World Architecture in Watercolors

After finishing their Chicago Architecture unit, the middle school students have been looking at famous buildings all over the world.  I first had them choose a country they liked.  Most of them chose based on soccer teams they like.  We then used  www.greatbuildings.com as a resource and followed the link to that country.  On this website, they list buildings in each country that are considered famous.  I had them decide which building they liked, and they then researched facts about the building.  We stopped every once in a while to look up the answer to questions that we wondered about as we worked.  For example, "What was the Church of St. Francis designed to look like?"  or "How much would it cost to stay one night in the Burj Khalifa?" or "How do they keep the Leaning Tower from falling over?"  I had them draw, trace with marker and then erase using only lines.  Then, they used watercolors to fill in color.  They look great on display.  I had fun seeing which buildings they chose, and I learned about some new buildings myself!   

Aliyah, Grade 8, St. Basil's Cathedral, Russia

Gabe, Grade 7, The Colosseum, Italy

Maryann, Grade 8, Kyoto Imperial Palace, Japan

Amanda, Grade 7, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

Melanie, Grade 6, Burj Khalifa, United Arab Emirates



Shamar, Grade 8, Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Brazil

Quin, Grade 6, Familia Sagrada, Spain



Jackie, Grade 8, St. Basil's Cathedral, Russia

Exploring Lascaux

Lascaux, France

The first grade students are beginning a series of cultural art units.  Before we begin learning about the art of India, Australia, Japan, and other countries, we thought about who we thought made the very first piece of art.  Students had lots of answers that ranged from Picasso and George Washington to Jesus, but we decided there was no real way to know.  We can only guess by studying the oldest art we know.  Then we had fun looking at the oldest art that has been discovered.  We explored some caves around the world with ancient paintings, including this cave in Lascaux.  Students listed colors and images they saw, and then they referenced these lists as they made their own cave drawings.  We, of course, had to display them in a cave, so we built one in the classroom!  

Our 1st Grade Cave

Cave Images from our Classroom

Art Club Community Service

Toy Soldiers, Jack-in-the-Box Wreaths and a Toyland Train

The Prescott Art Club finished a community service project this morning.  They are making some decorations for Alliant Credit Union to use as they decorate for an event at O'Hare Airport.  Each year, they help host a holiday event for underprivileged children called the United Airlines Fantasy Flight.  Participants take a ride around the runways on a plane, and when they arrive at a terminal, it is decorated like the North Pole.  Santa brings gifts, and they have a holiday party.  Our students love making these decorations for the terminal.  They hope to brighten the holidays for other children.  It's fun to see them so excited to help.  This year, we tried to make things with a "Toyland" theme.  Here are a few photos of our work.

Sean, Martha and Landra decorate a wreath with toys.

Mariah, Daniel and Ethan work on a toy store backdrop.

Esteban, Dimitri, Ian and Josue added jack-in-the-boxes to their wreaths. 

Ruby and Ruth glued feathers on the soldiers.  

Finding Lines in Nature

Work by Mrs. Blundy's 2nd Graders who were finding lines in Hokusai's Great Wave

In the 2nd grade at Prescott, student artists learn about famous artists and their art.  This week, they learned about Japanese artist Hokusai.  In class, we looked at some of his waterfall pictures and his famous picture called Great Wave off Kanagawa.  The students learned that these pictures are not paintings.  They are prints!  We watched a quick demonstration that shows how a print is made, and we noticed that prints are usually full of lines the artist carved into a block to create a picture.  Then we had some fun using sumi-e materials including ink and bamboo brushes to find lines in Hokusai's work.  Students began with a teacher-led demonstration of how to use the brush to make skinny or fat lines.  They then painted lines on a copy of his picture before doing it on their own paper.  They really did a beautiful job!

Elyza, Grade 2

Jair, Grade 2

Aubry, Grade 2

Jefrey, TJ, Caleb and Matthew, Grade 2

Bella, Grade 2

Bella's finished work!

Alexis's finished work!

Showing our Colors

Grade 1 has been constructing 3-D paper chameleons inspired by Leo Lionni's illustrations.  A Color of his Own is a great story about a lonesome chameleon who finds a friend.  The students practiced making patterns, cutting tricky shapes, and following directions to make their 2-D drawings 3-D.

Caleb, Grade 1

Leyla, Grade 1

Kennedy, Grade 1

Allejandro, Grade 1

Natalia, Grade 1

We're Going on an Architecture Tour!

Lily, Grade 6, Drafting a Template for the John Hancock Tower

        I was lucky enough to see the Hokusai exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this summer.  Besides his famous woodblock prints, like The Great Wave off Kanagawa, they were exhibiting some of his paper dioramas.  I thought they looked like something that would be a fun project for art class, and I thought about how it was a good way for students to practice thinking spatially.  They would have to plan in 2-D to build in 3-D.  When I read about it, I learned that this Japanese art, tatebanko, is having a resurgence in popularity because you can post templates online, print them out, and build models from the templates.  When Ms. Gow told me that the middle school would be going on an architecture tour of Chicago, I decided we could collaborate by having students make dioramas of famous Chicago buildings.  As a result, the middle schoolers are researching, drafting and building models of a variety of buildings from our skyline.  I let them look at some patterns from buildyourownchicago.com , but I challenged them to just get ideas from these patterns rather than using these printed templates.  Their buildings all look different, but they are so much more interesting to see than if they all used a pre-drawn template.  They built a tatebanko box, and are creating scenes they will place their buildings in.  Here are a few "architects" at work:



Tatebanko, The Japanese Art of Paper Dioramas, Hokusai

Melanie, Grade 6, The Chicago Theater

Xithaly, Grade 6, Harold Washington Library

Manuel, Grade 6, Aqua Tower and John Hancock

Rylee, Grade 6, Federal Center

 

Monica, Grade 6, Willis Tower and John Hancock

  

Rylee added a Calder Flamingo to his Federal Center scene.

Antonio, Grade 6, Constructing a Tatebanko Box

 

Printmaking like Posada

La Catrina, by Jose Posada

After learning about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera this week, the third graders looked at prints made by Diego's teacher and mentor, Jose Posada.  He was a cartoonist and artist who was famous for his etchings of calacas and calaveras, most often in political cartoons.  The students got to try out printmaking for the very first time, and I think they are hooked.  They seemed to have a great time rolling the ink and trying to see how to get the best print.  They used styrofoam and scratched their drawings with dull pencils.  They used colorful paper and ink to capture the bright colors of sugar skulls, a common treat for el Dia de los Muertos.