More Blue Dogs 2011

Blue Dog 2011

Though we did this project last year, the results from this year were so good, I had to post again. Third Grade students studied current artist, George Rodrigue who is famous for his "Blue Dog" paintings. Students discovered that his "Blue Dog" isn't always blue. Sometimes Rodrigue paints his dog different colors with different backgrounds to symbolize different emotions and events in the United States.

Students chose what type of dog they wanted to paint as well as the color of their dog. They mixed tints and shades of that color to give their dog details and to make it more realistic.

Fish Prints

Second Grade students discussed the difference between printing and painting. They learned that prints can be made multiple times. Students designed their own fish print by drawing a fish on a piece of styrofoam and then colored it with markers. Students then printed those fish by spraying a piece of paper with water and blotting the paper with paper towel. Then they printed their fish on that paper. Students were able to make multiple prints.

Pointillism Butterflies

Students learned about Georges Seurat, the artist who invented Pointillism by using only dots in his paintings. Students also used jeweler's loupes to look closely at newspaper comics and found those were made from dots of color as well. Students applied their discoveries in creating a butterflies painted with dots. They had to make sure the wings were symmetrical.

More Alphabeasties

Zebra, Newt, Alligator, Eel, Aardvark!

Alphabeasties

Fourth Grade students read the book "Alphabeasties" by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss. This book focuses on different typefaces and fonts. The authors of this book created animals with different typefaces of the first letter of the animal. For example, a jaguar made from different J fonts. Students were assigned a letter and then chose an animal that started with that letter. Then students drew a contour drawing of that animal and filled the drawing with different fonts of that letter. Here is an Ibis made from Is!

Flower Still Life

Kindergarten students learned what still life means and gave examples of objects that could be in a still life. Students learned that many artists like to paint flowers in a vase. Kindergarten students then used tempera paints to paint their version of flowers in a vase.

Clay Faces

Third Grade students created little vases with faces on them. Then they glazed their clay faces and planted grass so they could have green hair!

Students learned how to roll a slab and attach clay pieces by scoring and slipping each piece.