Lines for Kindergarten and 1st Grade

At the beginning of the school year, we start by exploring one of the most basic art elements: LINE!  We have been drawing, painting, and cutting lines of all kinds.  These activities will provide us with a great foundation for the other projects we do this year.  Here is a glimpse of some Kindergarten and 1st grade line activities.

Kindergarten used oil pastel to make various lines on big paper.

We even made lines with clay!  We turned clay coils into straight lines, curved, zig-zag, and more!  What great fine motor practice for little fingers.

After we drew lines with oil pastel, we got to practice our painting skills with watercolor tempera paint.

We LOVED painting for the first time!

Great job, Kindergarten!!

1st grade also got more painting practice.  We drew many different lines with crayon, and then painted each space between the lines a different color with watercolor paint.

 

1st grade also took lines to the 3rd dimension!  We had so much fun making these 3-D line sculptures.

Building a sculpture develops creativity, problem solving, and perseverance.

Virtual Parent Orientation

As we are beginning the new school year, I want to make sure you have had the opportunity to view our classroom’s Virtual Parent Orientation.  The link for the "What's so Special About Specials?" orientation can be found right here on my blog!

 

This year most elementary schools in Park Hill decided to try a “Virtual” Parent Orientation approach due to the significant decline in parent attendance maintaining an average of 60% attendance at English Landing during the past three years. Before English Landing transitioned to this “Virtual” Parent Orientation approach, the English Landing Leadership Team facilitated two focus group meetings with PTA Executive Board members and spent much time in Leadership Team meetings preparing for this change collaboratively. 

 

At the end of September we are excited to host a Mighty Math Week, so parents will have the opportunity to join their child for a math lesson in the classroom on September 30, October 1 or October 2.  Then on October 3 from 6:30-7:30pm, parents and their child are invited to come back to EL to participate in a math lesson if they were unable to attend the regular math lesson during the day.  Hopefully this event will give parents another reason to visit English     Landing and spend time with their child in an academic setting.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.  

 

Welcome Back!

Hello Eagles!  We are off to a great start in art class this year.  We have already covered policies and procedures, and many classes have begun working on the first art projects of the year. 

I hope that you will visit the Eagle Art blog often!  I post pictures and videos on a weekly basis to keep you updated with what is happening in the art room. 

For this post, I decided to give you a tour of the art room.  Enjoy!

Our new Smartboard will provide students with interactive art experiences.  The responsibility board shows students how to be art helpers. 

The reading corner has many art books for all ages. 

Ms. May's desk.

Building Academic Vocabulary Wall (part 1).

Building Academic Vocabulary Wall (part 2).

Quality Work Board... student examples coming soon!

Learning Goals, Question of the Day, Art Elements, and Design Principles.

If you would like to see the Art Policies and Procedures video, click below:

Kid Version
Parent Version

Creative Coil Pots

 

4th graders made some incredible clay projects this year.  They have conquered the art of coil pots!

 

 



We began with modeling clay.  This allowed us to gain experience with coil making and using the coils in creative ways.  Practice makes perfect!

Next came the real thing!

 Students created a sturdy, spiraled base of coils.

 Then added more coils on top to make the pot taller.  You have to slip and score the coils together to make sure they don't come apart when they dry.

Once the bottom of the pot was built, students were able to get creative! 

Each pot is unique!

When the pots were completed, they went into the kiln to fire.  We then painted them with black tempera paint and added colorful oil pastel on top.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Actual and Implied Texture

3rd graders discovered the difference between actual texture and implied texture.  Actual texture means that the object has real texture that you can feel with your hand.  Implied texture means that the object looks like it has texture, but really it is only an illusion.  Our projects that we created include both kinds of texture!

Students started with a texture hunt activity.  They had to draw a picture of something with an implied texture (like this soft cape!), then they had to find an object in the classroom with an actual soft texture.

Now for the fun part!  Students made some lines with Elmer's glue on a small piece of card stock.  When the glue dried, we covered the card stock with heavy duty foil, and gently rubbed with our finger to make the texture of the glue appear. 

Students used slightly dull pencils to press different patterns into each area.  These patterns had actual texture.

Finally, we glued the foil to a black construction paper background, and continued the patterns with metallic marker.  These designs had implied texture.

Finished product.

Marigolds Collage

For this collage project, 1st grade learned about warm and cool colors.  We also learned how to weave.  Wow!  We are growing up to be talented artists.

 

After a warm and cool color lesson, students traced circle shapes onto a paper, and painted them with warm colors only.  The warm colors are red, yellow, and orange!

We used all the painting techniques that we learned earlier in the year.  Look at those lovely blended colors!

Hard at work!

We also learned to weave paper strips.  This is a tricky skill, but soon we all knew the over, under, over, under technique.

Our weavings would become our flower baskets!

We cut out our painted circles, and turned them into flowers.

Some students got very creative with the cutting and overlapping of the circle shapes.

We filled our baskets with warm colored marigolds.

They turned out great!

Hot Air Balloons

Kindergarten reviewed line, shape and color for this project.  Our balloons look great in the hallway!

First we traced a balloon shape, and added a variety of interesting lines for decoration.

We painted the spaces between the lines with tempera paint.

This was great fine motor practice!  Brush control can be tricky... but we did a good job!

After the paint dried, we traced over our pencil lines with black paint.

They looked great!  But we're not done yet...

We cut the balloons out and glued them to a blue sky background.  Then we added a basket for our photos to ride in!

They turned out beautiful... and colorful!

We were EXCITED about our artworks.