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!

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.

 

 

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!

 

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.

 

 

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.

Chameleon's Colors

Kindergartners made these colorful chameleons in Art class after reading Chameleon's Colors by Chisato Tashiro. We began by drawing and painting our chameleons. On the following days, students used cut paper to make colorful flowers and leaves in the background.