Week of 4/10/2022 - Cakes, Warli art

 Kinders used line, shapes and textures to create relief sculptures of birthday cakes inspired by San Diego cake artist Tara Heather. We looked at how she uses different elements of art to create tiered cakes. I gave students a 9"x12" piece of construction paper and 3 3" strips of paper in 6", 9" and 12". Students used metallic markers and color sticks to create line and shape patterns and customize their cake on the shortest strip using letters, numbers and any element of their choice. We then folded the sides, glued them down and added a table and candles to complete works. I am absolutely in awe of how my kinders embraced this lesson and produced stunning works!

1st graders created Warli art inspired by the Warli tribe of Western India. Warli art was recognized in the 1970s and depict a much simpler life of people and nature using the triangle, square and circle.Humans are created by joining 2 triangles, only 2 colors are used and the picture tells a story! We practiced drawing images in Warli style and students picked the ones they wanted to use to create a scene that tells a story.

Week of 4/3/2022 - K, 1 after spring break

Spring break flew by and it was nice to have the week off to have some down time and prepare for the final stretch - Celebration of art and 5th grade legacy mural in May!

During spring break I had the opportunity to put up works for the K-8 art show hosted by the San Diego Chapter of California Art Education Association (CAEA SD) and sponsored by the San Diego County Office of Education. This show brought together six different school districts in San Diego county - San Diego Unified, Lemon Grove, Cajon Valley, Vista Unified, Dehesa Elementary and San Dieguito Union High School district. It was a wonderful experience chairing this show that will culminate in a reception for students and their families on April 28th.

Kinders this week worked on creating an artwork inspired by the flower fields of Carlsbad. After looking at a photo, they noticed the flowers in different colors and that things that are closer appear bigger and those farther appear smaller. Using this understanding, they created flowers in different sizes and colors with oil pastels and used water colors to create a resist to complete their works. 

1st graders created CA wildflowers inspired by the works of artist of Behnaz Ahmadian.
Students picked a paper color for the table in their art, shape of their vase, placement of their vase, shapes and colors of their flowers and how they wanted to arrange them.
SO many choices!!

         They wrote a spring poem based off the prompts given to them and we came up with different words for the blanks as a class. Students could pick the words they felt best suited their understanding of spring!

Week of 3/13/2022 - Art night flyer and Mural design

 This week 4ths worked on Google slides to create a digital flyer for our upcoming art night - Celebration of art! They took 3 photos of items in my classroom that they found interesting. They incorporated those photos into their work, experimented with different fonts, sizes and placement to come up with a design for the flyer. It was so great to see the variety of works each of the 4 4th grade classes produced!

Below are photos of students in action and some flyer examples :-

5th grade students started creating artwork in preparation for the mural they will be painting end of May. Each of the 5 5th grade classes were given 1 flower from our campus to create a drawing on Sketchpad incorporating tints and shades. After spring break, we will put 2-3 flowers from each class and come up with a positive quote to go along with our design. Here are some examples of student works!

 

Week of 3/6/2022 - Kolam with 4th and 5th grade

 4ths and 5ths started work on their Kolam plates this week! Most students remembered this lesson from last year and were excited to get started! 

I gave students a white board and marker and had them switch spots at the end of this lesson to write something positive about their peer's artwork. This is in preparation to have students critique each other's work using the TAG method - Tell something positive, Ask a question and Give a suggestion. It was heart warming to see their faces light up as they read the comments given to them. When I asked students how it felt when they read these comments one student enthusiastically replied "Ms.R, this makes me feel empowered about my art"!

 Here are some examples! 

 

Week of 2/27/2022 - Weaving with 2nd grade and clay with 3rds

I started on my Donors Choose project with 2nd grade this week - Bicycle wreaths + yarn

I demonstrated how to tie a knot and how to go over and under to weave. At first students had some trouble, 15 minutes later they were obsessed!!!  Students worked in pairs, figured out how to make weaving work and tied ribbons to complete their work. These will go up on our school fence over the next week or two.

 

3rd grade worked on clay tiles inspired by artist Ron Hitchins. We had looked at his work as an inspiration for our beginning of the year collaborative art project back in September. Students had worked on creating a paper tile each and now they got to work with clay! Focus on combining organic and geometric shapes, adding lines and creating textures using the additive and subtractive process.

 

Week of 2/20/2022 - Kolam with 2nd and 3rd grade

2nd and 3rd grade students created Kolams this week! It has been fascinating to see how they notice the different aspects of the example I show them when I have them respond to the Kolam photos. The video of Kolam making from my friend Pavithra in India has been a huge hit! Students have been clapping at the end of the video because they think the process of making dots, joining them with lines to create shapes is amazing and Pavithra is an expert at this!

 2nd grade worked with 3 rows of 3 dots while 3rd grade worked with 4 rows of 4 dots. Kolam making is mathematical incorporating shapes, symmetry and a variety of lines. We all started with the same Kolam and I gave students several opportunities to pick lines, shapes and colors they could add to make theirs unique.

 Shown below are some 2nd grade responses to Kolams via a quick write.

           

  

My plan this year is to put together 6 separate Kolams - one for each grade level for our "Celebration of Art" in May!

 

 

Week of 2/13/2022 - Textures

This week was all about textures! I had kinder students work on a collaborative artwork to hang in the hallway outside their classrooms. I have 6 kinder classes in all and this lesson took quite a bit of planning.

The tables in my classroom are color coded - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. I set up a plastic bin at each table with 1/4 sheets of card stock in different shades and tints. Michaels has these for all the 6 colors! I also had metallic markers and yarn. After showing students objects and having them come up with words for how they would feel if touched, I introduced the word 'texture' to them. Each student created a sandy, rough, furry and bumpy texture on separate pieces of paper after cutting them into organic shapes. They then glued them on to an open spot on the black board. We worked on this over the course of this week and it was great to see how each class added shapes to create the below collaborative artwork. I can't wait to display these next week.

                                                          

1st graders worked on creating textures with clay. I have 6 1st grade classes and grouped 2 classes to work on one project. The first 2 worked on clay fish, the next 2 on a mug and last 2 on birthday cakes all using the pinch technique and using slipping and scoring to join clay pieces together. They used tools to add textures to complete their works.