2nd Grade: I love Rocks

As a little child I remember hiking around the mountains of Utah picking up pretty little rocks. My great grandmother was a "rock hound" and she sewed all the grandchildren little drawstring bags for us to keep our rocks in. She made little rock animals from her rock treasures and I remember how fun they were to look at. Later at family reunions, my Aunts and Uncles kept the tradition alive but having us "paint" rocks. When the 2nd grade teachers asked me to use ROCKS to create art projects to go along with 2nd grade Science curriculum, it brought back feelings of nostalgia. In the art room we have been sorting rocks into sizes and colors and using them to create beautiful art. The 2nd grade teachers helped me develop 3 projects for the students to create as they prepare for their program on ROCKS! In the first project we used different sizes and colors of rocks to create the beautiful little rock art pieces displayed above. As the students finished this project, they were allowed to start working on creating little rock animals. It has been fun to see the creativity as the children figure out how to combine the shapes and sizes of the rocks to create an animal. We learned about gravity and physics and we glued the rock animals together! Next time in art we will finish our rock animals and learn how to draw a "Rock Monster" with pastel chalks.

2nd Grade: Keith Haring Art

The 2nd graders did a fabulous job as they created these amazing pictures in the style of Keith Haring. This lesson had two main correlations with the standard core, self-awareness and also math. In the art part of this lesson, we learned how to draw basic body shapes in proportion by drawing ovals. We drew an oval for the head, a bigger oval for the body, 3 smaller ovals for each arm, and then 3 ovals for each leg. We learned that our body only bends where we have a "joint"... in this case where two of our ovals met. We drew people doing all kinds of fun things. Ideally, the children drew figures doing something that was important to them... something they loved. Then we cut out our figures and glued them down. We tried to overlap the figures to show depth. This was a hard concept for the children to understand, but it was really interesting to see the results. Finally, we created some visual texture by making a beautiful "patterned" floor for our figures to dance on. I love the energy in all of these pictures. In the 2nd picture especially, you can actually see the children playing basketball. The overlapping in this piece of artwork provides so much depth to the picture. It was a little difficult for the children to draw "shadow" people with no expressions, but in the next art lesson we learned to draw a self portrait, and this was an adventure all in itself. Tune in for the next installment!

1st Grade Extension: Geometric Snowflakes

In one more fun snowflake extension, Miss Eberhard's class created these beautiful snowflakes by combining geometric shapes and then glueing them down on black paper. This fits in nicely with the math core and also teaches fractions and fractal design.

1st Grade Extension: Snowflakes

This photo didn't turn out very well, but I thought this was a great art extension that is worth sharing. Mrs. Reary gave each of her children a coffee filter and taught them how to fold it and cut out shapes to make a snowflake. Then they painted it with the same cool colors we used in art class. They finished their project by writing about it and then mounting everything on black paper. They even added silver glitter for a sparkly winter look.

1st Grade Extension: Snowmen

If you read my last post about Mrs. Gerber's writing activity, I also found this other great integration while walking down the same first grade hall! Miss Bowcutt's class had created these cute little snowmen using tear art. Learning to tear paper in a circular shape is very good for children's fine motor skills and it is very difficult! These are especially cute with the different hats and earmuffs! This activity would be fun to try with almost any age level.

1st Grade Extension: Winter Writing

A few weeks ago, the day after we did our winter scene's in art, I was walking down the first grade hall and I stumbled upon this great pictures and stories created by Mrs. Gerber's class! I was amazed at the pictures and I asked her if she had shown them what to do, and she said no! She asked them to draw a winter picture and they drew the trees, the little deer, bunnies, snowmen and stars that we had created in art. Then they wrote a great little "winter" essay. I was amazed to see how well they remembered how to create "branches" on the tree, the little snowman arms, and the deer antlers!

In the BTS/ALP (Beverley Taylor Soreson Arts Learning Program) this is exactly the type of art integration that we hope the teachers are making in the language arts, math, social studies and science lessons. We know that art helps kids learn! Kudos to Mrs. Gerber for a great extension. Her kids are the winners!

1st Grade Extension: Little Clay Penguins

Ok... this has been one of my favorite projects of all time. Sometimes it seems like all the projects are my favorite, but there is something about 1st graders and little cute animals that just warms your heart. Miss Eberhard's class had been studying penguins the entire month of January and so I asked her if I could test this project with her class. We took the last 1o minutes of their regular art time and I showed them the pictures of little penguins doing fun things in the book "Penguin Pete". I gave each child a little ball of Crayola "Model Magic" clay. We learned how to make penguins with basic forms. First we made a little egg shape, then we added little wings, feet, and a nose. If the children had extra clay, they made little baby penguins. After allowing the penguins to dry for a week, the children came back, painted their penguins and then we added little google eyes. Later, we added a coat of sealer to give them a nice shine.

After trying ii out with Miss Eberhard's class, we also made little penguins in Mrs. Rutledge's, Mrs. Evans' and Mrs. Peterson's classes.

Model Magic is fun to work with. If a child breaks off a nose or a wing, it is easy to fix just by gluing it back on with any white glue. This is a great little project that is fun for almost any age group.