Matisse Goldfish: A Color Study

I love teaching color theory.  This year, I tested a new color activity on fourth grade, and was extremely excited with the outcome.  Not only are their artworks lovely, but the problem solving and learning that occurred as a result of this unit was incredible.  Take a look!

We started with a color mixing activity.  Using only primary colors (red, yellow and blue) and white, students made as many different colors as possible.

We made notes about our colors so that we would remember how we created them later.

 

We then critiqued this artwork by french artist, Henri Matisse.  Since Matisse loved color so much, he was the perfect inspiration for our color unit!

We each drew our own version of Matisse's Goldfish painting.

Next, we used tempera paint to color the background.  Notice the paint palette?  Only primary colors!  Students had to mix every color they needed. 

This is great practice for a young artist.

After the background was filled with fabulous color, we painted a watercolor fish bowl.

The goldfish were created with oil pastel.  The pastel resists the watercolor paint.  It's like magic!

When the paint dried, we cut the bowl out and glued it to the background.  We also got the oil pastels back out to add a few finishing details.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.

We Love Weaving!

3rd grade has been exploring the fiber arts.  We used a variety of textile materials to create these beautiful, hand woven artworks.

We began by learning some weaving vocabulary.
 

Then we made our looms by stringing warp threads on a cardboard loom.

After we made our looms, the fun part began.... weaving colorful yarn, ribbons and lace together!

It was tricky to figure out how to attach materials.  We got a lot of practice with tying knots!

Focused on the project.

Wow!  Kids love weaving.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Warm and Cool Colors

Second graders learned about warm and cool color schemes.

 

 

We made beautiful seascape collages using warm and cool colors.  The sky is a warm sunset, the ocean is cool water.  Take a look!

 

First we used cool colors to paint the water.

Hey, this is fun!

Next, warm colors for sunsets!

When both paintings were dry, we cut the cool colors into wavy ocean shapes.  We also added some neutral colored details, such as sailboats... or sharks :) 

Working hard.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.

Finished product.



Working With Texture

First graders worked with the art element of texture for this winter portrait collage project.  They are a joy to see AND to touch!!

Students learned about texture. We went on a texture hunt in the classroom, and found bumpy, smooth, scratchy, soft, and more!  We made crayon rubbings to capture the textures we found.

After the texture hunt, students used plastic texture plates to create a giant texture rubbing. 

Texture rubbing in action!

Our rubbings turned out beautiful...

so we cut them apart and used them in a mixed media collage portrait. 

The hats, coats, and scarves in our portraits are made from pieces of the texture rubbings. 

Good workers even got to visit the "texture store".  If students earned an Art Dollar, they could use it to buy more texture items for the collage, including buttons, foam shapes, yarn, and more.

Finished collage.

Finished collage.

Finished collage.

Finished collage.

Finished collage.

Finished collage.

Mouse Paint!!

Kindergarten has been learning about primary and secondary colors. We got some color mixing practice with this project!

First we read the book Mouse Paint.  This book is about primary color mixing.

Ms. May preformed some color mixing "magic" tricks with primary colored potion (food coloring and water).  Wow, that was that exciting!!!

 



After the magic show, students got to do some magic of their own.  Using only primary colors, they made as many different colors on their papers as possible.

It was fun!

When the paint dried, we cut out our colorful circles and glued them to a background. 

Using black marker, we turned the colorful circles into mice, just like the book Mouse Paint.

Finished Product (Sorry Blogger loaded it sideways)

Finished Product (Sorry Blogger loaded it sideways)