5th and 6th Grade Drawing Unit

Drawing Still-Lifes with Value!

6th Grade - Winter Birch Tree Landscapes

Week 1:  We discussed the element of art - space, and how to create space/perspective in a two-dimensional drawing.  This week we started by taking the white chalk and drawing in the horizon line.  From there they filled in the bottom of the paper and blended the chalk using paper toweling.  This area is the snow.  Then for the sky I allowed them to pick up 4 colors that they could blend together to create the idea of a sunset for their sky.

Week 2:  Today we used black paint and painted the trunks of our trees.  We discussed foreground, middle ground, and background and then determined what size we shoudl be painting our trees in order to show space and distance in our pictures.  After painting the trunks, we went back and using a small brush added branches and sticks.

Week 3:  This week we will be using corrugated cardboard pieces to paint on the white parts of the birch tree.  The key is to dip the cardboard into the white paint, place it on the edge of the tree and "flick" inwards.  You should do this up and down the trunk of the tree flicking inwards from both edges of the trunk.  Last, but not least we will add light shadows around the base of our trees using a very light blue chalk blended with more white chalk.

5th Grade - Plaster Masks!

Week 1: Today is the beginning of our very long plaster mask project.  Every year my 5th graders embark on making masks and boy is it fun, but time consuming!  Today we each took our mask form and covered it with the beginning layers of plaster.  Some of us used cardboard to add a background "crown" to the face.  (We actually did preliminary sketches last week to start thinking out our ideas after I demonstrated the plaster process).

Stay tuned!!

1st Grade - Jasper Johns Inspired Painting

What is Pop Art?  That was the new question of the day in art class with my 1st graders today.  We also learned about American artist Jasper Johns and looked at some of his paintings.  Next each student chose whether they would paint the alpahbet or numbers. 

We covered the entire paper with our letters or numbers!  Next week we'll begin the next step of filling in the space around the letters or numbers.

4th Grade - Warm and Cool Color Weavings

Week 1: After discussing the color wheel and the difference between warm and cool colors we painted two seperate painting using lines.  One painting was with warm colors the other was with cool colors.

Week 2-3: On the back side of our paintings we traced a cardboard strip to create lines all the way across the paper.  We then cut these strips of paper apart.  These strips would become the "threads" for our weaving.

Week 3-4:  Onto the weaving process!!  We discussed the important terms of our weaving project - we first started by creating our loom which was a solid colored piece of construction paper that we first tore the edges off of.  Next we glued on our WARP "threads" so that they were about 1/2" apart.  Finally we were able to weave the WEFT "threads" over and under from left to right.  We decided to leave a bit of space between each weft strip so that you could see the background paper through the weaving.

Week 4: Last, but not least we wrote along the edge of the torn paper about what we learned from this project. 

How cool do the warm and cool colors mixed together look!

3rd Grade - Who Am I?

Week 1-2: We traced our hand, wrist and partial arm onto our paper and decided if we just wanted one hand to represent ourselves or we could add in a second hand.  We then outlined the hands using permanent markers.  Next we discussed Adjectives and brainstormed a list "describing words" that we could use.  Choosing the words that best described themselves the students started writing these words so that they ran around the outline of their hands.

Week 2:  Using metallic watercolor paints we painted our drawings.

Week 3-4: Using metallic paper we cut out shapes to create a pattern around the border.

2nd Grade - Clay Fish Bowls

The first week of our project we drew our fish designs and cut them out. We learned about the slab roller and how quickly and efficiently you can roll a slab!

The second week each 2nd grader got their own slab and traced their fish design to cut it out of the clay. They then drew in their designs with a pointed stick and added details and texture using different tools found around the art room - such as popsicle sticks and marker caps. Once the fish was finished I set them inside a small bowl so that they would warp as they dried.

The last week we will be glazing our fish and then they are all finished!

1st Grade - Winter Cardinals

The first week of the new project the kids had no idea what our theme of this project would be. We simply began by creating the background for the new project. Using pre-cut squares of turquoise and magenta tissue paper, we stuck them to the paper using only water and a paintbrush. As the water touched the tissue paper, it caused the dye in the tissue paper to run and color the paper. As you overlapped the two colors you also started seeing purple. When the majority of the paper was covered we put them in the drying rack. The next week we were able to peel the tissue paper right off the white paper and toss it in the garbage and Whoa-La! we had a beautiful background to create our picture on.

Now we began our discussion about Cardinals and the difference between male and female cardinals and their characteristics. After our discussion we started by gluing on a branch and little sticks. Using simple shapes we created our cardinals. The very last step was to sponge a bit of white snow for the final touch.