Kindergarten Snowmen

How can we use different sizes of shapes to create?

Kindergarten is focusing on variations and shapes in math class so we reinforced the objective in art.
We are also working with our local supermarket, Kennies, to design winter themed bags to give out during this holiday season.

Get in contact with your local supermarket. This is an excellent way for your art program to reach out to the community! Thanks Kennies' Markets! Hope you love the bags! We do!

3rd Grade Lascaux Cave Paintings

How can artwork from the past explain traditions and beliefs of the cultures that lived then?

Culture
Lascaux
Auroch
Timeline
Fossil
Artifact

3rd grade creates artwork based on their knowledge of a "Timeline of Art" which continues in 4th grade. 3rd grade starts their timeline in 15,000 BC with the discovery of cave paintings of animals.

In 1940, a group of French boys stumbled upon the opening of a cave in Lascaux, France. Inside the cave they found drawings of animals all over the walls. It was later discovered that these drawings were from around 15,000 BC. The drawings were larger than the animals depicted and some were even etched into the rocks.

Using brown paper to resemble a cave wall, students drew their depictions of deer, bison, wild cats, aurochs and many other animals found inside the caves. The catch is that they had to depict a story through their drawings. They were asked to pretend to be a cave artist. Why would they crawl into a dark cave to draw a picture? What would they want to communicate by doing so? Would they be telling a story and if so, what would it be?

Students wrote short stories pretending to be a cave artist and explaining their reasons for painting on the cave walls as a conclusion to this lesson.

Thank you Danny Moyer (my rockin' co-op) from Whitehall-Coplay MS (now at the HS) for this fab idea!

1st Grade Line Paintings Square 1 Art Project

How can lines show direction?

Horizontal
Vertical
Diagonal

1st grade observed the various lines they saw around the art room. The straight vertical lines of the chairs, horizontal lines in the tables and lights and diagonal lines in the peaked ceiling and art stools, among other objects, gave them inspiration to document their lines in a painting. We even learned how our raised high fives can show vertical and diagonal lines too.

5th Grade Contour & Construction Line Shoe Watercolors

5th grade learned how construction lines help build a form. Construction lines are like beams that help support a building. The form we chose to draw was a shoe, straight off out feet! We turned our construction lines into contour lines. Contour lines are basically an outline of lines, shapes, and shadows in a form.

Fifth grade worked so intensely on their drawings that they ran out of time to complete their watercolors. However, the product they did achieve was fabulous!