Outside Weaving

The weather has been too nice to pass up the opportunity for having class outside.

More Picasso Portraits

 My fifth and sixth graders also created Picasso-style portraits. I've done similar lessons before, but I used the directions from Deep Space Sparkle this time. I was really happy with these results.

 I gave students the option of outlining in paint or oil pastels and everyone chose pastel. I will say it is a bit harder to get fifth graders to make cubist portraits than it was for first graders. Once the kids were willing to loosen up a bit, the paintings turned out fabulously!

Picasso's Blue Rose

This was another great lesson from another blogger, Phyl from There's A Dragon in my Art Room. This was such a fun study of Picasso's Blue and Rose periods, while teaching the students about monochromatic color schemes.

My students were a bit thrown with not having skin tones. "How do we make brown?" I reminded them that we were making monochromatic paintings. Some of the students didn't seem to know how to approach painting the face with that restriction.

Our last day, we used various oil pastels in the blue or red range, along with black and white to add details. This really helped a lot of students' work.

I was very happy with the results of these paintings. Thanks again, Phyl for another great lesson!

Picasso Roosters

Another great Picasso lesson from Mary Making. 

I pretty much followed her lesson, with an emphasis on reusing materials. We used old mat board for the base, created the background with a phone book and old catalogs. I tried using wallpaper as well. Not a good idea. Both the wallpaper and some of the catalogs really resisted the paint. On the catalogs it added a nice effect, but was just a waste of time to paint on the wallpaper. I also used oil pastels to draw an outline of the rooster rather than painting it. The kids just have more control with drawing materials. 

They turned out nice even for the students who missed the first day.

I really liked the addition of collage, though. And what else are you going to do with phone books?

Blog Awards

Molly Stewart gave me the Liebster blog award a while back. I just kind of forgot about it. I believe I was given a Versatile blogger award last year, too by Mary. Really I'm very flattered, thank you so much for the awards. I just didn't follow through last year. I will spread the love this time, though. The Liebster blog award is for bloggers with less 200 followers and the Versatile Blogger award is for newly discovered blogs. Mostly, these are one in the same, so here goes.

1. Art for 1170 She teaches a lot of kids each week. A LOT. 
2. The Crayon Lab I've borrowed some great ideas from here!
3. Chucks, Crayons, and a Little Creativity
4. Ms. Kristen Crayon Can
5. Rainbow Skies and Dragonflies Newish blog, but not new to teaching

Go check them out!

Now, for those who I listed, you are to pass on the award to 5 more blogs. Have fun, share the love.

First Grade Picasso Portraits

Last month most of my classes studied the art of Pablo Picasso. Lots of talk and laughter about cubism. I think the results were pretty fabulous, though.

These Cubist portraits are by my first graders. So colorful and fun! This lesson was adapted from Mary Making.

We started by drawing in crayons a fairly simplified Cubist version, then painted with temperate. Just to add a bit more definition, we outlined with black oil pastel.