Doodle 4 Google

I am thrilled to share that one of my 3rd grade students has won Doodle 4 Google for the state of Illinois! She will now go onto the next level to possibly win nationally for her age group (K-3).  Please go vote for her...her doodle is lovely and she is a very deserving, hardworking, and sweet little girl.  Her name is Amelia Sanders and this is her doodle. You can vote as many times as you want from now until Feb. 22nd when voting closes.

Thank you!

Here is the link to vote: https://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html#d=1-4

1st and 2nd Grade Bird Collages

For this project, we read and discussed the images in several of Eric Carle's and Lois Ehlert's books.  On day one, we had fun just painting all different kinds of paper, similar to the way these artists work.  I told them not to get too attached to what they were creating because we were going to share the painted papers with the entire first and second grade.  The next class we created our birds through collage.  These birds were full of personality.  On the third day, we created a tree branch with torn magazine paper, and a birdhouse with remaining painted paper.  Finally they glued everything together, and came up with a word bubble for their bird that aligned with our school's PBIS focus of being safe, respectful, and responsible.
 This was a fun one, and a fantastic display for Spring!

3rd and 4th Grade Jen Stark Contemporary Paper Art

Have you heard of Contemporary Artist, Jen Stark? She is great! She creates amazing paper sculptures and her ideas come from the sophisticated and intricate designs found in nature that incorporate repetition and organic shapes. We learned all about her through a powerpoint and a quick video before tackling our own paper sculptures.  Each student made 2 paper sculptures to add to our hallway display.  They began by drawing a small geometric or organic shape on a piece of construction paper, then cut it out and glued it down onto the corner of another piece of paper with a glue stick.  Then, using scissors they cut around their shape, replicating it.  They kept doing this until their paper was no longer large enough to fit their shape.

The students were really into this project and their finished pieces turned out more amazing than I ever expected!

5th and 6th Grade: Keep Calm And...

This was a great lesson that focused on problem-solving and graphic design.  We learned about the history of the very first Keep Calm and Carry On poster from this awesome video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrHkKXFRbCI) and then discussed the story and also the art occupation of graphic design.  Students had to come up with their own Keep Calm slogan, including a creative and effective logo or symbol that represented their slogan. They did 4 sketches, chose one, and used stencils to trace and cut their letters.  Then they drew and cut out their symbols, composed their poster, and glued it all together. 

5th Grade Folk Art Landscapes

Winter Snowmen

4th Grade Lady Liberty

After learning about Peter Max and watching a short video about the history of the Statue of Liberty, we drew our portraits step by step with pencil and outlined in sharpie. The next day I showed students some tips and tricks for coloring with chalk pastels. I played a slide show of Peter Max's work while they colored.