Grade 2 Winter Landscapes

Second Grade learned about different parts of a landscape this week. We talked about the foreground, middleground, background, and horizon line. I showed landscapes by Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Walt Curlee, and Andrew Wyeth. Students enjoyed coming up to the Smartboard and drawing the horizon line with my pen.

We also learned that objects in the background appear smaller than objects in the middleground or foreground. After we painted our three different value sections on our paper, we added trees to our landscape using crayons and pastel. Students also focused on adding shadow and value to their artwork through mixing colors. Below is some finished student artwork.

Third Grade Jackson Pollock Inspired Instruments

Third graders learned about the techniques Jackson Pollock became famous for. His style of painting was called "Action Painting" because he felt his action and involvement with the canvas was an important part of his work. Here is a video clip I showed students to help explain Jackson Pollock's painting style. We then created our own action paintings using string and paint.

After we painted our black paper, we then drew different instruments and cut them out. We used multiple layers of paper, string, and beads to create a unique design. Here are some results below!

2nd Grade Kandinsky Concentric Circles

Second graders have been studying Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter who is well known for his abstract pictures of colorful shapes. We explored his Squares with Concentric Circles (below) and talked about how this painting made us feel, what we appreciated about the artwork, and what we wondered Kandinsky was thinking while painting this.

Next, we created our own version. Students started with a square piece of paper and drew four boxes. Inside those boxes they drew three to five rings. Then they mixed colors by painting them on their paper and overlapped colors to find new and interesting colors. After, we discussed how painting this was relaxing and also fun to see how colors mixed together. Here are some results below!

Principal's Selection December

Congratulations to the students who were chosen for the Principal's Gallery this month!

Kindergarten - Asish S.

First Grade - Jackson C.

Second Grade - Elizabeth K.

Third Grade - Jamie M.

Fourth Grade - Liam M.

1st Grade Henri Matisse Cut-Outs

For the past few weeks, first graders at Byam Elementary have been studying Henri Matisse. We focused on his Cut-Outs, which is now on exhibit at the MOMA in New York. I visited the MOMA about a month ago 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.

First, 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.

After about three days of hard work, the students finished their collage. We had a class critique including a discussion about the different techniques students used. This project was a lot of fun because each student was successful in creating a unique piece of art inspired by Henri Matisse. Here are the results below!