Hendrix Art
Menu
Classroom Blog
I always try to have my kindergartners paint on the very first day of Art. I know that might seem like a lot to expect, since many of them have never been in school and have never even held a paintbrush (some not even a pencil!) but I like that it makes their first art experience a memorable and engaging one. This year, I introduced the painting process with my new favorite book- "To Be An Artist". The book celebrates all different types of art forms. It teaches that making art is not always just drawing, painting, and sculpting- playing instruments, singing, dancing, weaving, sewing, acting, and even creative writing are all ways of making art! My favorite thing about the book is that it is written with a global perspective. The images from the book are of children from all over the world! After seeing the children in the book making art, we were ready to make our own artworks. My goal for this lesson was really just to get a paintbrush in each child's hand- I wanted to give them the experience of painting, rather than focus on making a finished product. Students worked with a partner to make large collaborative paintings that we added to each day. By the end of the week, and after multiple painting sessions, lots of little hands had contributed to each artwork! Here are some of the finished paintings- they are so bright and beautiful!
0 Comments
Welcome back to school! It has been a great first few weeks. Very busy, but great! We started the year with a solar eclipse-themed artwork, to celebrate the "Great American Eclipse" that passed over us on August 21st. We started by looking at some artworks inspired by previous eclipses. We discussed how each artist interpreted the eclipse in a unique way and with a variety of materials. Representing an eclipse through a pen-and-ink drawing. And a painting. With stained glass. Wood-working techniques. And quilting! Students then created their own interpretation of the eclipse using a chalk pastel technique. Here are our "Solar Eclipse Silhouettes"! ![]() I love the detail this student added- a drawing of himself wearing his eclipse glasses!! This week's lesson finishes up our work with plants. See the other projects here and here!
Students practiced being "scientific illustrators." These people are artists who are also scientists! Scientific illustrators are the people who draw diagrams in science textbooks, medical journals, and other informational texts. They help us understand how the world works! In today's activity, students needed to focus as much on looking as they did on drawing. I wanted them to forget every other flower drawing they had ever made, and instead, to really SEE the flower or plant that was in front of them. I wanted the students to look with fresh eyes and notice every single detail. Students chose several plants to study, and we used last week's eco-prints as our backgrounds. The drawings turned out amazing, and it's obvious that the kids were looking closely at details! This is the second week of first grade's exploration of art-making with plants. Today, we went outside and used the green chlorophyll in plants to do a print-making activity called an eco-print.
Students chose a variety of plants and layered them under a piece of parchment paper. Then they used a craft stick to rub the plant and transfer the green chlorophyll, resulting in an impression of the plant! We will use these eco-prints as the backgrounds for a detailed plant drawing next week. This lesson is the start of a three-week long unit inspired by plants. First graders are currently studying plants in their science curriculum, so these art projects are designed to complement that.
The goal of this week's activity was to encourage students to observe details in each leaf and be able to recreate them. Students will need this skill in a couple of weeks when we do detailed "scientific illustrations" of plants. Each student chose a half of a leaf and then created the other half. Ideally we would have used real leaves, but it's too early in the spring for trees to have leaves yet. So we used these photos from the internet instead. This is the final week of first grade's "trip around the world"! It was been a really interesting experience, and I can tell the kids have learned a lot. They have been so excited to pretend to visit each new place! This week's focus was Jamaica. I did not know much about the culture of Jamaica before I began researching for this lesson. One of the things I found was that Jamaican culture is a combination of all the people groups that made up the island's population, and much of their traditions, food, language, and even artwork is a blend of these influences. This video gave us a good overview of what daily life might be like in Jamaica, and how their culture is both alike and different from America! One of the interesting things I learned about Jamaica was that back in the British Colonial times, in the time of new settlements and developing trade routes, Jamaica was a source of beautifully hand-crafted wooden furniture. Jamaica had an abundance of rich forests- the country was called "the land of wood and water". Jamaican people were able to harvest the wood and use it to create furniture, which became highly desired by British traders. Much of this furniture was carved, like this example of a Jamaican-made bed from the 1800's. Other types of furniture were made in the caned style. Caning is a type of weaving which involves lacing reeds or thin strips of wood to a frame. It was common to see caned chairs, sofas, or tables. It is a very