Grade 4 Pop Art Fish

We watched the behind the scenes filming of Finding Nemo and learned about the research and team work involved in creating a film. Students studied tropical fish and began sketching fish and sea life until they were satisfied with their design. We then discussed Pop Art and the repeated images and bright colors of that genre. Students were instructed to retrace their fish drawing three times on 5x7 paper and using either oil pastels, colored pencils or markers to fill them with color (1-primary, 1-secondary and 1-warm or cool). Students had fun drawing and coloring their fish and this lesson served as a great review of color theory.

 

Grade 5 Island Landscapes

We did a brief lesson on perspective and students learned how to create a 3 dimensional appearance in their landscape. After studying some island images and illustrations, students created their own tropical island landscape applying their learned drawing techniques. My artists enjoyed completing their work by adding color. Many of these paintings lined the hall during our spring art show in conjunction with Grandparent's Day.

 

Grade 4 Op Art Portraits

Inspired by the optical and expressive art of the 1960's, 4th grade artists created Op Art self-portraits. We began with a lesson on drawing the face and it's features proportionately on manilla paper. Once drawings were complete students cut out their sillouette and chose a bright color for their skin, retraced their drawing and cut out the sillouette again. They then mounted their bright sillouette on their choice of contrasting background paper. Next they began feature by feature to cut, trace on colored paper, recut and mount; layering their portrait like a collage. This lesson provided fine-motor skill practice and students enjoyed building their portrait and adding personal details such as clothing items, hats and hair bows. This lesson served as a great variation to a traditional portrait lesson and I am pleased with our results!

Grade 3 Monster Mama Portraits

This literacy engagement began with reading the story Monster Mama by Liz Rosenberg. We had fun studying the colorful illustrations and then reviewed the placement and proportion of facial features. We began with a light neutral oil pastel and sketched our portraits through the guided drawing process. In the next lesson I demonstrated the technique of blending oil pastels and showed students how to ensure that their facial features did not blend in to the face. During the last lesson students completed blending their portraits with color and took turns at the painting tables where they blew paint through straws for the hair and splattered the background for the finishing touches. My students worked hard, had a blast and are proud of their "monster portraits"!

 

 

 

 

Grade 3 Tropical Still-life

I enjoy teaching still-life to 3rd graders who respond very well to the lesson. We talk about perspective, overlapping, composition, breaking it into shapes and looking at values; highlights and shadows. This year we completed a Tropical still-life reflecting the theme of Grandparent's Day. I demonstrated on the white board and then asked each child to choose a neutral colored chalk and sketch out their drawing. Then we talked about color, contrast and opposites and I demonstrated coloring and blending the fruit in my still-life drawing. We spent two class periods filling the drawings with color, shadows and highlights; carefully spraying in between layers. I am proud of their drawings and success with chalk!

Grade 5 Monkey Masks

In the spirit of our Tropical themed Grandparent's Day, we sculpted monkey masks out of sculpting plaster and painted colorful monkeys! To begin, I built 20 monkey face forms with plastic molds, newspaper and tape. Then with the help of some special parents and grandparents we sculpted the masks followed by painting them the next week. We looked at images of the colorful monkeys of Central and South America for our inspiration. Check out the monkeys..they had a ball creating!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plaster Sculpted Form

 

Grade 4 Monkey paintings

Grandparent's Day is a special day of celebration at FPD; honoring Grand persons in the life of our students. The theme this year "Tropical/Island" lends itself well to student artwork. We have been working the last two months on an assortment of projects relating to this theme. These monkey paintings show off the drawing skill and the personality of my little 4th grade artists.