1st Grade Henri Matisse Inspired Collage

For the past few weeks, first graders at Byam Elementary have been studying Henri Matisse. We focused on his Cut-Outs, which was on exhibit at the MOMA in New York. I visited the MOMA last winter and was inspired by the bright colors, organic shapes, and the techniques Mattise used when creating these cut-outs. I couldn't help but imagine how my first graders would enjoy "painting with scissors" and creating a collage with brightly colored paper. Here are some pictures below from the exhibit.

In class, we watched a video clip about the exhibit and talked about the different shapes and colors in his artwork. We also focused on composition, line and form. Next, we started our project with a black piece of construction paper for our background and then cut out different geometric and organic shapes. Students laid out the pieces onto their background before gluing just as Henri Matisse pinned his colorful shapes onto the wall before deciding where to place them. Some classes had a great time exploring how to make their projects become three-dimensional. Awesome work first graders!

Visual Arts Standards from this lesson:

1. 1.1  Use a variety of materials and media, for example, crayons, chalk, paint, clay, 
   various kinds of papers, textiles, and yarns, and understand how to use them 
   to produce different visual effects 
   
   
2. 1.2  Create artwork in a variety of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional 
   (3D) media, for example: 2D – drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, weaving; 3D – plastic (malleable) materials such as clay and paper, wood, or found objects for assemblage and construction 
   
   
3. 1.3  Learn and use appropriate vocabulary related to methods, materials, and techniques 
   
   
4. 1.4  Learn to take care of materials and tools and to use them safely
   
   2.1  For color, explore and experiment with the use of color in dry and wet media 
   Explore how color can convey mood and emotion
   
   2.2  For line, explore the use of line in 2D and 3D works
   Identify a wide variety of types of lines in the environment and in artwork 
   
   2.3  For texture, explore the use of textures in 2D and 3D works
   Identify a wide variety of types of textures, for example, smooth, rough, and bumpy, in the environment and in artwork
   
   2.4  For shape and form, explore the use of shapes and forms in 2D and 3D works
   Identify simple shapes of different sizes, for example, circles, squares, triangles, and forms, for example, spheres, cones, cubes, in the environment and in artwork
   
   2.6  For space and composition, explore composition by creating artwork with a center of interest, repetition, and/or balance
   Demonstrate an understanding of foreground, middle ground, and background
5. 
   
6. 3.2  Create 2D and 3D expressive artwork that explores abstraction
7. 
   
8. 5.1  In the course of making and viewing art, learn ways of discussing it, such as by making a list of all of the images seen in an artwork (visual inventory); and identifying kinds of color, line, texture, shapes, and forms in the work 
9. 
   5.3  Describe similarities and differences in works, and present personal responses to the subject matter, materials, techniques, and use of design elements in artworks 

3rd Grade Perspective Landscapes

Third grade took a look at different landscapes that showed perspective: a method of representing the illusion of volume in three-dimensional objects and depth of space on a two- dimensional surface. We  first observed that objects in the background are much smaller than objects in the foreground. Next, we took a look at the vanishing point and horizon line in a landscape. The vanishing point is where two parallel lines appear to meet and the horizon line separates the earth from the sky. Students each drew these on their paper and then created a landscape of their own. Here are just a few results below, great work third graders! 

Visual Arts Standards from this lesson:

1. 1.1  Use a variety of materials and media, for example, crayons, chalk, paint, clay,
   various kinds of papers, textiles, and yarns, and understand how to use them
   to produce different visual effects
   
   
2. 1.2  Create artwork in a variety of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional
   (3D) media, for example: 2D – drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, weaving; 3D – plastic (malleable) materials such as clay and paper, wood, or found objects for assemblage and construction
   
   
3. 1.3  Learn and use appropriate vocabulary related to methods, materials, and techniques
   
   
4. 1.4  Learn to take care of materials and tools and to use them safely
   
   2.1  For color, explore and experiment with the use of color in dry and wet media 
   Explore how color can convey mood and emotion
   
