Exploring the Jungle of Rousseau

Henri Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist who loved to paint jungles.

The second graders have been learning about tints and shades of colors.  They made value scales before mixing lots of greens to use in a fun jungle painting.  They have also been learning the various techniques that are possible with round brushes vs. those with flat brushes.  They experimented to find new shapes the brushes could make, and they practiced some techniques I taught them.  They used Henri Rousseau as inspiration as they filled their papers with jungle plants and animals.  They were able to use oil pastels for the animals on top of the dried tempera.  Here are some images of the happy artists, some samples of their work, and a link to the website they used in class to read about Rousseau and to make digital jungle pictures! 

Biography and Jungle Art Game

Stella, Grade 2

Mallory R, Grade 2

Ruby, Grade 2

Monty, Grade 2

Maureen, Maria and Jaeden are experimenting with tints and shades of green

Daniel uses a round brush to practice long, thin brushstrokes.

Kimani invented some new species of plants.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

The fifth graders are learning about the American Revolution in Social Studies.  For their poetry and art project, I chose H.W. Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride.  They enjoyed a few printmaking projects this year, so I had them illustrate the poem and then print their illustrations.  They included imagery of Boston's Old North Church, British ships, lanterns signaling from the belfry of the church and a horseman riding through the town.  I love this project since I grew up going to Boston to visit family and eventually did grad school there.  It's such a fun place to learn American history.

Jason's Print

Salvador's Print

Melanie's Print

Alex's Print

Sing a Song of People

Lois Lenski was a popular children's book author. One of her projects was a collection of regional novels about children across the United States. I remember my dad reading Texas Tomboy to me when I was in elementary school.  I chose the poem Sing a Song of People for Ms. Lindsey's Kindergarten class to illustrate for the Poetry and Art Show coming up in May.  It describes people in the city, rushing around and busily taking different forms of transportation to get around.  I had the students create city collages from construction paper, and then we added little figures.  Here's what we did:

I recycled some corks and made little stick man stamps out of them with cardboard and craft foam.

The students stamped them around their cities to illustrate the poem.

Angie added rain clouds and race cars.

Cash 's City

Lila made a colorful scene with a tree.

Prescott's Painted Verses: Hear our colors ROAR!

Prescott's student artists are busily preparing for our upcoming poetry and art show.  Come join us!

Tuesday, May 26th

 5-7PM

The Lincoln Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library

Jaren and Esteban work on paintings based on a Langston Hughes poem.

From May 17-June 8th, Prescott artists of all ages will be exhibiting work at the Lincoln Park branch of the Chicago Public Library.  It is located at the intersection of Fullerton and Racine, within walking distance of the school.  At the following link, you can see their hours and location.

On the evening of Tuesday, May 26th, from 5-7pm, you are all invited to a reception to honor our poets and artists.  There will be a poetry reading by 10 of our middle school students, and there will be poetry-themed art on display by each student from our school.  The exhibit will be in the library's auditorium space, located in the back of the first floor.  I hope to see you all there!  Here are some of the works you will see and some links to the poems that inspired them.

This painting, by William, is based on his original poem.

Sing a Song of People, by Lois Lenski, Art by Cash from Room 103

Art by Juan Aguilar, Grade 8, based on his original poetry

The Weary Blues, Poem by Langston Hughes, Art by Mrs. Phares's 3rd Graders

My Shadow, Poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Art by Darius W in Grade 1