Sculptural weavings

By 2nd grade most students have practiced a basic paper weaving so this year we stepped up the difficulty level on the basic weave and created a piece that is both a weaving and a sculpture. Here are the results.

Kindergarten lions

There's nothing like studying animals with elementary students. They love it! Starting with a great subject matter for practicing a technique or tool is how to get to get everyone excited about what they are learning. In kindergarten we studied the king of all beasts, the lion. We focused on basic shapes to create these amazing pieces. After drawing the outline, kindergarten practiced holding a paintbrush appropriately and controlling the paintbrush while painting. The end result is awesome.

Jasper Johns is an artist we study in 1st grade. His number and alphabet paintings are always a hit with younger students. We wrote the letters of our first name over and over to create a piece in the spirit of Jasper Johns. 

In the jungle...

Kids love paintings by Henri Rousseau. The jungle habitat and exotic animals win them over. In 2nd grade we used Henri Rousseau as inspiration for our jungle collage. We started with a drawing of a tiger then added cut leaves and grasses to complete our work. What a great way to practice cutting multiples!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Fall is a great season in the Midwest to study pumpkins. It is common for our students to visits pumpkin farms and carve jack o lanterns at this time of year. In art, the 3 rd graders are studying the life cycle of a pumpkin then drawing pumpkins. We concentrated on creating a realistic image of a pumpkin then practiced a shading technique with oil pastels. 

Tints and shades

Second grade recently finished their study of tints and shades. We began with a printed background using overlapping circles. Then it was the exciting step of mixing tints (lighter values of a color) and shades (darker values of a color). Students are always interested and excited about experimenting with color mixing.

Mixing away

Yeowzer!

The 5th graders just completed their art work inspired by the Pop Art movement. We took a close look at the artist Roy Lichtenstein who was inspired by mid century comics. The 5th graders already studied onomatopoeias with their classroom teachers which worked out great. They were able to brainstorm a list of good words to use and were excited about sharing their knowledge with me. The bold lines and primary colors really make this artwork "pop"!

Welcome to Mrs. Geiger's art blog!

I am a regular visitor of  art blogs. I love checking out what other art educators are doing in their classrooms. I always find great ideas for new lessons and techniques that I can use with my own students and I am thankful for their advice. Art Ed bloggers have inspired me to share some of my ideas and the great art that my students are making through my own art education blog. Enjoy!