Here is a much anticipated, long awaited UPDATE!!! My head is spinning from our crazy cold weather.  The update is Kindergarten through 4th grade.  I was so happy that I could finally load and fire the kiln today that I didn't snap any pictures of the amazing Spherical Clay Animals our 5th grade have been creating.

Kindergarten
We have been experimenting with Chalk Pastels.  Thinking about how they are the same or different than oil pastels.  We also talked about how Cardinals stay in Illinois for the winter, and it is neat to see a bright red bird in the white snow.  We also are always working on trying to draw and cut out shapes.

Our Cut Shape Cardinal in the snow with a chalk pastel background.

HEARTS! The heart was used as a stencil to block the chalk pastel.  We added glitter paint to the heart to give it a little something special. 

1st and 2nd Grade with Frozen Noses

What did we learn....?
Cool and Warm Colors
Horizontal and Vertical
Lines can show Movement
CRAFTSMANSHIP!!!

3rd Grade
Continuing on with Gustav Klimt inspired trees.  Our trees show movement by the swirly lines that branch off in different directions.  Our Tree represents our life.  There are a lot of paths we will find ourselves following.  It's all a journey!  We used Tints in the background and a Shade for the tree.  You can create a shade by mixing a little black with any color.

Our papers were so big that it helped to stand.  Standing also helps us make flowing lines with our brushes.

4th Grade MONOCHROMATIC LANDSCAPES

Monochromatic, huge word! we broke it down Mono = one and Chroma = color.  That huge word simply means one color.  With that one color we can use all of the Tints and Shades, which can create a dramatic painting.  We focused on the idea of a winter landscape.  The struggle, how do we show perspective in this piece?  We created the impression of distance by using perspective.  If it is near... it is bigger and closer to us on the paper and when it is far... it is little and further away from the viewer.

Everyone chose their color and created tints and shades of that one color.  We had time to practice painting different size trees to show perspective, but these are still a work in progress.

WOW what a busy day!  Today is one of those days that I see a lot of grades, 5th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd.  It is always a blur.  My hands were covered in clay for 5th grade, so no pictures yet and black paint took over during 4th.  I was lucky enough to get one picture for 3rd and even one for 2nd.  It was such a MESSY day!  You may notice that both pictures, although different classes, were taken at the same table, they are the closet to my desk where the camera was trying to stay clean and out of the way.

A TINTED background for 3rd grade.

 Third grade concentrates on color theory.  We have learned all about Primary and Secondary colors, the Warm and Cool color groups, and now we are getting into Tint and Shade.  Today was about TINT.  What is a tint you ask... it is a color that is made lighter by adding white. Everyone got to choose 4 colors plus white to drag vertically on a huge piece of paper.  These will serve as eye-popping backgrounds for a winter tree in the style of Gustav Klimt... more to come next week!

2nd grade keeping it cool (or warm)

2nd grade and 1st grade are following a similar style of project, there are just some small tweaks of concepts to fit in with the curriculum.  We read Frozen Noses by Jan Carr and created illustrations in the style of Dorthy Donohue.  The illustrations were tucked away so we could paint either a WARM or COOL themed background.  Everyone tried very hard to visually break their paper into equal thirds... tricky concept, but I think we got it.  We also revisited the directions of vertical and horizontal.

What a holiday break we had!  The extra freeeeezing days were a nice surprise.  Besides visiting family over break I was able to do a lot of planning for the up and coming lessons.  At home I also did a lot of organizing and cleaning, I think that it is time for the Art room to go through the same process.  It is a fresh calendar year and I'm energized and inspired.  All classes are starting new projects and concepts.  Pictures and blurbs will be ready in the upcoming week.