Venetian Canals

After my trip this summer to Venice Italy, I decided to teach 2nd grade students about the rich culture and history of this amazing and unique city.  First, we discussed the city from the photos I shared with them from the trip, especially the many canals, bridges, and Gondolas.  They were amazed that in Venice, there are no cars! You can only travel by boat or by walking.

The very famous Rialto Bridge

A Gondolier on his Gondola in a canal in Venice

A view from our Bed and Breakfast

A colorful open air market, a daily occurrence in most of Italy.

Next, I read aloud the very humorous book "Olivia Goes to Venice" by Ian Falconer.

Olivia goes to Venice

We enjoyed the story and discussed the illustrations. (a neat video that reveals the inspiration behind the book can be found here! )


Finally, we used the Google Earth App on the iPad to take a virtual field trip of Venice, which gave the students a very realistic feel for what it would be like to walk the streets of this unique city.

Then it was time to CREATE!! Students made their own version of a Venetian Canal using crayons and watercolor.

Here are a few examples of their beautiful work!

Also, did you notice the silver clips that I used to hang the artwork? My brilliant Principal came up with the idea for me to hot glue these magnetic clips to the hallway walls that tape does not stick well to.  I have been gluing them all over the building, and now it takes me no time at all to hang the students' artwork on display! This was a simple solution to a fairly annoying problem.  I no longer have to spend 10 minutes when I get to school re-taping the artwork that has fallen off the walls overnight. I am one happy teacher :)

5th Grade Sidewalk Artists

My family and I took a trip to Germany and Italy this summer and I spent the first few days of art class showing my students a slide show of our trip. One of the pictures from Florence, Italy was a street artist recreating a famous Renaissance painting with sidewalk chalk for money. After a long discussion on WHY the artist chooses to do this, one of my students said, "I wish we could do this here at school!"

What a great idea! Students first picked their own famous painting and we practiced recreating their paintings in the classroom before picking a sunny day to work outside our main entrance to school.

The students were impressed with their finished products and other grade levels are now asking to do it also. I think it was a success!  Here are some snapshots from the day.

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.