2nd grade artists
Clay Coil Turtles! Write up to follow.
Color Scheme Giraffes. These adorable, colorful giraffes have come to be a school and student favorite! They are just so happy and fun! This project is focused on our color schemes: primary, secondary, warm, cool, and complimentary. When we start out with our giraffes we talk about using simple shapes to create an image. We pick out all of the simple shapes within the giraffe and break them down. We use circles, ovals, triangles, and rectangles to draw our giraffes. We draw together to do some practice and go back to the concept of overlapping. They must have at least 5 giraffes and 2 overlapping. Once they do some practice they are on their own and start on their final piece of paper. They draw in pencil first, trace with sharpie, erase missed pencil lines, and then onto coloring the giraffes with marker. Each giraffe had to have one of the color schemes mentioned earlier. They could repeat color schemes but just one color scheme per giraffe. Once the giraffes were colored, they colored the background with crayon. I showed them and described the background as a jungle or forest were the giraffes might be up in the trees. Some kids decided to make different backgrounds such as different color skies or environments. We also talked about different textures by using the side of the crayon. These are fun and happy and will also be a part of our community art show May 10th!
Jim Dine Complimentary Color Hearts. 2nd grade was introduced to the artist Jim Dine. One of Jim Dine's artistic focus was hearts, so Valentine's Day was a great time to introduce Jim Dine. Students started out with a 9x12" white paper. They drew a big heart in the middle of their paper. Next was using a ruler to draw at least 5 horizontal and 5 vertical lines. The lines did not have to be straight up and down though. After they were drawn students went back and traced over their lines with a sharpie. Students really had to concentrate on lining the ruler back up with their lines, holding the ruler down tight, and tracing over them. Once any extra pencil lines were erased it was color time. Students learned a new color scheme that was complimentary colors! The students had to choose 2 different pairs of complimentary colors for the inside and outside of the heart. Once their colors were chosen they were making a checkerboard pattern. We came up with putting a little dot of color in the spaces before starting to color, just incase we mixed up on the checker pattern. Once they were planned out, they started coloring. This was a nice project to concentrate on coloring. Once they were done they came to me and I outlined the heart with black glue to help separate and make the heart pop!
Japanese Cherry Blossom Scrolls. To start out scrolls, we read "Zen Shorts." This book is one of my favorites as it has a lot of great life lessons, focuses on Japanese/Chinese culture and has great cherry blossom tree images. It really gets students thinking about their actions during the project. We start out with 18x24" white paper cut in half. We talk about the warm and cool color schemes and the students choose one color scheme for the background. We talk about it looking like a sunrise or a sunset. The students use the messy material that is chalk pastel to blend their colors. The students love this as they can go crazy with the chalk pastel to blend colors and get a little messy. The next day is ink. We have a discussion about how safe and careful we must be with the ink and that it doesn't come off of things. The students get a little blob of ink on the bottom of their paper and they blow the ink around the paper with a straw. They make their trunk and branches by blowing the ink. The trees sit to dry and the next week are flowers. Students make their flowers with oil pastel. The flowers can be any color they would like, unlike the usual pink cherry blossom tree. The students really fill up their trees. Once they are done they bring them to me where I hot glue a wooden dowel on the top and they cut their yarn and tie it onto the dowel. During the end of the project I love to see how students help one another to succeed as helping tie the string and put the last finishing touches on. These are so beautiful and brighten the hallways during the winter months.
3D Paper Mache Bugs. Students could make a short or long body bug. We started out with crumpling newspaper to make the body. We taped around the body to keep it held together. We also taped the wings and antennas on right away. Then the paper mach mess started. It took about 3 class times to completely paper mache with 2 layers of newspaper and 1 layer of paper towel. Once the bugs were dry it was paint time. The students had a plan of paint in their sketchbook before they started. We talked about letting one area dry before they started to paint on top of that area or near it. These bugs were very creative and colorful!
Overlapping smiles were next. We did a lot of exploring with overlapping and how to draw things overlapping objects. They can draw all of the objects and erase overlapping lines, or stop drawing at the object. Students could choose a pumpkin, watermelon, or apple to overlap their faces. They drew in pencil first, we checked for any overlapping lines, and they traced in sharpie. They colored their skin with crayon and the rest was watercolor pencil. They color with the watercolor pencil as they would with a color pencil then add water and it turns to a paint. They love using the watercolor pencils. It's a new material and they love the magic of it turning from color pencil to paint. These are just too cute!
Warm and cool birds were flying around with 2nd grade. We went through the color wheel and discovered primary, secondary, warm, and cool colors. They drew a few different birds in their sketchbooks using simple shapes and enclosed shapes. The beak and wing had to be enclosed shapes. Once they showed they could draw their favorite bird, filling up the whole page, they got their final piece of paper. They drew in pencil first, traced with sharpie and could start to paint. They had to choose what pieces of the body were gong to be warm colors and what parts would be cool colors. As they were painting they created a pattern and followed that pattern throughout their painting. Once the birds were complete they flew their way into the Elmwood tree in the main hallway. They were a beautiful addition.