Sharpen your colored pencils, folks—it’s art time!
School started a month ago and my superstar art students
have been hard at work/fun, creating projects.
He presented this to me after we drew jack-o-lanterns. It could be a happy face, it could be a jack-o-lantern, it could be a self-portrait, it could be a drawing of me (I’m flattered!), or it could be a portrait of Mr. T, complete with mohawk. Who’s to say? Art is in the eye of the beholder.
Anyway, Kindergarten began the school year by coloring
butterflies. It felt like a good project because the kids could personalize
their butterflies, and practice their cutting and gluing skills. Some are still
four, and I have to give props to my young friends for what they made. Scissors
are complicated when you are only four or five. I love this wiggly, energetic
group of kiddos.
My first and second grade students also made butterfly art,
but theirs are a bit different. I created butterflies from paper plates (you
know I love a good deal, and paper plates are inexpensive and a fun twist on a
flat piece of paper). If you want to try this at home, you will need 1.5 paper
plates per butterfly. You’ll also need a stapler (or hot glue), a pipe
cleaner/fuzzy stick and markers. You cut the paper plate in half to make the
upper wings, and cut a plate into quarters for the bottom wings. Staple them
together and watch them fly!
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| 2nd grade |
I wanted to hang the butterflies from the art room ceiling, like a
colorful canopy of wings, but the fire marshal inspected the school last week
and we are not allowed to hang anything from the ceiling. (How are we supposed
to be artists if we can’t hang fun things from the ceiling? Sigh. I guess I’ll
have to think of a different way to display these beautiful creatures. Maybe
outside somewhere…)
My third, fourth and fifth graders have been drawing shapes and practicing shading. I asked them to make a variety of shapes on their papers and to try blending one color into another, within a shape. They were asked to blend colors on at least three shapes, but some kids shaded a lot more than three. The trick to blending is to do layers. Put your darker color on one side of the shape. Put your lighter color on the opposite side. In the middle, layer the lighter color first, and go over it with the darker color (but not at full strength). Try to make a soft blend. Some of the kids loved this project, others did not, but they all tried, and so I have promoted them from Beginning Blenders to Gradation Graduates.
Sixth and eighth graders created still life drawings with
origami borders. The items in their still lives were everyday items (literally
ones I had at home already, plus a few I bought at the 99 Cent Store). Art
doesn’t need to be super fancy—just sketching an everyday object is a good way
to learn how to draw things realistically. I asked the kids to put their items
on a piece of origami, almost like a placemat, and to create an origami border
around the edge of their paper to frame their work. I love origami paper for
its wonderful patterns. There is so much you can do with it. It’s not just for
making cranes!
My seventh graders used metallic origami paper to create collages
on construction paper. I told them they could pick their subject matter, which
is always fun for kids. There were lots of meme references. I love that the
kids came up with so many different subjects. Here are a few of them:
And so we are wrapping up our first month back at school. My
voice is a little bit raw and my feet hurt, but my heart is happy to see all
these creative kids use their imaginations.
‘Til next time, be safe, be healthy, and I’ll be back again
soon with some silly and spooky Halloween art.
