Thank-you Roosevelt students and families for welcoming me into your community! It has been wonderful getting to know the students and working with them to create art. We have been busy in the art room. Here is a look at what we have been doing:
Third grade has been making Sketch Books and practicing Still Life Observational Drawing. Ask your third grader to make you a book—all you need is computer printer paper (copy paper), yarn and scissors! If you would like to talk to your student about observation and what it is, the way I define observation in art is: Looking carefully and attentively to draw what you see.
Grade 3 Still LIfe Sketchbooks
Second grade has been learning about concentric circles and spirals and how to fold a square piece of paper in halves and on the diagonals to find the center. After opening up the paper, they used crayons to create a concentric circle pattern using their own choice of colors and additional patterns to fill the paper. Have your second grader show you how they can fold a square piece of paper and draw a concentric circle pattern. Point out to them how the folded lines can be used as guidelines for creating a radial design. The next project for grade two is called ‘Spiral Snails.’ An idea: take a look at snails together and talk about the spiral shape of the shell and how your student might like to draw a snail using observation and their own imagination to make a unique and interesting design.
Grade 2 Concentric Circle Designs
For the last 2 weeks, grade five students have been working on abstract designs based on straight, zig zag and/or wavy diagonal lines drawn on a rectangular piece of paper. I asked students to begin adding color by using one color colored pencil to show light, medium and dark shading and then fill the rest of the shapes with their own color and shading choices. The students demonstrated excellent colored pencil skills and the ability to create original and expressive designs! In addition to this abstract art activity, during the beginning of class warm up exercise, students have been practicing observational still life drawing. Next week, the fifth grade will talk about how they can use ideas from abstract elements and still life to create an abstract work of art based on a still life observation.
Grade 5 Colored Pencil Abstract Designs
Grade one has been having fun exploring construction paper, scissor and glue. The students have been learning about how cutting lines in paper creates shapes which can then be combined using their own ideas to make works of art. Many of these first grade creations are up in the hall—stop and take a look. It is amazing the things your first grade students know and how unique and expressive each work of art is!
Grade 1 Cutting Lines Exploration
Grade four students explored oil pastel this week by working on newspaper to apply oil pastel thickly using as many colors as possible. My challenge to students with this assignment was to see if they could apply the oil pastel thickly enough to make the print beneath disappear. I also wanted to see if they could use the grid structure of the newspaper layout to guide their own rectangular designs. We will be talking about the words opaque and transparent and will use these explorations to observe which colors are opaque and which are transparent.
Grade 4 Oil Pastel Technique Lesson
Until next time . . . happy art making!
Susan Deming