Where the Wild Things Are!

This post is so over due- I've had these photographs on my page for forever- and a day- but I haven't posted them on my blog... until now.  I totally loved this project!  It was so much fun watching the kids make their own creative VISUAL TEXTURE Wild thing!!!  Visual Textures are when the view can "see" the way something feels.  So the students drew curly, rough, wavy textures on their wild thing just like in the book! I got this lesson off of a website.  Here is the link:
 WILD THINGS

The product is awesome.  I loved it so much- this hung on the walls for a long time!  I just liked to look at it when I walked down the hallways.  It was just too awesome.

Here's some pictures of what 2nd graders made!

Matryoshka Dolls

Second graders made pictures of Russian Nesting Dolls!  The students in Mrs. Morrison's class got to see Mr. Claussen talk about some of the Matryoshka Dolls and where they came from.  He was our guest speaker and shared with us some of the history of where the dolls came from and how they are made.  He had some really awesome dolls to share with us!  Thanks Mr. Claussen!
Here is a few photo's taken when Mr. Claussen came to visit the second grade art classroom.

This set of nesting dolls tells the story about the big turnip that was difficult to pull out of the ground.  The father, mother, daughter, dog, cat, and mouse all worked together and pulled with all their strength to get that turnip out of the ground.

Picasso!

Fourth graders studied the variety of artwork styles of Pablo Picasso.  The stations around the artroom were fun!  I used the multiple intelligences lesson from Tricia Fuglestad for my stations around the room.  You can see what the stations were all about by following this link:  http://theteachingpalette.com/2009/03/16/picasso-carnival-using-multiple-intelligence-theory-in-the-art-room/.

After students visited the stations they could either make an oil pastel portrait, a monochromatic portrait, or a collage portrait.  Here are some examples they came up with:

Andy Warhol "Pop Art"

The fourth graders learned about Andy Warhol (from the book series of Getting to Know the Worlds Greatest Artists) and discovered Warhol used a lot of bright and interesting colors for his artwork and also he used a lot of repetition in his artwork.  The repetition makes the viewers think about "factory" made artwork. 
Fourth graders started this project by making a small self portrait on a piece of paper.  By outlining it in black they then traced their portrait 4 times on a larger sheet of paper.  Once it was outlined in black the students used flourescent highlighters to color their images in.  Don't they look great?

Name Kaleidescopes!

I love this project.  I found this idea from a very old Arts and Activities Magazine.  The students take a 12x12" piece of white paper and fold it like an "x"  (Fold Diagonally both directions).  Then the student will fold their paper in a "t"shape (horizontal fold and vertical fold).  Now, refold all of your fold lines so that only a triangle will be shown.  Write your name in bubble letters so that it completely fills up the triangle. Outline with a black crayon.  Transfer with a craft stick and retransfer until all of the triangles are full.  

I let the students choose their material to color with.  Some used paint, oil pastels, markers, colored pencils, or a combination of materials.

The key elements about this project: Use repetition (of colors) and the use of Radial balance.  What fun!  The students sure did a nice job with their projects!