Do You Zentangle?

Well, it's been a while since I paid attention to this blog. I thought it was about time to remedy that fact.  We are into our third week of Art Studio. The first two weeks were with K-3 grade students. They did amazing work! This week and next we're working with 4-6 graders. I'm amazed at how much more art stamina these older kiddos have in comparison to the younger group. And we are seeing some fantastic art! So....do you Zentangle? You probably do and didn't even know that you did. What is Zentangle? Well, it's basically doodling. Doodling in repeated patterns. Today we did a lot of Zentangle. The students were in heaven! They totally took off with this, and we heard all kinds of moans and groans when we had to stop to clean up. It's definitely something we'll keep at one of our "stations." Here are some examples that students created today:

So cool, eh?

Get your black Sharpie two-sided pen out and get Zentangling!

Check This Out! and a Halloween Freebie!

If you haven't been following Lisa from Learning is Something to Treasure, you need to start following her. Her blog is a lot of fun to read and she has some great ideas. She does a Friday Blogger review each week. I happened to be this week's featured blogger. Go check it out here. 

In class we just finished up shapes in math and adjectives in grammar, so I integrated the two into a fun art and writing activity. Click on the picture below to download for FREE!

Art Inspired by Georgia O'Keefe, Van Gogh, & Seurat

This week we finished up our first session of Art Studio. Here is some of the art we've been doing the last couple of weeks. From my post title, you can tell that we learned about the artists O'Keefe, Van Gogh, and Seurat. Remember, these little darlin's are going into first through third grade!

Art Like Georgia O'Keefe

Medium used:  watercolors

Medium used: crayons & tempera paint (Color a base on paper, and then paint over crayon, then take toothpick to scratch a picture.)

Medium used:  chalk pastels

Art Like Vincent Van Gogh

Medium used:  chalk pastels

Art Like Georges Seurat

Medium used: tempera paint 

Technique:  pointillism

Miscellaneous Art Pieces

Self Portrait done Picasso style

A great attempt at linear perspective

Can't you just feel all that texture?

Love the feather boa on the curious cat!

Mosaic done with foam pieces -- Thomas the Train

Art Yummy Enough to Eat!

Today we studied the art of Piet Mondrian. He did a lot of abstract cubism art. I really like it to be honest with you. I guess I'm an abstract kind of girl - LOL! I found this idea here, and I knew we had to do for our Art Studio. Let's just say it was the favorite station today!

Here's what else we've been working on since the last time I posted.

Wire and clay sculptures

Play dough sculptures

Art Studio & Surfer Girl Word Sort Freebie!

So yesterday I started teaching our district's Art Studio. It's a class that has 2 different sessions (younger & older elementary). The objective of this class is to have students explore all the different art mediums, and to learn the elements of art. And so we began with this book:

Those of you not familiar with this book, it is an autobiography of Tomie dePaola and his first experience with an art teacher/lesson. The idea in the book, is for students to be able to create their art how they want, and not have to follow step-by-step instructions.

Here's what the kiddos came up with...

This was done at the sketching station.

They collaged their own sketch books.

We also read The Dot and the students created a mural stamping dots.

At the watercoloring station, they learned different techniques of watercolor.

Now for the Freebie! I've been searching and searching for just the right clip art because I had this Surfer Girl idea. I couldn't find it, until yesterday while on Pinterest, someone pinned My Cute Graphics free clip art, and voila!! Click on the picture below to download.

Enjoy!

Cubism Art Project & Linky Party

In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, and re-assembled in an abstracted form. Pablo Picasso was the master at using cubism in his art.  A great way to teach cubism is to have your students bring from home empty cereal or cracker boxes. They cut out one side of the box and then cut it into geometric shapes. Then they can reassemble the pieces (glue into place) into whatever art piece they want. This is also a great way to recycle and reuse these big packages of cereal or crackers. And with Earth Day right around the corner, this would make a great project. If you want some more great Earth Day activities to do, go check out Sunny Days in Second Grade. She is having an Earth Day Linky Party over there.

Linear Perspective

Linear perspective is such a hard art concept to teach -- especially to second graders. Luckily, I found Jacquelien at http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/
She shows an easy way to teach linear perspective. We have our Second Grade Fine Arts Evening this week. Each student will have a piece of artwork to display as well as participate in a performance. The little darlin's have been practicing very hard and it should be a great evening.

Not bad for second grade, eh?