"African Line Drawings"
Collaborating with music's "Safari September," the 3rd graders focused on the people in Africa instead of the animals. We looked at some original African art that focused on people. We discussed what the people were doing in the artwork. The students were shown how to start their drawing with a simple line that became a shape and then turned into a figure and they continued to add more details as their work progressed, thus creating people. They had a choice of medium, but most students used paint in their work. I think they turned out BEAUTIFUL!
"Dinosaur Silhouette Landscapes"
The third grade students created a painted landscape of a moon, mountains, and a black ground line on white paper. They enjoyed mixing the colors of yellow, red, orange, and magenta around their moon. They mixed black and white to make gray mountains. The 2nd day in class, we looked at pictures of silhouettes and learned to make a dinosaur silhouette. The students chose a dinosaur to draw on black paper with white pastel. They cut and glued their dinosaur to their background. Next, they used white pastels to make moonbeams, stars, and meteors. For the last step, they made trees and plants with black oil pastel. They did a beautiful job!
"Crayon batik pumpkins"
The students in 3rd grade did an observational drawing of a real pumpkin with pencil. we discussed value, shadow, and 3-d. I showed the students how to go from dark to light at the bottom and top of their pumpkins with crayons. I showed the students how going from red-orange to orange to yellow( dark to light) will make their pumpkin look more realistic and 3-d. The children created a shadow under their pumpkin with brown or black crayon. They made grass/ground underneath their pumpkin and colored a background/sky with crayons. They outlined their pumpkin with a black crayon. For the final two steps, the students balled up their paper, flattened it out, and painted over the entire paper with black liquid watercolor. They are really beautiful!
"Fall Trees with cool and warm colors"
Students drew a tree with pencil all the way to the top of their paper. They made their branches go all the way to the edges of their paper. They outlined their tree with blue or red oil pastel. Blue pastel, if they wanted their sky/leaves to be the cool colors-blue, green, and purple. They used red pastel if they wanted the sky/leaves to be the warm colors-red, yellow, orange, or pink. They painted the ground with the opposite colors. Lastly, they painted their tree brown.
"Matisse Inspired Cut-outs"
The students in 3rd grade watched a short video from the Tate Museum in London on "Matisse's Cut-Outs." The children learned about what Matisse called "painting with scissors." We discussed using geometric and organic shapes, overlapping, variety, color, contrast, movement, and more! The students were encouraged to use several of these elements in their "Cut-Out" to make a more interesting composition. I think these are some very interesting and well thought out collages! Great job 3rd grade!
"3-D Snowmen"
The students in 3rd grade enjoyed making 3-D snowmen out of paper. They also had an opportunity to make snowflakes out of coffee filters. They enjoyed constructing and cutting to make these Wintry projects!
"Japanese Notan Design"
Students in 3rd grade watched a video and a PowerPoint on "Notan Designs." The students picked contrasting colors focusing on light and dark. They cut out shapes from their smaller rectangle leaving space in between each shape. They glued their big large rectangle in the center of their background. Next they placed their pieces back into the rectangle like a puzzle. Lastly the students placed glue on their shapes and flipped them out.
"OP art"
After watching a PowerPoint on optical illusions and learning about op artist M.C.Escher, the students created an "Op Art Design" using sharpies, markers, and colored pencils. They watched a very short video on how to create these wonderful optical illusions and began their own using a pencil and a ruler, first. Next they, outlined with sharpie, colored with markers, and added hatching/shading with colored pencils.
"Fairy, Gnome, or Mushroom Houses"
The children used white clay this year to create a "Fairy House." They watched a short video that showed them how to start a house and how to scratch and attach parts to their house. I also did a quick demo and the kids started their creation of an imaginary house. Once their house was fired in the kiln, the students glazed their house and they were fired again. These are one of my favorite clay projects and the children loved making them!
"Egyptian Mummy Sarcophogi"
Inspired by their music program "Temples and Tombs," I decided we would make "Egyptian Mummy Sarcophagi" in art class. Some of the classes got a chance to follow a directed drawing video to create their sarcophagi. They drew with pencil, outlined with sharpie, and painted with tempera paints.
"Ancient Civilization of choice"
To correlate with 3rd grades social studies SOL's, I introduced art from several different countries. The students chose which center interested them most. Most students did 2 of the 4 centers. The centers had pictures and handouts, so the students could do observational drawings. I also showed them very short 2-3 minute videos that introduced them to Greek Vases, the Roman Colosseum, and Koi Fish. They learned some interesting facts about them all! They also made some BEAUTIFUL artwork!
"Greek Vases"
"Egyptian Mau Cats"
"Roman Colosseums"
"Chinese Koi Fish"
"Seascapes"
The students created a seascape showing distance. They used black oil pastels to draw their seascape. The students used liquid watercolors to add color to their seascape.