Oil Pastel Autumn Leaves! 1st Grade!!

To celebrate our first cold front of the season, our first graders got to explore the medium of oil pastels! They are so bright and vibrant and so much fun! We discussed the colors associated with autumn leaves and the different shapes leaves can come in. The students then traced each leaf shape and filled it in with beautiful fall colors. Then, they painted the backgrounds with blue and purple watercolor paints! We've been talking about indigo and how to mix it, so it was perfect!!!

Just check out the awesome finished products!

Color Mixing Pumpkins! 1st Grade!!!

Our 1st graders have been learning about color mixing! This week, we used our color mixing knowledge to paint some lovely pumpkins!! After drawing the pumpkins, the leaves, and the vines, the students mixed the colors for their paintings right on their paper! Here are the awesome results:

I just love how these turned out! Great Job!

Grumpy Cat Animal Portraits! 4th and 5th Grade!

Hello again! For the past couple of weeks, our 4th and 5th graders have been learning about animal portraiture! For our project, the students drew a portrait of Grumpy Cat. Now, if you dont know who Grumpy Cat is, this is what he looks like:

He is has become an internet sensation! And as you can see, he just naturally looks grumpy! So, we started off with pencil sketches and used a black oil pastel to add some definition and shadows, like this:

Then, the students were given red and orange paint for the background. They were able to use the paint however they wanted, in whatever design they chose. These are the awesome results!

Great Job, 4th and 5th Grade!!!

Color Wheel Umbrellas! Kindergarten!

Last week, our kindergartners explored the color wheel and color mixing through this fun drawing project! We learned about how to use markers and how to mix colors using only a few colors. Look how awesome these turned out!

Until next time, keep creating!! 

~Ms. Carney

Primary Gumball Machines! First Grade!

In First grade, we had so much fun making mixed media gumball machines! We used our prior knowledge of lines and shapes to create the different pieces of the machine. Then, we glued all of the parts down to our background paper, and last, but not least, we got to use our fingers as a paintbrush to paint the gumballs!!!! The students mixed the primary colors together if they wanted orange, green, and purple gumballs for their machine! These turned out absolutely fabulous!

Here's Ms. Carney's!

and here are some great student examples!

Great work, First grade!!!

Mouse Paint Color Mixing with Kindergarten!

This year, I decided to jump right into color mixing! My eager kindergartners were super excited to be painting for the first time in Art class! To start out this exciting lesson, we read the super fun book, Mouse Paint by Ellen Stohl Walsh! After learning about color mixing, we set to work drawing and painting our own mice. Together, we used just red, yellow, and blue to create orange, green, and purple!

Here is my example:

 And here are some wonderful student examples!

Learning about Line! Ice Cream Cones with Kindergarten!

After the amazing dot project, we jumped right on in to learning about the different kinds of lines and shapes we use to make all of the wonderful projects in art class. We studied the different kinds of lines by reading the book, Lines That Wiggle by Candace Whitman.

We also learned about using basic shapes to create our pictures, like the mice in Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stohl Walsh!

So, then we used our new found knowledge to create wonderful drawings of super duper tall ice cream cones! Look how wonderful these turned out!

Back for a new school year!

I am so incredibly excited to be back for another awesome school year! We are rounding the end of the 4th week of school already! Man, time flies! My first big project for the year (and it was a biggie!) was to create a Dot Mural for the entire school! So the first week in art, we read the awesome book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, and it was just in time because International Dot Day was coming up fast on September 15th!.

After reading and discussing this wonderful story of bravery and creativity, each student created their very own dot, just like Vashti in the story! We hung up all of our Dots in the cafeteria, students and teachers, and boy! It was a bunch!

Here's to another great year! Talk to you soon!

~Ms. Carney

Picasso Number Face!

Right now at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, they have a WONDERFUL Picasso exhibit called "Picasso Black and White". It features a bunch of his monochromatic pieces over his career including paintings and sculptures. They do a wonderful night once a month called "Evening for Educators" where art teachers get to come to the exhibit, look around, go on guided tours, and listen to featured lectures! Its awesome! At one of the little break out sessions, they taught us how to draw the human face in the style of Picasso using numbers, and of course, I had to bring it back and try it with our kiddos!

So, here's how we get started!:

First, we have to draw in our numbers all connected together. Try to get up to 12!

Then, you can add in eyes, nostrils, eyelashes, eyebrows, whatever you want!

Here's a student example!

And of course, my favorite: COLOR!