   2.2  For line, explore the use of line in 2D and 3D works
   Identify a wide variety of types of lines in the environment and in artwork 
   
   2.3  For texture, explore the use of textures in 2D and 3D works
   Identify a wide variety of types of textures, for example, smooth, rough, and bumpy, in the environment and in artwork
   
   2.4  For shape and form, explore the use of shapes and forms in 2D and 3D works
   Identify simple shapes of different sizes, for example, circles, squares, triangles, and forms, for example, spheres, cones, cubes, in the environment and in artwork
   
   2.6  For space and composition, explore composition by creating artwork with a center of interest, repetition, and/or balance
   Demonstrate an understanding of foreground, middle ground, and background
   
   5.3  Describe similarities and differences in works, and present personal responses to the subject matter, materials, techniques, and use of design elements in artworks 
   

Visual Arts Glossary

Here are some important terms in the Visual Arts. We explore many of these in K-4 while others are used more at the middle and high school level.  For more information, check out the Massachusetts Department of Education's Visual Arts Frameworks here


Key Terms in Visual Arts

abstraction

art that is non-representational, or that converts forms observed in reality to patterns that are read by the viewer as independent relationships.

assemblage
the use of three-dimensional found objects combined to make art; see collage.

collage
a technique first used by Cubists such as Picasso and Braque to build two-dimensional images from fragments of printed paper and cloth incorporated into painting.

colors, primary, secondary, complementary; chroma, hue, value, gradation
one conventional way of arranging color to show relationships is as a circle or wheel that presents the primary colors (those from which all other colors are derived — red, yellow, blue), and their combinations (the secondary colors orange, green, violet). Colors that fall opposite one another are complementary (red/green, yellow/violet, blue/orange). Chroma and hue refer to the degree of saturation, or vividness of a color, ranging from pure primary color to colors muted by mixture with their complements, black, or white. Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color, or to gradations of black, greys, and white.

composition
in visual arts, the combination and arrangement of shape, form, color, line, texture, and space so that they seem satisfactory to the artist.

contour drawing
the line that defines the outline of a form; by varying the thickness and character of line, an artist can suggest volume and weight.

elements and principles of visual arts
elements are generally considered to be line, color, shape or form, texture, space, and value; principles are generally considered to be unity, variety, harmony, balance, rhythm, and emphasis.

foreground, middle ground, background
layers of implied space or planes in the picture space of a two-dimensional work. The foreground is closest to the viewer, then the middle ground, and, most distant, the background.

media and techniques
the materials and procedures used in making art, such as drawing/painting materials, sculptural materials such as clay, wood, or stone; and procedures such as modeling, carving, or construction; printmaking materials and techniques such as relief printing, etching, or lithography; electronic media and techniques such as filmmaking or computer-generated imagery.

perspective

a method of representing the illusion of volume in three-dimensional objects and depth of space on a two- dimensional surface. Techniques include:

atmospheric perspective: The use of gradations of color, overlapping, and relative degrees of detail to suggest an impression of depth in space

linear perspective: The use of real or suggested lines that converge on a vanishing point or points on the horizon or at eye level, and link receding planes as they do so, to suggest depth in space.

isometric perspective or projection: The use of lines to represent an object in which the lines parallel to edges are drawn in their true length and do not converge; sometimes used in architectural or mechanical drawing to convey the actual dimensions of an object.

pattern
a decorative arrangement of shapes that repeats in a predictable way.

printmaking
techniques of art that are designed to create reproducible images: etching, engraving, woodblock and other relief printing, lithography, serigraphy (silkscreen).

proportion
the ratio between the respective parts of a work and its whole. A canon of proportion is a mathematical formula establishing ideal proportions of the human body, as seen in ancient Egyptian and Greek sculpture and reinterpreted in the Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci.

representational art
art that seeks to portray things seen in the visible world; sometimes called figurative art.

schematic layouts
sketches or diagrams of works made for projecting the appearance of a final work.

sculpture
any work carried out in three dimensions, as opposed to drawing, painting, flat collage, and printmaking, which are usually two-dimensional. Relief sculpture refers to compositions in which parts project from a flat surface.

style

a manner of expression characteristic of an individual, national, or cultural group, genre, or historic period. Several key terms spanning all arts disciplines, and most often applied to Western art forms, include:

Folk: forms of arts that are linked to the social life and traditions of specific communities. Participation is not restricted to the professional artist.

