Week 4: Stained glass names

For the younger kids who don't write in cursive yet, I did not do the cursive insect names, but instead did some straight-line stuff. I had the first and second graders use rulers and pencil to make several boxes ona piece of paper that corresponded to the number of letters in their names. We have a short-named group, so that is nice:-)

In each box I instructed them to draw uppercase letters and use straight, bold lines in black marker. I wanted the end result to be a box with multiple "windows: with positive and negative shapes. The use of line, and positive/negative shapes is a big focus of these frist two months.

In each "cell" created I told the kids to color one color and the final result is very graphic!

Week 4: Cursive Insects

Here was a fun project inspired by several of my favorite art teacher blogs.  Its also another way to incorporate the kids' names into a  project.

The first step was to have the student choose two different colors of paper, one for the background and one for the "insect."  They fold the foreground page in half long-ways.  With the fold down, they write their name large and in cursive with the fold as the baseline. Ignore descenders.  Then they can make a bubble outline around their name or just eyeball it. Using scissors they cut ut their name, making sure to leave enough areas along the fold so as to not separate the two halves. (even if you do that fine, though). Then they unfold, glue down and decorate.  Sometimes they end up looking like aliens or birds or frogs. It a lot of fun. Much like an inkblot test.  Can you decode the names?

Week 3: Modigiliani Self Portraits

I like to do several self portraits each year, usually in different media.  It gives the kids a measuring stick as to their art improvement and makes a great piece to keep.

This week we did self portraits in the style of Modigliani, the Italian painter know for he exaggerated and elongated faces.  The distortion inherant in this style is perfect for the imperfect manner in which most kids draw, so perfection is not the goal, but expression is.  Often this lesson is harder to teach then straightforward art.

The class was pretty simple. I gave each kid a piece of black paper and oil pastels. The only other rules were to make the head and/or neck distorted.

Week 2: Apples in colored pencil

For the older kids, I got the colored pencils out.  It was Johnny Appleseed's birthday and I got each kid an apple for them to draw.

The main focus of this lesson was for them to really look at the apple and see that it is not just one color, but a real mix of colors, which suited colored pencil very well.  The streaks and stripes and blemishes all work with the form of the pencil. Plus, the pencil allows for some nice layering of color.

Week 2: Paper plate apples

Since it is apple season, I wanted to do  a project with apples. Sebastopol is apple country as well, so it really is a nice tie-in.  For the younger kids I had them paint an apple on the back of a paper plate that was glued to a color paper.








The key to this project was getting the kids to really look at the apple and realize that it wasn't just "red" but that really it was yellow with red streaks and even some green spots.

Their favorite part was eating their model when done!

Week 1: K-2 Hand prints

As a way to ease into the new art year, I had the kids in the K-2 class draw some handprint outlines on paper and color them in fall colors.  The trick was to overlap the hands to create lots of little shapes, both positive and negative. This way it became a work of astract art as well as something that related to them.

Once they got 5-6 overlapping handprints done in black pen,  (the kids did get a lot of pen on their hand!:-) I had them select 3-4 crayon colors, with an emphasis on fall colors like red, orange yellow and brown. I asked them to color in each shape with a different color. Little shapes and big shapes.

This ended up being a brain teaser to have the kids stop when they got to a line and choose a new color. But that was the whole point!

Back to School

Only one more week until Pleasant Hill Christian School starts back up!  Its a bit later than most public schools though. I am teaching art to all the kids in grades K-6 in three classrooms. To streamline things, they will all be taught on Monday.  Hopefully this arrangement works out.

For all you parents reading, please feel free to suggest projects.  This is my third year teaching art to these kids, but since they are in shared classrooms, I can't blindly repeat projects every year since the same kids would be getting duplicates. There are some projects like self-portraits that I do repeat, but I try to keep it 90% new each year. I will be able to start recycling this next year since the classrooms will have have "turned over" mostly.

Also, this fall, I may ask for some specific art supplies to be sent with your child later in the semester or in the winter. I'll get back to you.

Also, if anybody has craft supplies that they would like to donate, please let me know. Who knows what inspiring items I might get.

See you back at School!

Week 30: Father's Day

Oops, I just found this post that didn't get posted in June.  Hope you like it.

The end of school was in May and its been crazy since then, so I am just getting my brain back around blogging the art classes. And my other excuse was that I didn't want to "spoil" the Father's Day surprise by posting it in May;-)

I had the kids make Father's Day cards:

Week 29: Name Patterns and color

The kids like to doodle and draw, and I thought I would have them do some pattern and color work as well. My goal was to have them use two complimentary colors (ie: blue/orange, red/green, purple/yellow).


I had them use a marker to draw their name on a large paper. To that they added, like ripples of water, concentric rings that went outward from their name. The end result was kinda 1970's funky looking, but fun.

Then I had them use their watercolors, or crayons/markers, to fill in alternating stripes with their complimentary colors.

This was a very meditative process and the kids liked the result. I also gave them the choice to write the word MOM if they wanted, or their name was too long. Since Mother's day was coming up, they could give these little masterpieces to their mothers.

Week 28: Georgia O'Keefe Flowers

Continuing to study famous artists, we turned to Georgia O'Keefe and her iconic flowers. Instead of painting these beauties, I had the kids use tissue paper and watered down glue, so that the result would be as bold and graphic as possible!

I started by showing the students several of O'Keefe's most famous flowers and pointing out that she made her images bold, colorful and really close-up. I wanted the kids to fill their paper as much as possible. The tissue paper allowed for some nice layering of color and bold forms.

Several kids made their art 3-D by crumpling or using paper that tuck out more. I even hd a few cupcake liners that make nice flower centers.