Wayne Thiebaud: Collaborative Projects

The students typically work on collaborative projects each Friday once their individual projects are completed. During our study of Wayne Thiebaud, the students created large scale drawings, paintings, and collages of cupcakes and cakes. Some of the cakes were painted with water colors. Some of the collages were made with torn and cut pieces of paper. Other collages were created with magazine pictures in a color blocking style. These were displayed in our cafeteria on three new display panels our school was able to purchase this year. We use the panels as backgrounds for music programs and to display art throughout the year.

Wayne Thiebaud: Second Grade Ice Cream

Second graders drew various ice creams cones in a radial design as a part of an artist study on Wayne Thiebaud. They completed their drawings with colored pencils, markers, and crayons. They mounted their designs on colored construction paper. Their work was displayed for Open House as a part of a larger Wayne Thiebaud inspired display.

Wayne Thiebaud: Second Grade Cupcakes

Second graders learned to draw a cupcake using the entire picture plane as a part of our school wide Wayne Thiebaud artist study. After drawing, they painted their pictures with water colors and cut them out. They mounted them on black construction paper. These were displayed in our back hallway for Open House.

Dale Chihuly Chandeliers

For a collaborative project my Kindergarten, First, and Second Graders created three Dale Chihuly inspired chandeliers made out of plastic. Each student was given a 3M brand lamination pouch. They opened the pouch and used two colors of permanent markers to color all over them. After they were done, I laminated them in our classroom laminator. (Fellow teachers, if you do not have one of these, get one. They are inexpensive and very useful for smaller projects. I personally think the lamination is thicker and better quality than typical laminators.)  Once they were laminated, the students learned how to cut the film into spiral shapes by starting with a large circle. They then worked together to connect five or six spirals in the middle with pipe cleaners. As they completed this, they brought them to me and we worked together to hook the pipe cleaners all together. Once completed, we originally hung them up in the windows by the art room but they were too heavy and fell. So, we ended up combining them into one large chandelier and hung them on a rolling garment rack that I previously used for a pocket chart stand.

Dale Chihuly: Kinder, First, and Second Grades

I did an artist study on Dale Chihuly with all of my students a few months ago. We looked at his various artworks, learned about the process to create glass, and then they made their own kid friendly version. Each student used washable markers to decorate a coffee filter in at least three colors. As they finished this step, they went to a station by the sink to spray their coffee filters with water. They were amazed at how the colors ran together. They then placed their coffee filters on top of a cup with a rubber band around it to hold it in place. After they dried, I sprayed them with spray starch to make the shapes hold. The students then glued them to a black cardstock base.

 

Noun Neighborhhood

This is a lesson I always did when I taught first grade. Now that I'm in art, I extended it to a collaborative project for Kinder through Third Grade. Each student drew their favorite restaurant, their favorite store, and their home. They created roads, grass, trees, clouds, and various vehicles. After all classes had a chance to do this, they worked over the next few weeks to create a giant collage mural out of them. Once completed, their art project covered almost half of our back hallway which is pretty long. As they worked, we talked about what nouns were and how each thing they were creating was a noun. We talked about the role of different parts of a community to tie in Social Studies.

Second Grade Snowmen

Second Graders also created snowmen but they created them by cutting paper. They traced various sized bowls for the body and head. They cut rectangles shapes for a scarf. They added various stripes and details to the scarves in a pattern. They also drew a triangle shape for a carrot nose. Before gluing it down, they positioned it in various locations to make the snowman appear that he was looking in different directions. We talked about how there was no need for eyes because if you pointed the nose upward, it makes the snowman appear as if its looking up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Moseley Elementary! Each student from Pre-Kindergarten through Fifth Grade designed a turkey feather using only lines and/or patterns. Their feathers were then assembled as grade level collaborative turkeys. I love how unique each feather is and yet they complement each other.

Primary Colors Project: K-2

 

A while back, the students created artwork collaboratively using only shapes and primary colors. They first painted white construction paper in sections. Once it was dry, they cut out various shapes on the paper. They then glued the paper to a black background. Once the pieces were laminated, we assembled them with tape and mounted them around one of our classroom doors. These went along with our lessons over Piet Mondrian.

Second Grade Scarecrows

Second Grade has been working on drawing pictures using simple shapes and then adding detail such as implied texture. The students followed multi-step directions to draw a friendly scarecrow. After drawing, they traced their scarecrows in permanent markers and then painted them using watercolors. I love how these turned out!

 

Second and Third Grade Murals

On Fridays, we have "Collaborative Art Fridays." Monday through Thursday, I teach the main focus lesson and the students create artwork individually. Each group will visit art on average about one Friday per month according to our rotation schedule. So, on these days, the students work on a collaborative project that incorporates the art elements we have been working on during that month. For this lesson, the students worked to trace various geometric shapes on white bulletin board paper. They then connected the shapes to one another and the edges of the paper with various lines to create organic shapes. They then painted in the shapes. As they worked, we talked about balance and the need to space the colors out in work like this. These really add a pop of color to our neutral back hallway!

Raining Colors: Second Grade

With the aid of rulers, second grade drew a top view of umbrellas divided into six sections. They colored each section in order of the color wheel. They then drew basic geometric shapes under the umbrella to form a raincoat and boots. They also drew organic shapes of raindrops and a puddle.

Lines That Wiggle: First and Second Grade Lines

First and Second Grade read Lines That Wiggle by Candace Whitman to learn about various types of lines. They then drew various lines with black markers and water colored over them. Firs Grade could choose whatever colors they wanted as long as they used a variety of four different colors. Second Grade had a limited selection of primary colors.