More Pop art cows...

Here are a few more of the happiest on the planet from my past post! (At least they make me quite happy).

Matisse Matisse, we love you!

Second graders absolutely rocked a bunch of principles with these masterpieces inspired by Henri Matisse's "The Goldfish".  First students discussed patterns found when you look at objects, both natural and man made, reeeaaaally close up. We then used these patterns as inspiration to make four of our own. Student employed one color of oil pastel in each section on a 12" x 18" paper, but they could use any shade of that color. (They mostly got that idea).

In week 2 we talked again about complementary colors (I describe it as how you might compliment a friend who has a trait that is very different.  "Ava I love how your red hair is so different from my brown hair, and I am complimenting you about it").  Students then used complementary colors to paint the sections on their papers.

In week 3 we talked a bit more about Matisse, and looked closely at his painting. We talked about how even though he was painting pretty realistically, the way he painted the four corners kind of look like our pieces.  We then drew cylinders, based on a short intro to 3D shapes, and filled them with water and fish and put them on tables.  These were cut and glued in session 4, but we also moved on to a different project that day, because these almost third graders can do that part in a flash!

I know a lot of people do something similar, but I got my inspiration from the fab Kristin Kimmell, one of the best art teachers I know!

Pop Art Cows!

Second grade students listened to the story "The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down", by Paul Brett Johnson, and discussed the cows unexpected and expected behaviors.  This lead to a discussion of expected and unexpected cow colors, which is when I introduced pop art with Andy Warhol's brightly colored cows. 

We then followed a step-by-step approach to cow-ing that I found at the SmArt Teacher, and then modified for my purposes (i.e. my students modified!).

We drew in pencil, traced in black oil pastel, painted with tempera cakes, and then finally, with some classes, traced again (sloowly and carefully for a very bold outline) with black oil pastel.  I decided after all was said and done that I like them better with the final tracing, but they look fabulous either way!

Picasso Hands and Flowers.

I absolutely love Picasso's simple gesture drawings that he produced later in life, and I thought that second grade was an excellent age to focus on his "Hands Holding Flowers".

We talked about how a hand would look when holding something like flower stems, and drew a simple contour drawing of a hand in pencil, and then traced in sharpie.  Flower stems and blossoms were painted without any pencil planning.  Simple, and beautiful!

I saw a lot of projects that were nearly identical to this one so I apologize if it seems like I'm a non-credit-giving project theif, but I just can't remember from where I was originally inspired!

A little Klee in action...

Paul Klee!

I am so thrilled with the Paul Klee "Head of Man" project that I found on Art Projects for Kids. (As I am pretty much all of her projects).  I had already completed a Marc Chagall project [stay tuned for photos...] with my second graders, and they were hungry for more surreal art! 

I made the circle stencils for my kids out of cardstock, and had them trace them about halfway ("a little more than halfway") up the page (vertically).  For the eyes I did a dot in the very center, and then one on each side of the head, so that they are nice and even.  Then two "hops" for the tops, and two "skips" for the bottoms, and circles for pupils.  I had them connect any two squares or rectangles for the mouths. 

For the neck I made sure to demonstrate what is "too skinny".  And then straight out to the side for one nice square shoulder, and straight out to the other side to complete the figure.  The lines were 5 for the head, and 5 for the body. 

Everything was traced in Sharpie marker, and then colored with oil pastel.  No colors should touch on the inside of the head and body, and the background should be two analogous colors (we discussed this with a color wheel). 

Imagining Colors!

For my first project of the year with Kindergarten and Second grade students, we read "Frederick", by Leo Lionni.  With the Kindergarten students, we began by discussing the colors of their summers.   Students then found their seats by identifying their names on the "thought bubbles" that I prepared.  They then filled in their bubbles with the colors that they pictured in their minds. 

Second grade students created the mice by using templates for the body and ear shapes, and then completing the eyes, tails, and arms and legs with scraps of the ear paper.  These were then displayed in the hallway together, as a lovely tribute to the end of summer!