who feel happy, sad, angry, or scared (startled). We will talk specifically about what happens to each part of the face during each emotion. For instance, have you noticed that someone who is angry pulls their eyebrows together and/or down so that scrunched up wrinkles show up on the nose?

At home today, you should go look in a mirror and make faces that show emotions! Watch your face carefully to see what each part of the face does during that emotion.  We will practice drawing faces that are showing emotions.

Meanwhile, can you look at these children and tell who is feeling happy? Sad? Angry? Surprised?

1st grade Mondrian style Paintings

The first grade classes learned about the famous painter, Piet Mondrian, and his particular style of painting.  Mondrian painted simple lines and shapes.  The shapes were almost always painted in primary colors.  He was searching for simple, harmonious balance in each of his paintings.

The first graders all agreed that it looked like they should be able to make their own Mondrian style paintings.  First, students placed lines on their paper.  Some of the lines went all the way across the paper.  Other lines only went part of the way.  All of the lines should have been straight.  Next, students painted only selected shapes in primary red, yellow, and blue.  Many shapes were left white.  The goal was to choose good shapes to paint, so the colors were spread out over the painting and not all bunched up together!  Here are some student examples...

Abecedarium

When you play around with the alphabet and turn the letters into artwork, that is called an ABECEDARIUM.  The first grade classes spent this week doing just that.  It is a fun way to think about the alphabet, but I reminded all of them that they still need to write their alphabet letters normally when they are writing their spelling and stories!

First Grade Self Portraits

Last week, the first grade classes explored feelings and how they show up on a person's face.  We talked about how each part of the face will change to show a feeling.  For instance, when a person is scared, the eyes will pop open, the mouth (with two lips!) will open wide, and the eyebrows will go up higher on the forehead.

We also went over all the parts on a head (two eyes with pupils, a nose with two nostrils, a mouth with two lips, eyebrows, ears, hair) and where they should be placed on the picture.  For instance, the eyes go much further down than most children tend to draw them.  This leaves room for a forehead and hair ON the head, not above it.

After practicing this, the students were given a paper with a blank head shape already drawn on it.  While looking into a mirror, each student chose a feeling (happy, sad, scared, or angry) to put on their face, and then drew a self portrait, making sure to include all the features of their head/face.  Before coloring, however, I asked the students to include one more thing, a BACKGROUND (drawings of stuff behind them in the self portrait) that explains WHY they are feeling the way they do in the picture. 

Here are some examples of what the students made...

1st grade - Starry Night

Today we looked at an artwork by Vincent Van Gogh called The Starry Night and learned a little about Mr. Van Gogh's life. Make sure you tell your mom and dad all about what you learned! Moms and Dads, we learned about his life, not his death.

This is a quick reminder to try to stay up until just after dark tonight (it gets dark at about 8:00 p.m. right now) and go outside with your parents to look at your night sky! Look carefully at all the details you see because tomorrow we will be drawing our own night skies! Once the drawing is done, we will be using oil pastels to paint it in Mr. van Gogh's painting style!

1st grade - basic color theory

This week, the first grade will be introduced to their first lessons on color theory. We will be covering Primary colors, Secondary colors, and the Color Wheel.

Primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. They are called Primary because they are the first colors; the most powerful colors. When combined in millions of different ways, they can make all the other colors that exist! Also, no other colors can combine to make them!

Secondary colors come second. They are created when two Primary colors are mixed in equal amounts. It is that equal amounts thing that gives them their special standing as Secondary colors. The Secondary colors are orange, green, and violet. Violet can also be called purple.

A Color Wheel is the way that artists organize the colors to show how they are related to each other.

My Greatest Treasure

Our first assignment this year is to create a picture of 'Your Greatest Treasure'.  Each student was encouraged to think of the one thing that is the most important thing in the world to them, the thing they cannot live without, and to make a picture of it.

My Greatest Treasure is my family, so I showed the students paintings I have made of my family members.

Artists create works of art that have personal significance to them.  An artist will not make art unless it is important or meaningful to them.  This is our first lesson as artists this year.  No matter what I assign, I want the students to look for ways to adapt the assignment so that they are creating something that is meaningful to them (and still shows that they are learning the concepts taught)!

Welcome to a new school year!

Welcome back, Harvest Elementary students and parents!  I hope you have had a summer full of adventure and that you are ready to experience the adventures waiting for you here at school!

This term I am starting the year with some of my first, second, and third grade classes.  I am looking forward to making lots of messes with you, and hopefully we'll learn lots along the way, too!

