Thursday, May 15, 2014

Apps in the Art Room

Recently I was lucky enough to purchase two ipad minis from Donors Choose. The parents at my school, as well as friends and family, made this purchase possible. We are so excited to be using the ipads on a daily basis to learn more about art, explore famous paintings, edit our own art projects, practice animation, and travel to places around the world! Here are some of our recent projects!
 
Kindergartners have been learning about American artist, Charley Harper, and have used a great app that explores his artwork. It is called Peekaboo Forest and is an interactive game that allows children to "find" Charley Harper animals hiding in their habitats.
 
First graders learned about Wayne Thiebaud and used the Percolator app to edit their own projects.

 
Second graders have been using the Play Art app to dissect and reassemble elements from famous works of art to create their own versions of famous paintings.

 
Third graders have been learning about the portraits of Guiseppe Arcimboldo and have used the app, Faces iMake, to create their own fruit and vegetable portraits!


 
Fourth graders have been learning about Spanish artist, Joan Miro, and have created their own Miro-like creatures using the Zolo app.

 
 
Fifth graders read this article (http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/24/us/andy-warhol-lost-art/index.html) and created their own version of a Campbell's soup can using Drawing with Carl.

 
 
My class sizes are usually 30-35 and I keep a checklist to make sure the ipads are rotated. Using both ipads, usually it will take us three class periods to create a project and pass them around so everyone has a turn. They do this while they are working on another hands-on art project!
 
We are loving our new technology in the art room and can't wait to delve further into this new experience! Thank you, donors!!

Friday, October 11, 2013

If the Dinosaurs Came Back!


Kindergarten Art

In Art class, we read the story “If the Dinosaurs Came Back.” We were inspired to use squares and rectangles to draw a city scene with marker. Then we drew and cut shapes to create a dinosaur!




Thursday, September 26, 2013

Exploding Dots!

We just loved celebrating International Dot Day at our school this year! After reading "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds, students from Kindergarten through fifth grade created dot-themed art projects to start the year. "Just make a mark and see where it takes you" was the perfect message for our young artists.
 
Fifth Graders made these exploding dots. Their paper sculptures were bright, vibrant, and very fun! Students loved this project and the results were stunning.
 
 





Thursday, May 10, 2012

Matisse Masterpieces

The Toledo Museum of Art, our local museum, has a beautiful Matisse mural called Apollo. Third graders used that piece as inspiration to create their cut paper designs!

 

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

File Folder Books: American Artists


I was so inspired by the following post from the blog, That Artist Woman, I could not wait to try this project. Please refer here: http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2012/02/how-to-make-file-folder-books.html for the original post/lesson plan! I adapted it slightly to fit our project.Gail is a wonderful art teacher and I just adore her blog-so inspirational!!

We created these books out of file folders. Here are the steps we followed to create them!
Day One: Painted file folders (I pre-folded and stapled them) with tempera paints
Day Two: Assembled books by attaching yarn to the binding, adding beads and letters to clothespins, adding metallic paint or modge podge, and titled our books
Day Three: Keith Haring Exploration
Day Four: James Rizzi Exploration
Day Five: Roy Lichtenstein Exploration
Day Six: George Rodrigue Exploration
Day Seven: Wayne Thiebaud Exploration
Day Eight: Andy Warhol Exploration
Day Nine: Jackson Pollock Exploration
Day Ten: Aminah Robinson Exploration

Basically, I taught a mini lesson about the artist and his/her work. We often used the artist's official website (for example, Aminah Robinson and Keith Haring have great websites for kids!) The students then created a mini work of art to go inside their books. 

On our last day they completed a little Jeopardy game where they had read a statement about an artist and identify which artist was being discussed. I also made a brochure for their books discussing the art of each artist. The kids surprisingly remembered so many facts-even weeks later. They loved this project and were so proud to take them home!






I am so impressed with the artwork my Kindergartners have been creating this year! We created these still life vases after looking at many examples of still life paintings and reading Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.
 


 

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Dhurrie Rugs/Magic Carpets


Third graders have also been learning about art from India. They looked at examples of dhurrie rugs and created their own with cut paper and yarn.

-Dhurries are flat, woven rugs used as floor coverings.


-They've been made for centuries in India.
-They are made with bright colors, simple designs like stripes, geometric shapes.


-They are woven out of camel and goat hair.


-Royal families would use dhurri rugs to decorate the floors of their palaces.