intricate and time-consuming process! Caning furniture is a traditional craft that is still evident in modern-day Jamaica. First graders experienced a little bit of the weaving process by creating paper-weavings. We used the colors of the Jamaican flag, which are black, yellow, and green. The black in the flag symbolizes the strength of the people, the yellow represents sunlight, and the green is a symbol for the natural resources. We took a trip to Italy this week. The kids were full of questions! I can tell they are developing their research and questioning skills, since they are asking really relevant questions. We talked about pasta, gelato, getting around on gondolas, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and we learned how to say "ciao" and "grazie". We also talked a little about the artists of the Italian Renaissance- Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rafael, and Donatello! It is always so fun to teach kids that the Ninja Turtles were named after famous artists! What I wanted students to understand about Italy is that it is a very old country with lots of history. (We discussed this with our study of Egypt, too.) I wanted students to be familiar with modern-day Italy, but also to understand where their traditions come from. We learned that before Italy was a country, it was a civilization called Rome, and that life was very, very different back then! Our art experience this week was to create Ancient Roman Wax Tablets. In Roman times, paper hadn't been invented yet, so if someone wanted to write, they would use a wooden frame filled with hard wax, and they could carve letters into the wax. When finished, they could soften the wax and smooth it back out to use again. Some of these tablets have been discovered as ancient artifacts, and you can see them in museums. Students were fascinated to learn that the metal stick Romans used to carve the wax was called a stylus. They easily made the connection between the ancient tablets and our modern-day version, the iPad, and were excited to know where the word for the modern stylus originated! To make their own wax tablets, students folded a piece of thick cardstock in half. They drew a wood grain texture on the front, and filled the inside with rectangles of thick, dark crayon. Next students used a plastic carving tool to scratch in whatever design they chose. Many students chose to write the letters of their names using ancient Latin letters and writing in reverse, as they did in ancient times. This is Aidan's name written using the Latin alphabet, and written from right to left!
In this week's session, 1st graders learned about a tribe of people living in South Africa- the Ndebele. This group of people is known for the bold geometric designs painted on the outsides of their houses. Students learned that the tradition of painted houses began as a way for people to communicate- each design had a specific meaning. Also, we learned that the women of the tribe are responsible for the painting, and the craft is passed down from mother to daughter. The society places a great deal of emphasis on the quality of the painting, and a women's success as a wife is judged by the exterior of her home. We enjoyed this video, which gives a glimpse into life in the Ndebele tribe and shows the beautifully crafted art. And here are some of our own Ndebele-style houses! Students began by drawing geometric designs and coloring them with the traditional colors of blue, red, yellow, green, brown, and black. Next we stapled them into a cylinder and glued the roof on top. If students had time, they could fringe the edges of the roof to resemble straw. This lesson was a special request from one of our first-grade teachers. The northern lights are a phenomenon visible in any of the world's northern-most areas, but our focus for the week was on Alaska. The science behind the northern lights is way too advanced for first graders to grasp- we just learned that the lights are created because how the earth's atmosphere reacts to the sun's atmosphere. We started with this fascinating video of the northern lights (the footage is actually from Scotland rather than Alaska, but it was a beautiful example!) To make our own version of the northern lights, students used colored chalk. They colored the torn edges of some scrap paper, then used a paper towel to blend the chalk dust into the background. The final step was to paint tree silhouettes and add sparkling stars to the sky! This week, 1st grade artists "visited" Egypt! What I wanted them to learn from this week's lesson was that Egypt is a very old civilization, and that while we can learn a lot about its history, we can also find common ground with the country today. We started our lesson with this super-cute video full of interesting facts: One of the main points I wanted my kids to learn from the video was the huge change that the development of farming brought to the early Egyptians- since they no longer had to spend all their time gathering food, and could grow it instead, the people now had time to make art!! Though there are TONS of examples of Egyptian art, we focused our study on jewelry. Students learned that the early Egyptians placed a great deal of value on jewelry, even going so far as to bury people with it! They also believed that different types of precious gems would bring healing or prosperity- sort of like a good-luck charm. Students then made their very own Egyptian bracelet from cardstock, ribbon, gold paint, and plastic gems. They were so proud to wear their creations! |
Archives
March 2018
Categories
All
|