Primer and Kindergarten Queens and Princesses

Primer and kindergarten girls LOVE royalty. The idea of a queen or a princess, and even fairies, ignite their imaginations! While browsing on the Internet, I saw some pictures of princesses that a class had made from clay. Unfortunately, I forgot to bookmark it! The girls made their own versions out of clay. After the royal ladies were fired, the girls painted them with regular watercolors as well as some glittery watercolor. Ohhh, did they love the shiny colors! They finished their creations with some sparkly additions. These are quite stunning!

The princess below makes me smile! What a joyous leap!
The crown on the princess on the left sticks out from the surface, and the other shows a wonderful use of textures.

1st grade mummy cases....

First graders learned about Egypt in social studies and in art! They created their own versions of mummy cases. They drew out a large Egyptian style figure, like a sarcophagus, and incorporated many of the Egyptian sympols- snakes, crook, flail, heiroglyphics. After painting the case, they cut it out along with a back piece, glued the two pieces together, and then stuffed it. Below are some pictures of the creative process. These were fun to make and look at!

Knee Bowls by PreKindergarten

My young students love making these! I can not remember where I got this idea from, but they love it. They rolled clay into a ball, flattened it, and then cupped the clay around their knees. After the bowls were fired, the girls glazed them.

PreKinder and the Tooth Fairy!

"Throw Your Tooth on the Roof" is a wonderful book about what people all around the world do with a tooth a child lost. Prekinder girls are just beginning to have loose teeth, so this is really intriguing to them! In a lot of countries, a mouse or rat comes and takes the tooth out from under the pillow. In some other countries, the tooth is thrown onto the roof of the home, with a variety of things that happen, like a bird may take it. In the U.S., the tooth fairy comes. Prekinder girls drew what they think the tooth fairy looks like, and used shimmery water colors to paint her. OH,, did they love that!

I guess the tooth fairy below has a boyfriend?

8th grade monsters and animals

During our hand building with clay, using a pinch pot for the body, one 8th grade class made monsters and the other class created animals. They painted their creations with acrylic. The koala above really showed the texture of the fur, but it does not quite come through in my photograph.

Two monsters....love the attitude of the bunny ears, and the other one has wire eyelashes!

This cow turned out quite well.

More monsters! Did we skeer ya!!!

8th grade vessels, part 2 (glazed!)

8th grade made these vessels around a core of rolled up newspapers. Each added texture and additional clay to the surface for decoration. These are the finished pieces.

On the blue vase above, the texture was added using a textured roller over and over again, changing directions each time. The one above has about four different sides. I like that she tried a variety of techniques.

This vase has the student's name on it. She did a great job adding texture to the letters.

Both vases above took quite a while to finish. Both girls worked really hard on them and they turned out quite well.

Kinder and Primer - Warm and Cool colors

I enjoy working with warm and cool colors and they effect they have on each other and the viewer. In Kinder and Primer, we discussed the differences between these colors. They folded a piece of paper in half, and drew six lines on one half. They folded the paper back up and drew over the same lines on the back (using pencils). The graphite left faded lines on the other half of the paper. After redrawing them, they had a symmetrical and abstract drawing! They colored one side warm and the other side cool using crayons. The last step was to add watercolor, following the same warm and cool sides.

When they finish, we discuss the difference the colors make on the same drawing. During this reflection, I also ask them which side they like best! This is a great way to see the difference color makes.

I have no idea where I got this project from, I have been doing it for a very, very long time!

PreKindergarten Art Books

On the website Kinderart.com, there is a template for an art book for young children to make. I have changed some things in the book and used it as a review for what we have learned in Prekindergarten. Hopefully they can keep this for a while to read about what we have done in class. We do a cover, and then pages on the primary colors, secondary colors, warm and cool colors, lines, texture, and using our imaginations. The last page is like an authors page where they drew a self-portrait and I interview them and enter a little bio next to their portrait. The parents will see these books during their teacher conferences!

Chess sets complete!

The chess sets are complete! First grade students did a wonderful job creating the pieces with a western theme. Here is each class set and a chess board. Whew, now, time to party! This idea came from http://www.artforsmallhands.com/search/label/clay