2nd Grade Emotion Dots

2nd Graders learned about color in artwork expressing emotion. We read the book, "My Many Colored Days," by Dr. Suess and talked about what colors we would use to represent various emotions. Once we had 4 emotions we wanted to express with color, we learned some chalk pastel techniques.

3rd Grade Mandalas

3rd grade students created mandala dots to celebrate Dot Day.

"Mandala" is Sanskrit for circle. Mandalas are beautiful circular designs that are created in many cultures around the world and are symbolic for the ideas of wholeness, balance and peace.

First we created some concentric circles on our papers. We started with a dot in the very center of our circle. Then we began to draw our lines and patterns outward from our dot.

This student did an excellent job, even with a cast on her dominant hand! 

 

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1st Grade Positive and Negative Space Dots

Every class is reading and discussing the book, "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds in preparation for Dot Day, which we will celebrate on Friday September 18th. Dot Day is actually an international holiday, celebrated all over the world, all because of the powerful message in the story!

1st graders discussed the deeper meanings and takeaways from the book.
"What can we learn from how the characters behaved?"

Many responses included:

• Don't give up even if you're not feeling confident
• Bravely express your ideas and feelings
• Encourage others
• Be proud of yourself and your creations
• Make a mark and see where it takes you
• Don't be afraid to start

Here are some of the first grade students working on their watercolor and crayon resist pieces for Dot Day.

Art Underway! Our First Weeks in Art

It's wonderful to be back! Take a look inside the art studio at Prairie Ridge...


A view from the back corner of the classroom!

Above the tables hang colorful lanterns.

New carpets for reading and discussions

Art vocabulary alphabet, clean up procedures and elements and principles of art cards.

We call the Mona Lisa our Classroom Mascot Masterpiece. When I say "Mona," students respond with "Lisa!" and must show me the 3 things.

A color theory mural I created to remind students of the important color families used in art.

Our first week of art we created sketchbooks. These sketchbooks will be kept in class portfolio drawers for the whole year and will be used for note-taking, vocabulary, sketching, experimenting with mediums, writing down thoughts, reflecting, etc. Students had the opportunity to use a variety of materials to adorn the cover of their sketchbook.
Here is the video I made to show students on the first week of school. I has a bit of a dramatic and mysterious feel, which is appropriate for this year, because we will be hunting for and investigating hidden meanings and stories within art.

 

As we begin the second week, students were introduced to the word "medium." An art medium is the substance the artist uses to create an artwork. For example, the medium Michaelangelo used for his sculpture, "David" was marble, and Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" was created using oil paint.

We also differentiated "medium/media" from "tools." Scissors, paint brushes and palettes are not art mediums, but tools we use to help us apply the art mediums.

We then applied our learning and experimented with 6 mediums around the room. At the final station, students created a heart shape on fabric, paper, felt or burlap using a variety of media: wool, yarn, oil pastel, watercolor. The hope is to combine every student's heart together on panels to create an installation for the school. Here is one layout I created this week. It will be interesting to see how the final piece takes shape!

4th and 5th grade students learned about the felting technique this week and felted a heart that will be part of the collaborative all-school installation. I hope to get it completed and hung this week with every student's contribution.

Here is the video I made to introduce students to the word, "media/medium."