Category: Art Programme

Christmas Clay Project


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We had a great time working with clay for our Christmas presents to our families.  Students began with the raw clay which they formed around a wooden doweling (forming the hollow centre necessary for the firing process).  The grade ones created snow people and the grade twos created gingerbread people, as they had made snow people last year in my class.  They created the bodies in three sections and then made the hats. These needed to dry for almost a week before they could be put into the kiln.

After they had been fired the students glazed them and then they were re-fired.  Students then decorated their people and they were ready to be wrapped to be given as gifts.  I hope you all enjoyed them!!

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Intermediate Colours

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During Art on Friday we reviewed colour theory and discussed the primary colours – red, blue, and yellow.  We used plastic coloured palettes to show how by putting two primary colours together that they made an intermediate colour. We put red and yellow together to make orange; blue and red together to make purple; and blue and yellow together to make green.

Students then created a tesselation in black marker on their paper.  They filled in all the spaces by using wax crayons. The instructions were to only use the three primary colours, but they were expected to create the intermediate colours from those three primaries.

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Students found it quite easy to create green and orange; purple was more challenging.  The students worked very well on this project and the end results are very impressive.

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Remembrance Day Poppies

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We had a great assembly at the Confederation Park cenotaph on Monday morning.  Mr. Olson had his guitar there to accompany the students for their songs.  Some leadership students read poems that they had written. It was a beautiful weather day and the walk to and from the park was very pleasant.

On the Friday before we had a directed drawing lesson on the poppy. Students then traced over their lines with china markers and coloured the centres with oil pastel.  The red petals were filled in with paint.  These paintings dried over the weekend and were cut out on Monday morning. Students then glued them onto green construction paper.  We have a very nice looking bulletin board.

Directed Drawing – Bats

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Last Friday we had our first ‘directed drawing’ lesson.  We drew bats as we have just begun our study on them.

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Students followed my lead as I drew on the white board and they drew on their art paper.  We did a step-by-step process while discussing the anatomy of a bat.  Students learned that a bat’s wing is actually formed like our arms and hands – with a thumb and four fingers on each side. These wings are covered with a taut skin while the bat’s body is covered with fur.  Students showed this fur with the addition of lines.  We reviewed the art element of ‘texture’ – how something feels or how it looks like it feels.

We then repeated this drawing process onto light grey construction paper, also initially in pencil.  Once they had completed their pencil drawings they went over those drawing lines with oil pastels.  They then added a few ‘seasonal’ bits of extra scenery such as pumpkins, grass, stars, and a moon.

 

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If you are by the school, please drop in to see their work.  I think they are wonderful!

Every Artist is Unique

We began our art theory lessons last week with one of the main things that all artists should always be aware of – each artist is unique.  We can get ideas from others but we need to ‘do our own thing’ with that idea.

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I showed the students about 30 different prints from a wide variety of different artists (Cezanne, Monet, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, and some students from British Columbia).  Each print was different from the other but all had one element the same – they all contained at least one tree.

Students were then directed to create their own pictures.  They could use any of the media on their desks (wax crayons, pencil crayons, skinny felt markers, fat markers).  They could have the paper in either position (landscape or portrait).  The only ‘rule’ was that the picture needed to contain at least one tree.

As you can see – every artist in Division 5 is UNIQUE!!!

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Value – Art Lessons

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In a continuation of our ‘elements of art’ lessons, students have been learning about ‘value’.  They had previously learned that the colour that we see is in the light and that without light there is no colour.

Students now know that black and white are not colours – they are examples of values.  Black is the darkest dark and white is the lightest light.  They created pictures on white paper only using a black crayon.

 

Bernard the Butterfly

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Last Friday the students heard the story about how the world became so colourful.   It involved Mother Nature and a curious, white (originally) butterfly named Bernard.  Ask your child to tell you the story!

Students then created their own butterfly using the same colours that Mother Nature had used in the story – the primary colours of red, yellow, and blue.

Today we discussed ‘symmetry’ – what it means and what parts of our bodies display symmetry.  They then added the bodies to their butterflies and curled the antennae.  The butterflies have now migrated to the bulletin board outside of our room.  Take a look when you come by the school.

There are also three butterflies created by some Division 1 students who worked with us on Friday afternoon.