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I finally get to share these precious kindergarten self-portraits! This is my favorite kindergarten project yet. These paintings show such personality, and I know parents will treasure them! We painted the faces in a previous lesson, so the next step was to paint the shirt and add the face and hair. The reason this project was so successful was that I structured the day so that only a small group was painting at a time. I was able to focus my attention on about five students at a time, and ensure that each student had everything they needed. While I was working with the groups, the others got to enjoy a play-dough day. They loved it! Here are some in-progress pictures: We made the backgrounds by scribbling colored chalk onto construction paper, then blending it with a paper towel. And here are the finished self-portraits! I am so pleased with how they turned out.
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Second grade artists have recently completed these beautiful portraits of their families. These paintings will be featured at second grade's Art Show next week. This is always a favorite project, and one that I love sharing. We've done family portraits in second grade for several years now, and it's a special tradition!
Our first grade students are preparing for their upcoming Fine Arts Night, which will feature a musical production called "American Symbols on Parade" in addition to their Art Show. Their musical will present songs about the bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, and our Flag, along with other special symbols of our country. To go along with the theme, students created a painting of a rose- our national flower! I led each student through a guided drawing to show them each step of drawing the rose. They did an incredible job following along! I love to see that each rose drawing is still individual and unique, even though they followed the same instructions. After the pencil drawings were complete, the next step was to trace the lines with permanent marker. Next I asked the kids to try some basic shading with colored pencils. We talked about how the petals would be darker in the spots where the light doesn't reach. This shading was really challenging for first grade kids, but I think it made a big difference in making these roses look realistic. Some students really had a good grasp of the concept! Then students painted their roses with liquid watercolor paint. To create the background, students made their own leaf stamp out of styrofoam. They used this stamp to fill their paper with overlapping leaves. The final step was to cut out some leaf shapes and add details to make the leaves look real. Then we assembled all the parts of the rose into a finished artwork! Students explored a lot of skills through this rose project:
All of these skills worked together to create these incredible flowers! I know they will be a success at our Art Show, and I can't wait to see them on display! Fourth graders jumped right into this project at the start of the school year. Their work is finally finished and ready to share! The title of this project is "Meaningful Places. " I asked the students to think of a place that had meaning for them. Some students chose the country of their heritage, others chose previous homes or favorite vacation spots, and some chose places connected to special memories. For inspiration, we looked at the work of some master landscape artists of the 20th century. We noticed how these artists used bright colors and bold outlines to bring strong emphasis to the shapes in their work. Andre Derain Charing Cross Bridge 1906 Henri Matisse Forest at Fontainebleau 1909 ![]() Maurice de Vlaminck Restaurant la Machine at Bougival 1906 Students used their iPads to find an image to use as inspiration for their work. I printed each student a copy of their image and we used them as the base for the artworks. The next step was to add color using oil pastels. Students could choose to use natural colors or to be inventive with their color choices. We explored how colors could create contrast in the image. Students also experimented with blending and layering the oil pastels to create texture and shading. The finishing touch was to outline the shapes with black glue. This created the bold shapes like in the master works we first looked at. Here are some of the finished artworks! They will be on display at our upcoming festival later this week. I asked each student to write a short explanation to be displayed with their artwork. "This is my apartment that I live in. It is near our school. We have a balcony. Our apartments are tan and brown. People come and visit us. We are very happy where we are. Our neighbors are really nice. Me, my mom, and our dog live in our apartment." - Indea "This picture is like Myrtle Beach. I chose this place because it reminds me of my aunt. It is special to me because I saved a starfish there. It reminds me of my baby cousin." - Sonya "I picked this picture because it is located in Mexico. It is cool to be in Mexico." - Ruben "This picture is from Texas. I chose this place because it's where I was born. It is special to me because I was born there. It reminds me of summer." - Addyson "I chose this picture of the Charleston bridge because I used to live there. I used to drive across that bridge to go to school. My mom used to work across that bridge." - Shepherd "My artwork is a sunset on the Cherokee village. I chose it because I have Cherokee in me and it is a very beautiful place. Their sunsets are very pretty and I love this place." - Chloe "I chose this picture so people can see my home. It's special because it's where I live. It reminds me of my grandpa." - Jadyn "This is a picture from Hawaii. I chose this place because it looks very pretty. It reminds me of a sunset on the ocean." - Ava "This picture is from Mexico. I chose this place because I am going to Mexico in the summer. It is a special place because it reminds me of my grandma and grandpa. I love Mexico! " - Nelissa "This picture is from Greenville. I chose this place because I want to go there. It is special to me because I love adventure. It reminds me of my family." - Olga "This is a picture of a beautiful place in Thailand." - Winston "I chose this because it's where I'm from. It's Zimapan, Hidalgo in Mexico. I love that it's where my family is from." - Abigail "I chose this place because I lived there. It is my apartment in Maryland. It's special to me because my brothers live there." - Carlos "This picture is from California. I chose this place because it is a wonderful place to relax. It is special to me. It reminds me of a lake I live close to. " - Veronica "This picture reminds me of my Grandpa because he lives in Mexico. It is sad because he will never come here to my house." - Marely "This picture is from the beach. I got to go there last year. It was my first time to see the ocean." - Oswaldo "I chose this picture because Mexico is where my mom was born. It is a special place because my family came from Mexico. This is special because we do some of the celebrations that Mexico does." - Moises "This picture reminds me of a time that I went to a cabin with my family. I was five years old and the cabin we went to was haunted with a friendly ghost." - Shaniya "This is a city in Mexico. I chose this because my grandma, grandpa, aunt, and mom are from Mexico." - Arisdelsy "This is Knoxville, Tennessee. It is the capital of my home state. It reminds me of the first home I had. I've been there once. We went there when I was eight." - Grayson "When I was little my dad would take me and my sisters to the mountains. We would sleep in a cabin and my dad and cousin would teach us survival skills and help us make breakfast on a fire. " - Jacoby "This picture is from Cambodia. I chose this place because it is thousands of years old. It's special because my people respect the Angkor Wat." - Ardynn "I chose this picture from Mexico because it is meaningful to me. I like the ocean and the sand and the beautiful sky." - Samuel "I chose this picture because I learned that I had African in me and I didn't know. So this picture is of an African landscape with mountains." - Maranda "The Great Smoky Mountains is a place me and my family go every year. We usually stay in a cabin and spend time together."
