Windy Days

We have been talking a lot about wind and looking at how artists illustrate wind in their work. Today I read the book Goodnight Kiss by Amy Hest. The story is a sweet bedtime tale and the illustrations are a wonderful example of wind. At the end of the book students discussed what they might add to the illustrations to demonstrate wind even more clearly. We had a great conversation full of brilliant ideas! Next we looked at more work by Van Gogh specifically the tall bent grasses and trees in the wind in contrast to calmer illustrations where the grass and trees are standing straight.

Students then used oil pastels to create a windy background on an evening sky. Next, on a separate piece of paper they illustrated a house using oil pastels and watercolor. When they put the two together they came to life! Wait until you see the work come home!

First Day of Art

Hooray! It is finally the first day of art! Today I read Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall Ets.

It's a sweet story of a boy playing with the wind and all that the wind is capable of doing. Next, we looked at some familiar and not so familiar work from Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night and Arles: View from the Wheatfields. We discussed the difference in the two pieces. Students looked and discussed how Van Gogh created wind and movement in Starry Night as well and a sense of calm in Arles: View from the Wheatfields.

After our discussion students used their markers, colored pencils and crayons to create a scene of their own including a solid structure (house), trees and movement (wind). It was a fantastic first day and so much fun to see all the new faces and some familiar from last year!

Yikes it's August!

What another fantastic and fun summer! And it's not over yet!

I wanted to share this great little kit called doodle roll. It has so many possibilities! The paper come 15' long and yet fits nicely across a table and is manageable for kids to use. They go crazy for the extended possibilities for their drawings! This little thing is going in my bag along with my tiny bottle of sunscreen, hand sanitizer and goldfish as a necessity. You just never know when you might need to create a road for hot wheels or draw a ballerina stage for polly pockets to dance across. It's a great treat to pull out for a break in the day, on the road or for a wait at a restaurant or whenever a creative moment hits you!

Hope the next couple weeks are creative and rejuvenating for you all!

Summer!

Here's a fun project we did today in summer school. I read a poem from Shel Silverstein about tree houses. Next, we looked at some real tree houses on the ipad. We discussed texture, line and pattern and students went to work creating their dream tree house!
There was fun chatter in the room while they were busy drawing!

Wow! Time Flies!

May flew by and I didn't post a thing!
We were busy working on our clay unit and unfortunately it went undocumented. You will have to take my word for it that amazing things happened in one month spent with clay and the results were outstanding!
We also had a Spring bird themed art show at the beginning of May. You could almost hear the birds singing on the halls when we were done!
Here are few other projects that we worked in too!



Students used scraps to create an animal in it's environment.


The upper level took a look at Georgia O'Keeffe for inspiration on these flowers for the halls!


We had an amazing Spring/Bird themed art show at the beginning of May. The upper level looked at Picasso's one line art for inspiration on these bird cages.


Students created doodle books to take home for the summer!


Hot air balloons in the works for the bulletin board in the Upper Level!

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

We had the chance to visit the Arboretum last weekend when it was marvelously warm outside. The tulips were starting to peek out of the ground and the birds were singing a happy song! In addition to going through Patrick Dougherty's 'Uff-da Palace", which is a magical and fun place for kids, we also got the pleasure of walking through, around and under Steve Tobin's Steel Roots exhibit. It is worth visiting this wonderful outdoor set of 16 sculptures. Here is the link for more information!
I love the shadows that this one created!

Spring is Here!

Spring is here and so are the bugs, butterflies, worms and other critters!



The kids did a beautiful job of creating their own personal garden scenes with a butterfly popping off the page!