Classical: in Western art, forms that conform to Greek and Roman models, or highly developed and refined styles of any culture; those which aspire to an emotional and physical equilibrium, and which are rationally, rather than intuitively constructed. Classical forms have developed all over the world.

Romantic: in Europe and America, 18th–19th century forms that express the individual’s right to expression and imagination.

Modern: forms that broke with romantic and classical traditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and which established new approaches to creating and performing based on ideas and technologies that looked toward the future; forms are sometimes called avant-garde, or before their time.

Postmodern: forms that emerged in the 1970s, primarily in the United States and Europe. As a reaction to modernism, artists — and particularly architects — returned to borrowing from the classical tradition, often using allusions ironically.

symbol
something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance.

symmetry
natural or manmade forms that are balanced around a line or a point; bilateral symmetry (forms like leaves or the human body); radial symmetry (forms like snowflakes or composite flowers).

texture, surface texture, visual texture
the nature of a surface of a painting, sculpture, or building: rough, smooth, patterned. Visual texture refers to the illusion of texture created on a flat surface through line or brush stroke.

two-dimensional (2D), three-dimensional (3D)
the physical characteristics of artwork that are either carried out primarily on a flat surface (2D, most drawing, painting, printmaking) or that have depth, width, height, and volume (3D, most sculpture).

values and gradations of colors or greys
see color. 

Grade 2 Space Collage

This month, second graders learned about the different planets in space. We talked about how planets have a shadow on one side from the sun and appear to be round. We then created this affect on our paper by cutting out circles and adding a chalk pastel to one side of our paper. After gluing the planets down, we made rocket ships and placed ourselves in the picture as astronauts. Students used the collage technique and learned about how to create a balanced composition. You can find more standards applied in this lesson at the bottom of the post. Nice work second graders!

Visual Arts Standards in this lesson

1. 1.1  Use a variety of materials and media, for example, crayons, chalk, paint, clay,
   various kinds of papers, textiles, and yarns, and understand how to use them
   to produce different visual effects
   
2. 1.2  Create artwork in a variety of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional
   (3D) media, for example: 2D – drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, weaving; 3D – plastic (malleable) materials such as clay and paper, wood, or found objects for assemblage and construction
   
3. 1.3  Learn and use appropriate vocabulary related to methods, materials, and techniques
   
4. 1.4  Learn to take care of materials and tools and to use them safely
   2.1  For color, explore and experiment with the use of color in dry and wet media
   Identify primary and secondary colors and gradations of black, white and gray in the environment and artwork
   Explore how color can convey mood and emotion
   2.6  For space and composition, explore composition by creating artwork with a center of interest, repetition, and/or balance.
   Demonstrate an understanding of foreground, middle ground, and background
   Define and identify occurrences of balance, rhythm, repetition, variety, and emphasis 
   3.2  Create 2D and 3D expressive artwork that explores abstraction

1. 1. 
      

4th Grade Mosaic Tile Mural

This year at Byam, I wanted the fourth grade students to leave a ceramic tile as a part of a mural in the front of the school. For this project, fourth grade students created their own 6" x 6" tile that represented their individual connection to Byam School and PRIDE. Each tile is unique and highlights the different talents and qualities of our fourth grade students. This project took about one month for students to brainstorm ideas, sketch their designs, and finally paint on the tile. Once the tiles were painted with a ceramic glaze, they were fired in a kiln and hung up on the wall. These students showed many of the core values of PRIDE while creating this project, excellent work fourth graders!