October 16 & 23 - Greek Art

In the Kindergarten through 2nd grade classes, students discussed the history of Good Luck beads in Ancient Greek culture. They looked at pictures of different types and identified what types of materials were used to make them, such as wood, seeds, metal, animal bones, and glass. Students used Crayola Model Magic to create 10 beads. Then they used a plastic sewing needle and string to create their necklace. The following class, once the beads were dry, students painted them using watercolor paints. The following pictures are from the K/1st grade class wearing their finished necklaces!

The 3rd through 6th grade classes studied a different aspect of Ancient Greek culture: Greek Vases. They discussed three different types: amphora, krater, and kylix. They observed how Greek vases were either black background with red images or red background with black images as well as how they typically told a story. They discussed the patterns used on the vases as well. 

After discussing symmetry, students chose which vase shape they wanted to make and cut this shape out of brown construction paper. In pencil they designed their vases with patterns and/or a Greek story. The designs were then traced with black Sharpie marker, paying attention to the ratio of black vs. brown. The final step was to glue the vase onto a teal background.

 Take a look at the finished Greek vases the 5th/6th grade class created. Beautiful!

Finished Egyptian Art

5th/6th grade class - Egyptian Mummy Cases

1st/2nd grade class - Egyptian Hieroglyphs

September 25: Aztec Art

Kindergarten through 2nd grade looked at the Aztec Sun Calendar and discussed how facial expressions show emotion (happy, sad, surprised, mad, etc.). We talked about what shapes made up the sun (circle, triangles). Lastly, we talked about warm colors (red, orange and yellow) and cool colors (green, blue and purple). Students drew a sun as big as the paper and drew the sun's facial expression. They then colored it in with crayons and/or markers using warm colors. After they cut it out and glued it to their background, they added a border of cut paper using cool colors. Here a few pictures from the Kindergarten/1st grade class:

Ben and Brooklyn

Elijah and Brigit

Taylor and Marik

Ben

Elijah

Jake

Marik

Brigit

Brooklyn

Third through 6th grade students viewed and discussed a variety of Aztec Animal artworks. We discussed shapes and lines used to create the simplistic animals as well as if the artist used thin or thick paintbrush to create a particular line or shape. Lastly we discussed positive and negative space, which tied in nicely with their sketchbook assignment that week. They started by coloring in their backgrounds using oil pastels, filling the page with blocks of color. Next, they used acrylic paint to paint their Aztec animal onto their colored background. Here are a few finished pieces from the 3rd/4th grade class:

Alex

Jacob

Unknown

Jack

September 11 & 18: Egyptian Art

For our second art project, we studied Egyptian Art. Kindergarten through 2nd grade discussed hieroglyphics and how "symbols" are pictures that stand for something else (such as the alphabet). They were given an Egyptian Hieroglyph Alphabet worksheet to choose at least 3 symbols to draw on their paper. They could choose more and also make up their own symbols if they wanted. Students then had to trace their hieroglyphs with Sharpie marker and add color with crayons.

On the second day, we reviewed what a "symbol" was and continued adding color with crayon. Once the crayon portion was completed, we discussed "crayon resist" and how when you paint over crayon with watercolor paint, it doesn't stick because of the waxy consistency. Students practiced their painting skills by add watercolor paint to their artwork. Below are a few pictures:

Kindergarten/1st grade: Adding watercolor to their artwork.

Kindergarten/1st grade: Jake and Taylor painting.

Third through 6th grade students created Mummy Case drawings. Students viewed and discussed various mummy cases during a PowerPoint, specifically looking at patterns used and how highly decorated the mummy cases were. We also discussed three different types of symmetry: symmetrical, asymmetrical and radial. Below are a few pictures of completed artwork by 3rd/4th graders:

Alex

Jack

Pierce

September 4 - First day - Doodles!

For the first day, all students listened to suggested techniques to make a cohesive doodle while learning about different types of lines and shapes. This was a fantastic first day warm-up activity; it was also a way for me to see where students were at in their motor skills and ability. They had to draw various lines and shapes as well as some coloring. Below are a few pictures:

Kindergarten/1st grade: Brigit coloring in her doodle.

3rd/4th grade: Alex, Pierce, Ronin and Jon.

5th/6th grade: Oriah making some doodle decisions.

5th/6th grade: Ricky and Ben working hard.

5th/6th grade: Nicky and Xander getting a head start on their sketchbooks.

Hello!

Welcome to my latest blog! I'm very excited to begin this blogging journey sharing my teaching experiences at Mountain Peak Private School in Longmont. This will be a public place to share what's happening in the art program, student art, thoughts, criticisms, anything that comes to mind. Thanks for stopping by to take a look and stay tuned for more to come!