The Art Lesson

The Art Lesson, by Tomie de Paola, is a fun story to share with kids the first week of school.  The story describes a boy who loves to draw, and who is very excited about art class.  When he begins school, he finds that he wishes the art teacher would let him do a drawing of his choice every day.  Many students feel this way, so the solution in the book becomes useful advice in the art room each day.  Just like Tommy's art teacher, I allow students to draw once they have finished their assigned projects.  The activity you see here is a Kindergarten activity from the first week.  After reading the story, students reflected on personal traits and on what they like to do.  In the book, Tommy likes to draw, and his friend likes to do cartwheels.  We found out, through their work, what each Kindergarten student at Prescott enjoys!  It was a fun way for me to get to know the students.   

Fun with Fruit

The third grade classes amazed me this week with their observational drawings.  We finished reviewing the color wheel, and then put it to use as we tried to find all of the colors in a fruit arrangement. They not only found many colors in each item, but they arranged them in the order of the rainbow.  Monica, Lily and Manuel did a great job on the examples shown here.  This project strengthened their confidence in drawing, and they all turned out beautifully!  They are on display, making the walls of the art room more colorful.  

Creative Color Wheels

Third graders in room 301 used the color wheel as inspiration for this fun Op Art project.  They used their math skills to divide their papers into 12 sections, and then studied the order of colors in the visible light spectrum.  They used repetition as they filled their space with a spectrum of colorful dots that will make you dizzy if you look too long.  This example, completed by Maryam, shows how you can still see the color wheel if you look closely. 

First and Second Grade Mondrians

This colorful painting was painted by Wendy M.  in Ms. Estin's second grade class.  The first and second grade classes had fun with their first painting project of the year.  After learning about lines and shapes during the first weeks of school, they tried out the tempera paint on this colorful project.  They looked at artwork by the famous artist Piet Mondrian, and they found lines and shapes in his work.  Using the primary colors, they began to use horizontal and vertical lines to create squares and rectangles.  After painting some shapes, they covered their lines with black construction paper strips to make them stand out.  I can't wait to see what they can do when we begin mixing colors!