Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Mondrian and Outer Space, continued!

Today we finished our Mondrian inspired work by carefully coloring some of the squares in our prints with the primary colors: red, blue and yellow with oil pastels. These lovely works are now hanging in the hallways outside the Bearville and Poohville classrooms.







We also continued work on our mixed media outer space project. We had a chance to take a look at photos of the planets to see their sizes and colors. We were also surprised to find that photos of outer space contained many bright and beautiful colors - not only black! The kids drew their planets and painted them with watercolors. Then they filled their outer space "backgrounds" with colors. Finally we sprinkled a little salt on the water colors as they dried as an experiment. Because the salt absorbs the water and color, you can end up with some interesting textures. Next week we will cut and paste our favorite spaceships, planets and stars onto our outerspace backgrounds!








Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Pier Mondrian -- and -- Space Ships

Today we began work on 2 separate projects: one a 2-class project studying the work of Pier Mondrian-- and the second a multi class project on outer space.

We began the morning by drawing spaceships and UFOs! The kids followed along as I did a few step-by-step demonstrations. It was exciting to watch as the kids realized that they really are able to draw complex, real world images. At the end of the lesson many went on to create their own personalized spaceships. Then we colored the ships with colored pencil. Take a look!










Next we viewed a few images from the work of Pier Mondrian. I asked the kids what they noticed about his work. They noted that his work was very neat and in control, the colors were always inside the lines, all this lines were straight (no circles), he used  only a few colors and left much of the space white.

Then we went on to our project. When we began, some of the kids were worried that it would be hard to paint straight black lines. Luckily we didn't have to! We used cardboard squares as our painting tool. Turning a cardboard square on it's edge you have a perfect way to print a straight line! We worked with horizontal and vertical to create a multitude of square and rectangle shapes. Next week, adding color!
















Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Robots! Complete!




Today we finished our ROBOTS!
I brought in a collection of found objects: bottle caps, buttons, pins, beads, sparkles and glitter. The children were free to decorate their robots with these items in any way they chose.
The only parameter on this part of the project was to be sure to be generous about sharing these items with friends. The kids did wonderfully. They added all sorts of decoration to their robots and with the glitter added all sorts of wonders to the galaxies their robots inhabit.
*Special congratulations to Ava who missed last class and was able to paint and decorate her robot beautifully in one class - with time to spare for drawing afterwards!

After the kids finished I brought out some mosaic photocopies for them to try coloring. These designs really call one to consider how to approach pattern. You can find these in their bags this afternoon. Beautiful work!











Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Space Robots! Part 2

This election Tuesday we continued working on our space robots!

We started by cutting out the planets, stars and comets that we drew last week. the kids glued them onto their outer space backgrounds.



Then we got to paint! We had a beautiful silver paint for the metal bodies of the robots -- and then red, blue and green for details. Next week we'll add sparkles and some small, decorative found objects as our final touches! Special congratulations to Meesh and Cole who missed last class and managed to both build and paint their robots today! Great work, kids!