Triangles in Our World

My Grade 5 art class is currently painting Picasso portraits.  However, because it was coming to the holidays and things were getting a little crazy with the Christmas concert and activities going on, I decided to put a hold on these projects and do a filler assignment.  Since Grade 5's focus this year is on shape, I had them do the following:

Triangles in Our World - Grade 5

They were each given one brown triangle (all the same size).  They were not allowed to cut the triangle but they could draw things on it if they wanted.  They then had to make the triangle into anything they could think of.  My favourites were the angry bird beak and the nacho.  A fun, little project if you are in need of a filler art assignment!

Lost Snowmen

Winter is officially here!  Last night, Tim and I were caught in the first real snowfall I've seen yet this winter, as we were driving home from my in-laws Christmas celebrations.  It was a beautiful sight!  Winter is not my favourite season.  But if it has to be this cold, then why not add some snow to it?  It always makes me feel like the world is a different place - peaceful, calm, and cozy.

Before I left for the holidays I began to make my classroom also have that winter feeling to it.  I was inspired by this bulletin board:

Found at:  Just Add Clipart: A First Grade Teacher Blog

I adored this idea!  And so did my Grade 2's! :)  After designing my own bulletin board, this is how it turned out:

This is definitely one of my favourites yet!  It is so fun to see other kids in the school trying to guess who's snowman is whose.  There is still a lot of time to add this bulletin board for this winter.  Comment on this post if you are interested and would like the templates for the snowmen and the "Lost" clues sheet!  

I cannot believe it is already December 27 - Christmas has come and gone, the new year is almost here, and the holiday will soon be over...welll, let's not think about that quite yet!  I am enjoying the break a little too much :)

Simply Interactive

One more week until the holidays!  We finished our Christmas concert, and now have four more days of teaching and one field trip day.  I am looking forward to simply doing something different.  I love teaching, but I love time with my husband, family, and friends even more.  After being extremely busy for the past three and a half months, it will be nice to spend that long-awaited time needed with loved ones. 

In the meantime, I am finishing up our Christmas themes in the classroom.  The beginning of this week I put up a Christmas bulletin board.  It is my first interactive bulletin board for this year for my Grade 2's.  It is very simple, but still including activity from students.  We have been learning more and more about adjectives all throughout the past month or so, so I came up with the followng:

Now, I know there is not too much to it, but the fact that the students get to put up their own adjectives is exciting enough for them!  (Yes, there could definitely have been a bit more creativity done with this board, but it was the best I could do during this busy season!)  This is how it looked after the first morning of putting it up.  At this point the board is pretty much covered with different Christmas adjectives.  While at first they started with red, white, green, etc., students are now encouraged to think of more creative adjectives.  It is fun to see what they come up with!  Students are then encouraged to use these words in their writing as well.  

It's just a start into interactive bulletin boards for my classroom, but you have to start somewhere!  As for Christmas decorations, next year let's hope I am more on top of things so as to make my classroom a bit more exciting.  :)

Recent Art Projects Cont.

I had a minute or two to take some more pictures today, amidst the busyness of getting ready for the Christmas concert coming up this Thursday.  So, here are some more art projects that the kids have recently done.  

Comics - Grade 6

Grade 6 just finished making comics and are now beginning a project on pointillism after learning about Georges Seurat.  Comics was a fun project giving them the chance to be completely creative, using pictures to display a story.  I gave very minimal guidelines for this project.  

Faith Trees - Grade 6

These Faith Trees were made in order for students to have the ability to express their faith. They were to find words in magazines that reflected their faith life.  An easy and quick activity.  Looking through magazines is always a favourite!

Watercolour Landscapes - Grade 4

By far, these were my favourite projects in the last month.  We started with a class on experimenting with watercolours and blending colours and then moved into these landscapes.  Since my Grade 4 class is such a small class, I find it to be one of my favourite classes to paint with.  For many of these students it was one of their first times using watercolours.  I think they did a great job!  

Now, time to relax after a long day of practising, making and putting away costumes, and meetings... oh yeah.. and some teaching in between.  Two or three more days of that and a week left of teaching - I am ready for that break! :)

Recent Art Projects

Just today I changed a bunch of my art bulletin boards for a fresh new look before the holidays.  Before I took them down I made sure to take some pictures.  Here are some examples of some art work I have been doing with my Grade 4 through 8 art classes.

Colour Wheels - Grade 6

These Colour Wheels were an introduction to the element of colour for the Grade 6s.  Colour is their focus for the year.  It was a great lesson for teaching the Grade 6s how to mix colours as we only used red, yellow, and blue paint.  They were able to use these colour wheels afterwards to help them with an opposites picture, which taught them more about complimentary colours.  (If interested just message me!)

Silhouettes - Grade 7/8 

These silhouettes were started off with learning about watercolours and how to blend watercolours.  Students were then to make a silhouette image on top of the dried watercolour with tempera black paint.  I enjoyed this project but didn't see the results that I was hoping for.  I must think of a way to enhance this lesson next time.  

Expressions with Line - Grade 4

Grade 4 is focusing on the element of line this year.  This assignment was taken from the previous art teacher.  Students had to come up with line designs when given an expression or feeling.  They then made one of these line designs into an oil pastel piece.  I loved how these turned out!  Not to mention the amount of creativity that was used when coming up with these!

Hopefully soon I can take pictures of the new projects that we have come up with.  Teaching art is turning out to be such a fun and interesting experience!  I love seeing the creative pieces that the students can come up with!