First Grade Organic Shape Monsters

Books can be such a great inspiration in the Art room. First grade read "There Was an Old Monster" by Rebecca, Adrian, and Ed Emberley. It's pretty silly, so I heard lots of giggles while I was reading. Students then learned what an organic shape is and how this is different from our "math" shapes, like triangles, circles, squares, etc. Students then used a tied string on construction paper to create an organic shape that would be the body of their monster they would create, and then traced around the string in pencil. Next, students used tempera paint (polishing our paintbrush skills) to paint the monster and possibly a background if there was space left over. Finally, students added details with oil pastels. They certainly came up with some creative creatures.

1st Grade Rocket Ship Art

First Grade is currently working on rocket ships in outer space, which is a mixed media piece. First we built our rocket ship (or space shuttle) out of a variety of matte board shapes and popsicle sticks with glue. We worked on a "launch pad" (manila paper). After the glue dried, we painted our rocket ships with a variety of metallic colors:  gold, silver, bronze, copper, and antique gold. To research our background, we browsed the NASA websites for images of the sun, the planets, and other outer space objects like comets, asteroids, moons, etc. I highly recommend the student website:  http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html  (I was mesmerized by the images!) Our background is being drawn on dark paper with crayon and soon we will arrange and glue our rocket ships down. Here are some pictures from Mrs. Allen's class:

First Grade Clay Snowmen

First grade is currently finishing up their clay snowmen. We took a "practice" clay day using modeling clay to learn how to build the snowmen and play with ideas. To build the snowmen, students created three sizes of clay spheres, which were then formed into pinch pots and attached them together (using the scoring method- which was new information). Everyone had different details, from winter hats and scarves to hockey sticks to carrot noses. They are so cute and soon they will be glazed and have pipe cleaners for arms.

1st Grade Self-Portraits

First Grade are finishing up their self-portraits. We looked at all different kinds of portraits-paint, clay, drawing, collage, to understand that a self-portraits can be made out of many materials. I guided the students in drawing the accurate shapes and sizes for facial features, and we even used mirrors to help us along. They were colored with markers, and the background was created from another paper that we printed (or stamped) on with different objects. Most of the students made patterns with the printing, some created a frame around the self-portrait. Here's a few to enjoy, more will come soon!

1st Grade Spiderwebs

First grade are completing their spiderwebs in Art right now... We learned and used directional lines like HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, and DIAGONAL to draw a spiderweb on a black piece of paper. Next we traced our lines in glue and after the glue dried, we used oil pastel to create a pattern with colors. We read "Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti", learned about the characteristics of spiders, and cut and glued a spider from geometric shapes. They did a great job with the glue and these are just in time for Halloween!

First Grade Abstract Art

First Graders learned about the abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky for their first lesson. We looked at Kandinsky's paintings and found and described the different shapes, lines and colors he used. Since Kandinsky was inspired by music to create his paintings, we listened to "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash while we drew a moving and changing line all around our paper. We traced the lines in Sharpie and then added more lines, patterns, and shapes in crayon inside the different sections created by our line. To add much more interest and color, we used watercolor paints on top of our crayon. We sure have some fabulous first grade abstract artists!