The Colorful World of Peter Max!

We are lucky enough to be working with an awesome student teacher in our Art classes. Reyna Wanamaker is from the University of Toledo and has been with us since the beginning of the year. She recently taught the third and fifth graders all about the art of Peter Max.

Max is a Pop Artist. Pop artists use themes from the popular culture of their time in their Art. Peter's use of black outlines and bright colors came from comic books. He was also inspired by planets, stars, and astronomy in general.

Here are some of the "cosmic" works of art the fifth graders created, inspired by Peter Max!

Silly Pumpkins

First graders just made these silly pumpkin faces using oil pastels and cut paper. It was a great project to practice drawing and cutting shapes and using scissors and glue! It was cute to see the range of expressions the children came up with!

Clay Owls

Here is another lesson we just finished after reading The Little White Owl. I first heard about this adorable book from Kristyn Demint and her blog, http://herdabbles.blogspot.com.  She always has such great ideas and her art program is awesome.

Second graders made these fun little pinch pot owls in one 55 minute class period. One group used colored model magic and one group used watercolors to paint and decorate their owls. They were a huge success and a project much loved by the 7 and 8 year olds!

Kandinsky Circles

Kindergartners were able to practice many skills with this project! We began by using the smartboard and Kandinsky's painting Concentric Circles. I had students use the pen and trace over all of the circles from the famous work of art. Then we watched some video clips about shapes from Sesame Street on You Tube.  We also read The Dot. Next, they used colored squares of paper to draw all different sizes of circles. Finally, they used scissors and ONE dot of glue to create their own circle compositions. This lesson took us two 55 minute class periods.

Guided Drawing: Owls!

Here are the steps the children and I followed to create our owls. I really like guided drawings because they all turn out diffrently, yet the kids have some help. It's also a great lesson for listening!

Pattern Owls

First graders made these adorable pattern owls in two 55 minute art classes. We read The Little White Owl and Owl Moon for inspiration and spent the first day thinking of line designs and sketching. The second day, we used oil pastel and watercolor paints to finish. The results were so bright and colorful!

Ready for a NEW YEAR!

I am very excited for the start of a new school year in just a few short weeks. It's very bittersweet for me because it means the end of my "maternity leave" with my new baby. It's been a wonderful summer full of lazy days enjoying one another! My desk will be full of pictures of my baby boy and his dad!

Unpacking my classroom and organizing new supplies is such an exciting time. Here are a few pictures of the finished product. There's always more to do, but I think it's a good start!

The picture above is where the children gather when they come in to hear stories, talk about art, see demonstrations, and share their work. My "Share Chair" is a big deal to the kids-they all want the chance to sit there and have a captive audience! As you can see, I love using literature in the classroom. My library is much larger than this, but I like to keep my favorite books close at hand!

Music is a MUST in my Art class. I love to play music while the kids are working and they remind me to put it on if I happen to forget! They are so much calmer when music fills the air. I also found a large map to display because we often talk about cultures and different places around the world.

We have lots of wires for artwork criss-crossing our room. This year I took scrapbook paper and folded it to make a line of patterned flags. I also used patterns on my bulletin boards. I covered them with fabric instead of bulletin board paper and used painted paper scraps from last year for the borders.

This bulletin board has wide, glittery ribbon for the border. Needless to say, I was once again the "glitter queen" after this board was put up! And of course, we have to have lots of drying racks ready to be filled.

New to the art room this year is a smartboard. I am very excited, yet very nervous at the same time. I really could use some advice from any other teachers with smartboards, especially art teachers. How do you use them in your classrooms?

Class sizes for Art are large-most classes have 30-32, even Kindergarten! Hopefully the kiddos will be as excited about the Art room as I am!