Groovy Guitars

Third grade students made groovy guitars from painted paper and construction paper. The emphasis was on using complimentary colors and using contour drawing as the basis for creating the guitar's shape.

Egyptian Sarcophagus

Fifth grade students created their own unique Egyptian Sarcophagus with metallic oil pastels on black paper. They researched the ancient Egyptians using trade books and wrote their name on the sarcophagus in hieroglyphics.

Picasso Snowmen

Kindergarten students read the book, "When Pigasso met Mootise" by Nina Laden and then talked about Picasso's cubist style. Students used different colors of blue tissue paper (cut into squares) to create a cubist background. Then they cut 3 different sized squares for the snowman. They added details like the nose, eyes and scarf with markers.

Alphabet Art

Kindergarten students learned about Jasper Johns and discussed his subject matter (a lot of numbers and letters). Students listened for a letter to be called out and would then paint that letter with the color of their choice. When the paint was dry they watercolored the background and finally added other interesting lines with black marker.

Klimt collage

First grade students looked at artwork by Gustav Klimt. Students discussed the colors and shapes he used. Then students listened to step by step instructions to create their collage. For example, first they had to glue on the black and white squares, then draw pink and purple flowers at the bottom of the page. Then they had to add brown spirals, etc. Even though all students received the same directions, they all turned out differently!

1st grade Kente Cloth

First grade students looked at traditional kente cloth made in Africa and discussed the colors and patterns they saw. Then they created their own Kente cloth by weaving paper strips on a paper loom.

2nd grade Matisse collage

Second graders used cut paper to create a balanced collage inspired by Henri Matisse. They had to give reasons why their artwork was "balanced.'

2nd grade African inspired masks

Second grade students looked at different styles of masks from Africa. Students used stylized shapes and facial features to create a unique mask. First they cut facial features from pieces of cardboard and glued them to another piece of cardboard in the shape of a face. Then they glued tin foil to the cardboard and colored the tin foil with permanent markers.