- Abbey Fourth grade's art show project ties in with our current focus on Japanese culture, culminating in our annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The artwork fourth graders created for the show was inspired by the work of contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Click here to read a summary of Kusama's life and career. Yayoi Kusama is nicknamed the "princess of polka-dots." She uses a dot theme in almost all of her work. She is a painter, sculptor, and fashion designer. Fourth graders had a LOT of creative freedom with this project. I told them the only requirements were that their art has to have a circle theme, and that it had to fit in the frame. Other than that, the possibilities were endless! They could choose paint, crayon, marker, oil pastel, collage, chalk, or anything else I had available. I absolutely love how unique each of these artworks is. It's amazing how you can see each student's personality in their work! I asked students to write a short statement explaining where their ideas came from. Here are some of their thoughts: “I was inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s mix of little and big circles.” “My artwork reminds me of seeds flying through the sky.” “I was inspired by the colors and details that her pictures had. She had lines in her background so I added them to mine.” “My artwork reminds me of cinnamon rolls because one of my circles looks like a cinnamon roll twist.” “I was inspired by the bright colors in her paintings. My artwork reminds me of the bright colors I see in Mexico.” “My art reminds me of a paintball gun shooting the wall.” “I was inspired by cartoons, and my artwork reminds me of the animals from Put Me in the Zoo by Dr. Seuss.” “My artwork reminds me of all the ice cream flavors at the shop.” “I think this piece of art would match the song Raindrops Falling on My Head!” “My artwork reminds me of planets in the galaxy.” “What inspired my art was doughnuts with sprinkles.” “My artwork reminds me of when springtime flowers pop up and bloom.” “I was inspired by a paint tray with all the colorful circles on it.” I am SO proud of my students for their hard work on these drawings. Their artwork is amazing! Each student chose one of our state symbols to illustrate.
These were their choices:
I asked students to illustrate each symbol using the "zentangle" style of drawing. You can read more about our process in this previous post. Here are the results of about eight weeks of very focused work! Third grade students have been working extremely hard on their current project. When I designed this project for them, I never imagined they would be as enthusiastic about it as they are! It is an incredibly time-consuming project and challenges their fine-motor skills, and they are amazing me with their commitment and effort.
We are making zentangles! Zentangle is a term used for a doodling technique with a focus on intricate patterns. The process of creating a zentangle is meant to be very meditative. It helps increase focus and creative thinking. It is also very fun and relaxing! I am so pleased that my kids have enjoyed the process so much. Our zentangles are based on South Carolina symbols- our state tree, state bird, state flower, etc. More information about this project will be coming after our Art Show on March 23rd! Here are some in-progress photos. My kindergarten artists did an AMAZING job on these self-portrait drawings! We have practiced drawing people over and over, in lots of different ways. All that hard work has definitely been worth it. I hope their families will treasure these precious drawings!
Our second graders did an INCREDIBLE job on these family portraits. This project is a second-grade tradition now, and the paintings made a beautiful display at their grade level Art Show this evening. What a special way to honor our Hendrix families! We had 133 portraits on display!!
First Grade's Art Show was a huge success! I have been so looking forward to sharing their work. We spent about six weeks on these projects (about twice as long a a typical project) and that hard work really paid off!
Our inspiration came from the lyrics of the song "America the Beautiful", which was featured in the musical students performed the same night as the Art Show. The theme of patriotism goes along well with first grade's current IB unit. Our paintings portrayed our country's "spacious skies", and "amber waves of grain", and "purple mountain majesties." I think these artworks are absolutely gorgeous! It's one of our most successful projects yet! |
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