Shoe Print Medallions

2nd & 3rd Graders learned that texture is one of the Elements of Art and can be visual (in drawings or paintings) or physical. After students felt many different textures in brown paper bags and used adjectives to describe them we started the project shown below. Students explored the textures on the bottom of their shoes, rolled clay into a ball and applied an even amount of pressure with the palm of their hands. Students then created a hole using a straw and carved their names on the backside. After the air dry clay dried students painted on a gold acrylic to really make the different textures shimmer!  

Stained "Glass" Art

3rd grade learned about the history and technique of stained glass art. Many of the students have seen stained glass windows in churches and some even have stained glass windows at home. Students used a template to create a colorful geometric pattern in permanent marker on transparency paper. These lovely designs are displayed on the windows of our school. 

Primary Colored Vases with Secondary Colors Shining Through

2nd & 3rd Grade

This was a great lesson for all. Students learned how to create symmetrical vases. We looked at actually bottles and analyzed their forms. We talked about the "lip of the bottle, the neck and the base." Students folded a piece of tracing paper in half vertically and traced half their vase. Students then traced through the paper to create the other side of their vase. Students transferred different vases, making sure to overlap them. Then came the exciting painting lesson! Students painted their first vase red, left the overlap blank in between, and painted their second vases yellow. Each student mixed their own orange and filled the overlap between the vase. The students painted their vases the primary colors and mixed the secondary colors for the parts of the vases that overlapped. After the paint was dry students decorated their vases using a different types of lines. 

3rd Grade: "Believe" Light Strings

We talked about how it is important to believe in things even if we don't see them or know for sure if they are real.  Believing in something can give us strength and something to hope for. Students created these lights using their thumb prints across a wavy line. Students then added permanent marker for the sockets and a white highlight to make the lights shine. The lights were connected with the word "believe" written over and over. 

3rd graders learned about the French artist Henri Mattise both in Art and French Class. Student learned about the Fauvist movement of art Mattise was a part of. "Fauves" in French means "wild beasts," certain French artists were given this name because they painted with such bright bold colors. These drawings were created using oil pastels and a black marker for the bold outlines. Each student was given a black and white image of a landscape as a reference and was aloud to color it any bright color of their choice.