Third grade color wheels

The first lesson for third grade students is on color theory. Students create their own color wheel using colors found in old magazines. The final product is full of so many variations of color and I love the results! This year the color wheels were turned into hot air balloons... Next year we will turn them into something different!

Picasso Inspired Guitars

6th grade students at our school are learning how to play the guitar in music.  Pablo Picasso was known for incorporating musical instruments into his artwork, especially during his cubism period.  I found this was a perfect opportunity to connect visual art to music.  

Students first were introduced to Picasso's life and artwork, especially his cubism period.  Students explored the style of cubism and through a discussion defined what cubism means.  

Next, students drew their own guitars by hand and completed their drawing with oil pastels.  We reviewed the different parts of the guitar that they were learning about in music class, including neck, body, sound hole, and head.  Students then used watercolor paints on their background paper in a design of their choice.  Finally the 6th grade students cut up their guitars into many pieces and rearranged them on the watercolored paper.  Here are some examples of finished work! 

Grandpa Green Topiaries

After I read the book Grandpa Green by Lane Smith to my 3rd grade class, they created their own topiary stencils inspired by the Caldecott Medal illustrations.  We used sponges to create a leaf-like texture and finished the artwork off with a line design in the background just like in the book.

4th Grade Blue Dogs

Who doesn't love a little George Rodrigue?  The 4th grade classes had a great discussion about this living artist and the history of how Blue Dog came to be.  My students had many questions about the Bayou and the Loup-Garou.  We also watched a video on George Rodrigue that showed him painting one of his many Blue Dog paintings.

I challenged the students to create their own Blue Dogs in the most unique setting they could think of, and that their dog did not have to be blue!

Here are some of their creations: