Got Summer Art?

Hello again! It’s officially summer and I’ve been in recuperation mode after the school year. Teaching is awesome but super tiring. For a few weeks after school closed, I honestly felt like I had staggered through one of those 100-mile ultramarathons--with an elephant strapped onto my back and no water to drink. In record temperatures. For nine months.

So, despite my intentions to post this in June, it did not happen. Therefore, I am rebranding this post as Art to Make with Kids This Summer.

In the spring my art students learned about the concept of tessellations, which are repeated shapes that fit together with no spaces in between.

The shapes can be simple or complicated. I explained the concept to my younger students as being similar to a puzzle, in which all the pieces fit exactly into their neighbors.

Here are some samples of my Kindergarten class’ cat tessellations:

Here are some examples from my first graders: 

Possibly a third grader's work: (I didn't make a note when I took the photo. Please see above explanation of my exhausted mental state from June!)

Fourth grader's creation of arrow tessellations. I showed two kids how to do this and they did a great job. I like how the arrows pointing down are a separate color from the arrows pointing up.

Fourth grade lizard and fish tessellations:

I asked my older students if they were familiar with MC Escher, a famous artist known for his interest in tessellations. Here is an example of one of Escher's work:

My seventh grade students all colored in fish tessellations, and I love the variety:

Another spring project my students tackled was learning perspective. This is one-point perspective, showing one vanishing point, where the lines of our road appear to meet.

My fifth-grade students also learned about perspective. Beautiful results with so much detail.

Below are my sixth graders' “Fuel Up” food-filled cars. This was an idea that I created. It came to me out of the blue, and I have to say, I think these rock! I drew the car shapes and I gave the kids a choice of six designs. They filled in each car with different kinds of food. 

1970s Gremlin!

1960s Chevrolet Impala

My favorite car--the 1957 Chevy Bel Air, with extra pointy fins.

This is a seventh grader's food truck. It was not a required project for seventh grade, but one student did it for extra credit, and turned out awesome!

My students did wonderful work this year, and I’m proud of them.

For now, I’ll sign off to go take another nap. But I’ll see you here later this summer, once I’ve finished recovering from the school year!

What's the Buzz?

Are your allergies acting up? Spring flowers mean allergies for some people, and happy bees and ladybugs in the garden. My students have been making adorable garden insects and the energy in the art room has been buzzing.

Here are the happy bees the Kindergarten class made: 

Some kids added extra wings for additional flying speed.  

Kinder also worked on adorable lollipop art. This sweet bunch of kids has been fun to teach this year and I hope that I get to teach most of them when they are official first graders in August.

My first grade artists also made cheerful lollipop art. Originally, I thought of having them use watercolor paint, which would have been beautiful. But I’ll be honest: it’s May and we are all worn out, so I took a less messy route and had them use markers. Markers add a big boost of color so this was a win-win. 

The first grade also created ladybug collages out of construction paper and googly eyes. Each one turned out a little bit different.

Second grade made bees and lollipops this spring. The bees are from toilet paper rolls, covered with paper, and colored with markers. For our art show I hung some of the bees from the ceiling so that they appeared to be flying from flower to hive. The cheerful lollipops these kids created also packed a lot of punch in our show.

Third grade had three projects this spring and I am saving two for my post next month. But I want to share their bees with you now. We made wings out of pipe cleaners, and I love these happy bees.

Fourth grade made butterfly art, filling the wings with pattern.

Fifth grade created bunches of busy, buzzy bees. Each kiddo interpreted this project a little differently. Some even used hot glue to fill in the bees’ wings. Each bee has its own hexagonal piece of honeycomb. 

I’m saving the sixth graders’ recent work for my next post but rest assured, you’ll love it.

Seventh grade made beautiful butterfly collages. I asked the kids to layer pieces of origami paper, tie-dye paper and weaving paper to create unique butterflies. A few kids even made marionettes out of their butterflies and they flap their wings when you pull the strings. Each butterfly is completely different and so creative.

Eighth grade also made butterfly collages, as well as bees.

My eighth graders painted hexagonal wooden trays to resemble a honeycomb, and we made paper bees to glue inside each one. The kids really liked this project and I was delighted by their bees.

I have just a few more weeks of teaching, and I can say that it’s been a very full year. We created tons of original art and these kids impressed me with how they brought their art to life.

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On a personal note, I am thrilled to share that two of my recent paintings have been accepted into the juried Exhibition of Art at the San Diego Fair. If you are at the fair this June, stop by the Fine Art section.

Here is what my two pieces look like:

Half Moon Motel, a midcentury treasure in Los Angeles

Tower Bar, a 1932 Zig Zag Moderne building
in San Diego. 

There is such variety in the art exhibit, and something for everyone. My art was included in the fair years ago, twice. But for many years afterward, it was not accepted. That was hard on my ego, but it makes it even sweeter to be included this year. This feels like a good reminder to keep doing what you love. Sometimes your efforts will be recognized, and sometimes they won’t be, but you will know how much you’ve grown.

I have one more art post to do before the summer is in full swing, so look out for another post soon.

Until then, be sweet like a lollipop, and colorful like a ladybug. Be a team player like a bee and soar like a butterfly!