Rainbow Fish

The art processes of printing, drawing and collaging were explored for this project our kindergarten and first grade students just completed.

Step 1, Printing: After reading the ever-popular story "The Rainbow Fish", students dipped paper towel roll ends into white tempera and printed their ocean background on blue construction paper.
Step 2, Drawing: Next, we talked about and viewed photos of fish to learn what all fish have in common; eyes, tails, fins and scales. Together we practiced drawing a big fish that filled up our white drawing paper. Students could then color the fish with crayon as they desired.
Step 3, Collaging: When they had a fish they were happy with, students learned how to collage, or glue, small pieces of lots of different colored paper onto their fish, ending with a one shiny silver scale. The fish were then cut out and glued onto the printed backgrounds, adding seaweed or other ocean details completed the artwork. Aren't they great? Click on any image to see more fish!

Social Justice Calligrams

The subjects of Art, Literature and Language Arts came together for this project our 8th grade students have just completed. Social Justice is a major theme in Mrs. Panzo's Literature and Language arts classes this year, where students have been researching and writing about the topic in a variety of challenging projects.

They applied that knowledge for this art project by developing a favorite quote or writing by an important figure they had studied into a calligram. Calligrams use a word or piece of text to create a visual image related to the meaning of the words themselves. Students could also choose the alternative of developing a poem about themselves and their interests they had written into a calligram. In the art room we stressed that the visual image relate well to the text, and that the words vary in size and thickness when needed to create visual interest. Students were excited to bring this important theme into their art, and I think the results are stunning, don't you? Find more examples by clicking on any image below.

Colored Alphabets in the Style of Jasper Johns

To start off the new school year our kindergarten and first graders created their own alphabet art in the style of the American contemporary artist Jasper Johns, b. 1930.

Jasper Johns, Colored Alphabet
Oil, encaustic and paper collage on panel

Our versions were done on 9" x 12" white sulphite paper divided into 25 rectangles (the letters I and J shared a space.) Kindergarteners traced over the lightly pre-printed letters in crayon, then painted over each rectangle with water-color paints. They watched the crayon magically "resist" the paint while the bare paper absorbed it. Oohh, it's fun to see that process for the first time! First graders were challenged to draw their own letters before painting. The artists had their choice of color selection, and it's interesting to see how different each piece looks. Click on any image below to see more of their terrific work.

New Year Accordion Book

To note the coming of the new year and the passing of the old, grade six students reflected on their accomplishments of 2012 and created these accordian books in celebration.

Our Very Busy Spiders

Kindergarten and first grade students read the story "The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle,
then created their our very colorful spider webs using oil pastels on black paper. Spiders were fashioned from construction paper and chenille stems and attached to their webs with yarn. When the webs were completed, the spiders all rested, "it had been a very, very busy day." 
Please click on any image below to get to the picture gallery.

 

I Wish For a Pet

Almost every child either owns a favorite pet or wishes for one (maybe both), so this was a fun project for our 2/3 class. I printed out some animal eyes I found online and laminated them. Each student picked a pair and used them as a starting point to create an animal they were wishing for. We had fish, birds, puppies, even sharks! The students put their animal in an environment and embellished them with paper bows or collars. After gluing their finished piece to a larger sheet of paper, they filled their borders with information about their pet. The borders contained pet names, dates of birth, favorite foods and other facts.

The students filled out brief artist's reflections about their work and why they chose that particular animal as a pet. Since learning to look at and appreciate artwork is an important skill, we had a "gallery walk", viewing and writing one positive thing about each piece. Everyone took the gallery walk very seriously and did a great job being art critics. Click on any image to see more lovely pets!

 

 Our Gallery Walk

I Love Winter Mittens

Our first graders had fun making these mittens by gluing tissue paper squares onto paper, using lots of different colors. When done gluing, we sprayed the mittens lightly with water. Like magic the colors blended with each other around the edges!

The next week, students cut out and glued their mittens onto drawing paper. What a huge leap this age makes with their cutting skills from kindergarten, no difficulty cutting at all. We then talked about the things we liked about wintertime; snow of course, hot cocoa, being home with our families, sledding and skating and Santa Claus! 

After we spelled out the words on the board the kids filled their backgrounds with the things they liked most about winter. The project was lots of fun to create and we got a chance to reflect on our thoughts about the season while practicing our best handwriting!

Click on any image to go to the picture gallery.