Beyond the Shore

Somewhere beyond the sea, in a small elementary school, the students on my campus have been enchanted by the underwater ecosystem in our saltwater aquarium. This inspired an even larger aquatic unit than usual, with second grade taking on close up paintings of our new fishy friends. Here is a look at the our finished products.

Day One: was all about drawing and painting the water.

Day Two: was detailing our fish. Each class voted on a different one.

Day Three: was creating the environment. Classes painted coral, seaweed and topped it off with some bubbles!

We are slowly transforming the entire art wing in to an enormous aquarium!

Just Keep Swimming,



Just Keep Swimming,

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

What do we do?

We Swim!

Swim!

Swim!

Pulled from Pinterest: Totem Spoons

So I do what every art teacher does when I'm tired of all my lesson plans and fresh out of ideas, hit up Pinterest.

Usually within second my brain has kicked back into over drive and I'm filled fresh energy, becoming inspired by all the innovative art teachers, and the work their students are producing.

Most of the time I take the inspiration and remold it to meet my students interests.

But other times, I borrow straight from above! Taking a lesson meant for middle school or high school and give it to my little ones and see what they can do! 

Here's my 4th graders take on Totem Spoons.

We built them with recycled clay, hence the dual color.

And painted them with tempera cakes, water colors work too.

And as an extra incentive I let the kids "spray paint" their finished product with a fixative!

Nice for a first try! 

Moving Lines

I wanted my students to have a better understanding of how to use rhythm and movement to enhance their artwork. To start I had them wash a paper with water and layer water colors one at a time. After applying each color, the students would lift their papers and let the colors drip and blend. The 2nd graders LOVED this.

The next class, to continue the theme, we talked about the use of Lines in our artwork and how different types of lines give the feel of movement. The student then used black paper to cut of a variety of straight, dotted, wavy and zig-zag lines to create a composition. The results were gorgeous, and very striking when displayed with their classmates.