Kindergarten Peacocks

Mixed Media

"Miss Winthrop, will you tell us a sad story about a sharpie?"

While making our peacocks, we talked about the correct way to use supplies in the art room. When students don't take care of their supplies, it is a sad story. We talked about the right way to take care of our papers (don't squash or rip them!), the right way to use and put crayons away (nicely in the box!) and how to keep sharpies from drying out (make sure the lid clicks!). Thank goodness for supply safety in the art room!

1stGrade Aboriginal Art

Mixed Media
(Oil pastel and Tempera)

Wow.. The 1st Graders worked so hard on thier Aboriginal pieces! We first looked at aboriginal art from austrialia and they took notes on the designs they liked in the artwork. Then we traced our hands and designed them using our notes. We used q-tips to add a pattern to the background. Finally, each student drew an animal, used oil pastel to add color, then cut it out and glued the whole thing together. The hard work these guys put into thier projects really shows!!

2nd Grade Landscapes with Treehouses

2nd Grade Mixed Media

Foreground, middle ground, background! 2nd grade has been working on landscapes for the past couple weeks. We put details in the foreground and then worked on the middle and background. The final step was to put a tree and tree house in the middle ground. For the writing piece of the project each student wrote a short statement about why they thought artists painted landscapes.

Artists paint landscapes... because they are cool and nice.

...because they are pretty.

...because people love to paint things.

...because they want to be creative.

Frank Stella Collages

3rd Grade Mixed Media

We looked at Frank Stella's work and talked about positive and negative space in pictures. Then, we used different media to create interesting colors and designs on our papers. We then cut out different sized organic shapes and arranged them to create our composition. Nice work!

Underwater Portraits: Jason De Caires Taylor

5th Grade Mixed Media

4th Grade, these portraits are fantastic! The first class we talked about the artist Jason DeCaires Taylor and how he creates underwater sculptures that serve as artificial reefs and also benefit sea life. Then, we did a background in watercolor. After it was dry, we traced our faces onto a mirror- harder than it looks! We transferred the image onto the watercolor paper and added sea creatures to finish the project.

New Year Dragons

Kindergarten Mixed Media: New Year Dragons!

We made these fabulous dragons to celebrate the Year of the Dragon! The kindergartners worked so hard on these guys... it shows! We looked at images from Chinese New Year celebrations and talked about how we see art in everyday life. These Chinese dragons have so much character! Nice work kindergartners!