If I Could Talk to the Animals...

....I'd love to talk to the ones created in art class last week! We learned about Henri Rousseau. We looked at some of his tiger pictures, monkeys and apes. Most of them were in the jungle. The students were asked to chose an animal and place it in an environment. I wanted them to try to show some objects in front and some behind the animal to show its position in its surroundings.

All of the kids worked hard, and I was very impressed with the outcomes. This was the first time I've lead this project, and at the end of the hour, some of the kids were already discussing which animal they'll do the next time they take my class....I guess it's a keeper!

PreK Draws Monsters

It was Monster Week in PreK Art. We read "Jeremy Draws a Monster," "Leonardo the Terrible Monster" and "Where the Wild Things Are"—all three great books.

Then, just like Jeremy did, Beatrice, Teo, Kaylee, Jimmy and Maggie drew their own monsters. Most of them chose to create nice monsters, like Leonardo turned out to be at the end of the book.

Green Scene

This week in PreK Art lunch we read 3 really good books, appropriate for St. Patrick's Day. A couple of them were kind of long, so after the children ate their lunches, I let them start right in on their coloring pages. Then we all broke out the green play-do I made at home and had fun making and squishing different shapes. Since they took the play-do home, I hope they continued to use it on St. Patrick's Day and beyond. 

Coming Full Circle

This week we learned about Sonia Delaunay, a Ukranian artist born in 1885. We focused, as you’ll see, on her pictures using circles. She was obsessed with color, and her paintings explored the power, versatility and vibrancy of colors.

Before we started, we talked a bit about composition; where things are placed on the page. I wanted to focus more on composition than on medium, so I told them they could use colored pencils, markers, crayons, or a combination of any of those.

They started by tracing circles on the page—varying sizes in different locations, some inside others. I brought some objects to trace from home, and I also suggested they find different circle objects around the classroom. It was a good excuse for them to get up and walk around (something they’re happy to do after a full day of school).

Once their circles were done, they used rulers to divide them into different sections, and they colored each of those sections however they wanted.

Each week I just love how the same directions result in such a variety of styles and interpretations.