Totem Poles

Fourth graders learned about the origin of totem poles, their purpose and discussed stylized art.   They played a game where they had to guess which animal the stylized image was representing.  They were quite good!  Students were then split up into teams and discussed what they wanted their totem pole to represent.  Each student was in charge of creating one section of the totem pole. I was able to display some on actual poles throughout the school!  I was impressed at how creative the fourth graders were!

Turkeys, turkeys, turkeys!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving first graders read a funny book about a turkey farm and the runaway turkeys.  They created their own turkeys using cut paper.  We painted their hand red, orange and yellow to create feathers.  They then glued their turkeys’ bodies on and added some googly eyes! We had quite a variety of turkeys!

Day of the Dead Skulls

I always love Dia de los Muertos and all of the folk art associated with it.  Sixth graders learned about the holiday and then created skulls using cut paper.  They got VERY creative!

Veteran’s Day Program!

In preparation for their Veteran’s Day program, third graders worked on patriotic art.  One week they learned about “Uncle Sam” and how he is a symbol for the U.S. government.  We talked about cartooning and James Montgomery Flagg who created the infamous Uncle Sam cartoon.  Students created their own interpretations of Uncle Sam using cartoon features.  The next week we discussed the artist Jasper Johns and looked at his work.  We focused on his Flag images and emulated his style by collaging a flag.  They had maps, lyrics to their program songs, tissue paper, crayons, rubbing plates, markers, watercolor, tempera, etc. to decorate their flags.  Each third grader also contributed handprints to the flag that served at the backdrop for their program.  It is really nice to be able to display the kids work while family and friends gather to see them sing!  Fine Arts are so important!

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Frankenstein

1st graders read the very cute book Frankie Stein by Lola M. Schaefer.  Frankie Stein comes into the world on a bright, sunny day. He’s not at all like his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Stein. They’re scary looking. He’s cute. They try to make him look like them. They can’t. But he does end up being scary—just in his own way!  We used cut paper and practiced orienting our papers.  Reviewing key words such as vertical and horizontal.  In the end the 1st graders came up with some pretty creative frankensteins!

Animal Masks

Kindergartners read the book “Chicken Little” by Ed and Rebecca Emberley.  It has great illustration of various animals on a journey to protect themselves from the falling sky.  Kindergartners were given animal mask templates and got to use various goodies on their mask! Items such as sequins, buttons, beads, marker, yarn, stickers, crayon, feathers, etc were used to make these masks one of a kind!

Textured Fantasy Animals

First graders read the book “The Mixed Up Chameleon” by Eric Carle.  We learned the vocabulary word texture and experimented with texture rubbings.  They had to use their texture rubbings to create different animal features and glue them together to make a fantasy animal.

Kandinsky Trees

First graders learned about artist/composer, Wassily Kandinsky and focused specifically on his color studies.  We were inspired by his use of concentric circles and put them on beautiful trees!

Rainbow Collages

Kindergartners read a book about Rainbows and how they work.  We talked about the different colors that make up a rainbow.  We then used cut paper to create our own rainbows!  We practiced basic skills such as cutting and gluing.