First Grade Color Wheels

The first grade students painted and cut out their own color wheels. The secondary colors you see were created using only primary colors. The students were expected to be able to follow directions enough to create the 6 colors of the simple color wheel, cut out a tracer shape, trace it on all 6 colors, then cut out those 6 new shapes. As you can see by comparing the image above with the image below, some students have developed more of the fine motor skills required for cutting than others. I strongly encourage giving your children lots of opportunities to practice this important skill!

How to draw

This week we are going to focus on drawing lessons.

On Tuesday, each student will be asked to draw an object for me without having any instruction first. This sketch will be placed in the portfolio.

On Wednesday we will have drawing lessons that focus on the skill of blocking in basic shapes first before adding detail.

On Thursday we will learn about getting the right sizes in the right places during blocking in and focusing in order to notice all of the details. (The first two classes will miss today because of an assembly)

On Friday each student will again draw an object. We will pull out the first drawing and compare it to the second drawing and discuss the difference. (Several classes will miss today because of Halloween celebrations)

What you can do at home:

Please encourage your student to draw commonly found objects around the house. A pot or pan, a fork, the light switch, the TV... anything that would make a simple composition (a chandelier or a tree would not be a good choice for simple!)

Remind him/her to look for the simple shape(s) made by the object. Squint your eyes to try to see it. Put the simple shape(s) on the paper first. After the simple shapes are there, slowly build up layers of details. When you think you are done, compare your drawing to the original object. Did you leave anything out? Often children miss details. We want to train them to look for and draw the details.

The biggest challenge is drawing WHAT YOU SEE instead of what you think it should look like. A good example of this is a pair of glasses. Most kids draw something like this...

When really, what they see is this...

That sort of focus only comes with time and practice.

Portfolios and name tags

Today we are creating portfolios to keep our work in. A portfolio is a folder to keep work in over time. An artist's portfolio shows progress over time, can be used when you are older as an audition piece for college, or as a resume of work done as a professional. In our art class, we only need a portfolio to keep our work safe in the classroom.

We will also be making name tags to keep in our portfolios. The name tags help me remember and/or learn your names in the first week of class. After that, they can stay in your portfolios until there is a substitute teacher in the art room. If you come in and see a sub, you should pull out your name tag and set it up to make life easier for the substitute teacher!

Welcome to a new term!

Welcome to the art room for Term 2! I am looking forward to working with 1st and 2nd grade this term.

This is the 'Holiday Term' because it encompasses all of the Fall/Winter holidays within it. It makes this term feel longer than the others because of all the breaks in it, but it is really the same number of days in school as the other terms.

The End of the Term

I want to thank all of the students who attended art for the first term of this year! I really enjoyed our time together and I think you learned many wonderful new things!

As your portfolios go home, remember to show them to your parents, explain what you did and what you learned, and above all... KEEP YOUR PORTFOLIO SAFE!!!

In the spring, we will have a school wide art show. This will be a gallery experience, not a competition. That means we will admire the artwork like it is a museum, but we will not vote on favorites or award prizes. There will be an evening party and concert for the school choir and orchestra at that time, as well.

Every student will be expected to participate in the art show and your core teacher will be helping you. The easiest way to participate is to bring an artwork you created in art class! So put that portfolio in a safe place until May!

Thanks again for all the fun times! Feel free to keep watching the blog to see what other grade levels are learning in art and have a wonderful time in computers!

1st grade - leaf texture rubbings

On Tuesday morning, I picked a bag full of leaves from the old growth trees in my back yard and brought them for the first grade students to enjoy. There is something very fulfilling in the tactile experience of fall leaves. We talked about the use of the word 'Fall' in place of the word 'Autumn'. Mrs. Penrod's class was tickled when I told them to "leave the leaves on the table" for the next class.

Parent/Teacher Conferences!

I am excited to welcome parents to the art room for conferences this week!

I will be in my classroom from 4:00 to 6:45 p.m. both tonight and tomorrow night. Please feel free to drop in at any time that I am here, no appointments are necessary. If your student's p/t conference isn't until later in the evening, you are still welcome to come a little early and visit with me, then visit the book fair before going to your child's core teacher.

While you are here, make sure to enter your son/daughter in the prize drawing! Three winners will be randomly selected to receive a prize. The prizes are (in no particular order);

1. Crayola Color Explosion variety pack
2. Box of 120 Crayola crayons + a sketch pad
3. Package of 50 Crayola washable markers + a sketch pad

Here are the eligibility requirements for the contest:

1. Only students who are in art this term are eligible to be entered.
2. Only one entry per student.
3. Parents need to write their student's first and last name (and the core teacher's name) on a slip of paper and drop it into the bowl in my classroom during parent/teacher conferences.
4. Winners will be selected on Monday.
5. There is no guarantee of winning.

I hope to see lots of you and good luck in the drawing!