In celebration of Valentine’s Day, children read the story My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. All of his illustrations are made of heart shapes, more than three hundred in all!
We then practiced cutting symmetrical and asymmetrical hearts to design our own collage animals.
The PreK-Kindergarten classes made their own painting tools by freezing dried markers in water.
The children filled small cups with water and placed the markers inside. They then carried them to the freezer (or outside) and waited for the water to freeze. Once frozen, the children carefully pulled the markers in the ice and painted with the colored ice on paper!
The 3rd and 4th grade students have been learning about French speaking African countries in both French and Art classes. They began studying Ghana and the beautiful art form called Adinkra cloth. Students designed meaningful stamps, had them carved from erasers and developed patterns and designs on cloth-like paper.
Children in grades P3 through 2nd grade have been working on three-dimensional paper sculptures. They began by re-using paper that they previously created during our color mixing/collage unit. They were also given other various textured, colored and patterned paper strips. They used hole punchers, paper texture tools, funky scissors and colored staples. The exploration and discovery was endless, as the students had free-range of their imaginative creations.
*** Students designed theme parks, small villages, water parks, detailed houses and beyond!
Students learned about various illustrators that use the collage approach in their work. They then made their own collage paper with finger paint.
Three color-mixing stations were set up in the art room; red & yellow, blue & yellow and red & blue. The children explored color mixing and finger painting techniques through this process. They will be using this paper in future projects.
After studying and designing plaster planets, students in 3rd and 4th grade made collages. They began by splatter painting the stars and chose from a variety of paper options for their planets. Some children chose to make their own fantasy solar system, while others used their research books to make a realistic representation.
