An exploration in children's art
The curriculum that is used follows the State of California Visual Arts Standards and consists of art appreciation, color theory, art history, elements of art, art criticism, critical thinking and more, while at the same time allowing children to freely create, express themselves and experiment with art media without fear of failure. Did you know art includes science, history, arithmetic and reading? Did you know art helps visual, auditory and tactile learning? Did you know art helps improve creativity and self-esteem?
Self....Puppets?
While photography was going on, Sarah taught the class on how to make a "self-portrait" FANDANGO puppet! Great job Sarah!
Photography
Armed with camera, the kids were to focus on an interesting spot on the Sock Monkey and click!
Mosaics
To introduce the kids to mosaics was tricky due to the mess. So, fabric paint was used in place of grout! The kids tacky-glued glass stones to a wooden shape and used to fabric paint to fill in the spaces in between the stones - some kids got a little more creative...
Photography
Photography was introduced for this lesson. The kids (6 groups of 4) were given an area to observe. They looked through tubes to narrow in their view allowing them to find and focus on something interesting. The picture was to be taken close up. This is what they took!
Wire Sculptures
The kids were given a styrofoam ball that was cut in half, bendable wire, and beads. Their task was to create a sculpture. And they did!
Wire Structures
What do you get when you mix wires, beads and a block of wood? Creativity! Clothes-hanger wire was used for the vertical body, then slid into a pre-drilled block of wood. Assorted, pliable wires and beads were then wrapped around the upright to create these wire sculptures. Too much fun!
Butterfly Whimsy
A whimsical butterfly mobile - a great companion to the decorated door. Various types of colored papers where used to layer each butterfly, glued down the middle, with a pipe cleaner to create the body. Steele wire was wrapped with pipe cleaners to create the main part of the mobile. Each wrapped pipe cleaner had about 2 inches left unwrapped/sticking out in order to allow enough length to secure each creation. Voila!
Sandpaper Art
What happens when you give kids sandpaper and a bucket of crayons? Mania! After showing the class a slide show of Vincent Van Gough, the kids were asked to create their version of a dream-like picture, emphasizing Van Gough's movement in Starry Night. This is what we got!!!
Spring Door
A Spring door.
The kids "painted with scissors" like
Henri Matisse did in his later years.
These Matisse styled cut-outs were
done using only scissors and colored
paper (no drawing instruments),
then glued to paper on the door.
It was a team effort!
Spring Blossoms
The kids were shown paintings of Van Gough's skies and instructed to create their own dream-like sky depicting Spring. Then, they were to arrange and glue paper blossoms & leaves as though they were dancing in the wind. How perfect to use nature for inspiration.
Happy Birthday
White crayons in hand, the kids drew on watercolor paper, then painted over their drawings with watercolors using cottons balls and quetips. It was someone's birthday...
Abstract Portraits
Picasso's abstract portraits inspired the students to produce these portraits. With a felt-tip pen, the students drew each facial feature on a different colored paper, cut the features out, then pieced them together to form a face.
The Wild Beasts
Fauvism (Les Fauves=The Wild Beast) and Henri Matisse were the inspiration for this project. The students cut out, freehand shapes from colored paper and pasted the shapes to paper of their choice.
Impressions
Using oil pastels, the students created their own works inspired by the Impressionist Claude Monet.
Self-Portraits
With the realistic, emotional art that came out of the Renaissance period, it was exciting to see the students create self-portraits based on the bizzare works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
Chinese Names
When the students were studying China, they had the opportunity to write their names in Chinese on rice paper. Some kids used black markers, while others tried their skills with water colors.
Woodblock Prints
With the children reporting on China, how appropriate to introduce rice paper and woodblocking. With carving blocks of wood being unacceptable, we cheated by using foam boards to simulate the woodblock, and foam geometric shapes for the relief. The ink was replaced with black washable paint. The children were to design a pattern with the shapes and repeat the pattern over the rice paper.
Snow Flakes
The class was introduced to Kenneth G. Libbrecht's microphotos of snow crystals and were asked to create their own interpretation of snowflakes using white & blue tempera, craft crystals and glitter on canvas board. http://www.snowcrystals.com/
Rock Balancing
After viewing pictures of San Francisco artist, Bill Dan, the kids produced their own interpretation of rock balancing. They had the options of decorating the rocks and gluing them together (hindsight: Elmer's Glue works the best, not hot glue) http://www.rock-on-rock-on.com/
Clay Beads
Inspired by the Native American Indian class lesson the kids used Sculpey clay to design their own beads which were strung later with twine.
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