Love Bugs

To coincide with Valentine's Day and our unit on bugs, today the second graders in Mrs. Carter's class made love bugs.  I let them have a lot of freedom with this assignment so that they could be creative and come up with an original idea.  The only parameter was that they had to use hearts to create the bug.  Look at the amazing results:

 

2nd Grade is Going Buggy

Second graders have started a unit all about bugs.  We learned about how author and illustrator Eric Carle makes the collages for his books.  Then the students created their own painted papers inspired by Eric Carle.  After the paper making, the students drew sketches of bugs and then created their own bugs out of the painted papers.  We've also been learning characteristics of insects.  Did you know that insects have 6 legs and 3 main body parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen?

Non-Objective Symmetrical Name Designs

The fifth graders have been learning about the difference between objective and non objective artwork.  They created these radial symmetry designs using the letters in their names.  They also chose a color scheme for their work (primary, secondary, complimentary, warm, cool).  Can you find their names hidden in the artwork?

Kindergarten Sculptures

I've been realizing lately how much simple art activities are often the best and most rewarding for kids, especially when they involve opportunities for exploration and lots of creativity.  Artwork should be more about the process of the creation than the actual final product.  A good final product often follows when there was a successful process of thinking and problem solving along the way.  I think that the thinking process and creative exploration was very evident in the work below.  The kindergartners made wood scrap sculputures after looking at the artwork of Louise Nevelson.  They loved sorting through all the junk and gluing everything together and had to learn what sorts of pieces would work for the bottom to sustain the weight for the top. 

Snow Art

Welcome back everyone.  I hope you had a nice break and enjoyed the time off.  Last week we jumped right in to making some snowy art, which is a little ironic since there hasn't been much snow.  In any case, we now have lots of bulletin boards filled with snowflakes and snowmen.  Below are snowflake collages that the second graders in Mrs. Leckrone's class made.  They stamped the paper with empty spools of thread, legos, and other items and then glued the snowflakes on top.

The second graders also created winter collages after reading the book Snow Family by Daniel Kirk. 

Below are pictures of the winners for the yearbook cover design.  The fifth graders all had a chance to create a design, and then two winners were selected.  Congratulations to Rebecca and Chris for their outstanding work!