1st Grade Buggin' Out for Matisse

How can paper and glue be used to create works of art to create works of art?

 Why would artists choose to work in collage?

Collage
Paste
Adhesive
Medium
Positive
Negative
Symmetry

1st grade talked about why artists would choose to work solely in paper materials. How does paper work well for an artwork? How is it difficult to use paper in an artwork? Why did they think Matisse used cut paper?

1st grade is also studying insects in their curriculum so we talked about what parts of an insect we would need to build one out of cut paper. We used symmetry in creating our shapes and designing our insects.

2nd Grade Warm and Cool Sailboat Silhouettes Square1 Art Project

So successful were our sailboats for our Square1 Art Fundraiser last year, we did them again!

How can we use colors to communicate?

Warm
Cool
Silhouette
Collage
Contrast
Overlapping

Colors used in artworks can tell us the time of day, the weather, and how someone is emotionally and physically feeling.  2nd graders choose either a warm or a cool color scheme to tell the time of day and weather of their artworks and using tissue paper, collaged the background.

Black construction paper and markers were used to finish the work.

2nd Grade Warm/Cool Sailboat Silhouettes

2nd grade used warm or cool colors to collage a background for their sailboats out at sea. Students talked about why artists would use warm colors or cool colors in a work of art and what each suggests: time of day, mood, setting...

These always turn out beautiful, especially when we add our "juicy details" with Gel Fx markers and sharpie for more contrast!

2nd Grade Molas

2nd grade observed the characteristics of the predominant art form of the Kuna Indians of the San Blas Islands in Panama. Known as a mola, this art form is created by sewing colorful layers of fabric around a main design, typically of an animal or plant.

Since 2nd grade is learning about symmetry, they used a symmetrical cutout piece of white paper to create the face of the animal that they observed in the shape. Students used a layering technique with paper to create the rest of their symmetrical molas.