Klimt Portraits: 3rd Grade

Third grade also looked at Klimt's work. We concentrated more on his use of patterns. In my example I used my cat (she's cuter than I am when she sleeps).

On the first day, students split a yellow paper into five sections. Each section was filled in with a different pattern. I encouraged students to mimic some of the interesting patterns Klimt used. During this class, I took a picture on my teacher iPad of the students "sleeping." I printed these out for the students to use later.

Students at one school used a patterned paper for the blanket. At my other school, students had to create a patterned blanket. Both methods worked well. I had to remind students to make the blankets LONG; otherwise, it looks like they have no legs!!

Here is what their artworks looked like after piecing them all together! I hope that this is a piece they keep for a long time - they all did so well!

Evil Twin: 4th Grade

This project was a lot of fun! I walked students through how to draw a portrait. We drew our faces step-by-step together. Students had to finish in that first class. During my prep, I photocopied each portrait twice. That means each student had their original plus two!

I explained to students that one portrait needed to be colored like how they really look. The other portrait was their evil twin! Students loved coming up with how to make their alter-egos look.

My example:

When both portraits were finished, I had students bring me their two portraits. Using the paper cutter, I chopped the portraits up together into 1-inch strips! Students reassembled their portraits, alternating between good and evil sides. Each student ended up with two portraits!

Here is my finished example! Fun, right?!

Keith Haring: 4/5th Grade

Here are some of the finished works from 4/5th grade! This project took WAY longer than I expected. Most of the students are still working towards finishing! They look really awesome though.

Aren't these cool?! I can tell my students are very proud of themselves, as they should be!

What Does This Emotion Look Like? - 1st Grade

This is yet another lesson I have taken away from my supervising teacher. 1st graders are creating four faces with different emotions. This lesson takes two days. Each day I can get through two of the faces.

The first day, I pass out paper (and crayons if they did not bring any - this project is crayons only!) and walk the students through folding it into fourths. A lot of the students need help. They fold it wrong or do not know how to fold at all. I could just give them one sheet of paper for each, but I like that this displays the faces all together as a series for each student! Plus, folding is a nice skill to develop.

I start by writing an emotion on the board. I ask students to read the word to me. I always do "Happy" first. I ask students to show me what they look like when they are happy.

I then turn to the board and draw a face outline. It makes it easier for students if you split the board into two or four sections. This way they understand better that they are not drawing on top of the entire picture, but just in one section at a time.

I ask students to raise their hand and tell me one feature to add at a time. I am careful to remind students that eyes are not on the forehead. I also make sure students are adding eyebrows (these are so easy to forget!)

Here is what two of my examples on the board looked like (don't make fun!). I purposefully use many colors because I want my students to do the same. I also diversify the gender, hair color, eye color, etc. I don't always diversify skin color because I just use the green of the chalk board; however, I am going to start using more than just the "white" chalk for outlines. Hopefully, this will make the chalkboard's ethnicities look more diverse.

I try to do goofy things (like steam coming out of the ears) and add little details (bow, freckles, etc.) so that students will begin thinking about what details they can add. If the students finish early, I have them do a background for each section.

Here are some examples from one of my 1st grade classes!

This student accidentally drew two happy faces (he was just so happy!).

We fixed this by just adding another face that was sad.

This boy wanted his surprised face to have eyes popping out of their sockets!

What a creative idea!

I love the striped backgrounds.

Those are freckles, not pimples!

As you may have gathered, I have great artists in my 1st grade class!! We may have to do MORE emotions!

Kids say such funny things!

This is from a lesson (coming soon) that I am doing with my first graders. It deals with drawing emotions on people's faces. The first emotion was "Happy," naturally. One of my first graders showed her example to me at the end of class as she was turning it in:

"She's happy 'cause she's getting married!"

Ah, so she is! I love the detail of the bride's veil, jewelry, and even makeup! I cannot wait to see what this student, along with the rest of my students, comes up with for the other emotions!