2nd Grade: Matisse Pattern Pumpkin

I'm finally getting some projects posted! Sorry I've been MIA!  This project was a fun one, borrowed from another art teacher in my school district.  First day we talked about patterns and spent class painting 3 different patterns on three different papers.  We painted with purple paint on the purple paper (9x12), orange paint on the orange paper (6x9), and green paint on the green paper (6x9).  We had just finished learning about primary colors and now we focused on secondary colors.  Next class, students used the purple paper for their background, cut the green paper in half long ways for the grass, and cut out a big oval on the organge paper for the pumpkin.  They used some of their leftover green paper for the stem.  They collaged all of those together and we discussed overlapping.  Last class students make leaves from red and yellow construction paper, and outlined everything in glue. Finally they sprinkled on glitter and voila!

5th Grade: Matisse Winter Collage

This is a variation on the Matisse "Fall" project I did earlier this year.  (http://artiswhatiteach.blogspot.com/2010/11/5th-grade-fall-leaves-wind-matisse.html) 

A couple of my classes were 2 weeks behind the others, so instead of making them do a Fall collage in December, I changed it a little. We swtiched from warm colors to cool colors and instead of leaves, they created cut paper snowflakes.  Organic wind shapes worked for both seaons!

5th Grade: Fall Leaves & Wind Matisse Collage

5th graders finally finished their fall collages, just in time for winter! I will be starting this same project with a couple classes that are behind next week, and we will be using cool colors and cut-paper snowflakes instead of leaves.  This can really be done for any season!  First, we looked at a a powerpoint about Matisse and his cut outs, and discussed geometric and organic shapes.  After the powerpoint, students filled one whole page in their sketch books with organic shapes, and one whole page with geometric shapes. They also did sketches of various types of leaves (I had tons of visuals, books, printouts, and real leaves for them to look at).  The next class students chose 6 different colors of rectangles (4.5x6") to glue down onto 12x16" black paper (overlapping the rectangles).  Next they chose a 7th color rectangle to create 3 organic leaf shapes. With their scraps from their leaves they made organic wind-like shapes to glue in between.  We discussed good composition and layout briefly. They had to have three leaves and at least 7 pieces of wind  For the border shapes, they drew a wavy line down the middle of 2 different long strips of paper, cut down the middle on their line, and glued these four long curvy strips onto the back of the black paper so they were sticking out like a border.  Then the whole thing was glued onto a large piece of construction paper (overall the size of these are 16x21").

2nd Grade: Matisse Flower Vases

The Matisse Exhibit is underway at the Art Institute of Chicago right now so I thought it would be a great time to show his work to my second graders and give them a chance to use pattern.  It also happens to be close to Mother's Day, and I think moms would love to have these flowers for their day!  We start by looking at Matisse's The Purple Robe.  I have students point out the different patterns they see repeating in this painting- there are a TON.  Next we pick out two different color papers (9x12), and fill each page with a different type of pattern using markers.  They have to fill up the whole page.  Next, I show them how to create the vase- I stress that all vases will turn out different and that is good!  We fold one of the patterned papers in half like a "hot dog", then draw the letter 's' starting at the top and working down to the bottom of the "hot dog" page.  I remind students that the folded paper should be like a book (fold on the left side, opening on the right).  Once they draw their 's' then they cut it out to get their vase.  Next, they glue their "tablecloth" (the other patterned page) onto a 12x18 white paper- turned portrait style, not landscape.  Then their vase is glued on top of that close to the bottom of the page.  Next we add several dots of glue above the vase, stick on layers of pre-cut tissue paper squares, let them dry for a few minute, crinkle them up with our fingers, and finally- draw green stems from the flower to the vase with a green marker. Voila! Beautiful flower vases!

(my demo, unfinished)

(finished demo)