Sunflowers van Gogh style!

Continuing the theme of an Art History project across all grades...

While introducing contemporary artists is fantastic for students because they can make more relevant connections, I still feel so passionately about teaching and sharing with students the artists and paintings so well known in art history. Many of the artworks I share with students appear in TV shows, movies, and cartoons still today! Usually when I introduce some wildly famous work of art, I get hands shooting up telling me where they have seen the work in their pop cultural lives (which makes me seriously geek out!). Vincent van Gogh is one of those artists that I share every year. I just can't help myself. Seeing The Starry Night in person and his self portrait at the NGA was an experience I will never forget! SEE!

Okay so projects! Both Kindergarten and 3rd grade looked at the classic sunflowers on the table painting...

3rd Grade!

I Can create a sunflower artwork inspired by the famous artist Vincent van Gogh.

Day 1: Intro! Just a basic who was he, what did he paint, where was he from via Google Slides. We also had a nice discussion about how he only sold one painting while he was alive and how that must have made him feel. I love getting deep! Then we watched this seriously awesome van Gogh YouTube video...

Last thing before we started working was looking at his sunflowers up-close via Art Project by Google.

Work for Day 1 included creating the vase decorated to their choosing and gluing it to the table and background. We left the vase unglued at the top so we could actually stick the stems in. I did give them a template for the vase.

Day 2: Little van Gogh recap with my van Gogh artist poster (more on that later) and watched some sunflowers time-lapse videos! The second one isn't real but still fantastic and gives an opportunity to talk about digital art.

I do a short demo of gluing the petals to the back and details they can add for a slightly more realistic effect and then the rest of the time is theirs to work!

Day 3: van Gogh artist poster is up once again and then we went over a worksheet to prepare them for their next project. The rest of the time is theirs to complete their sunflowers and work on the worksheet.

I love how a project can be so similar but show each personality in it's completion!

Jefferson Elementary...

3rd and Kindergarten mixed together.

(ACK! Strips you make me angry every time I see you!)

McDill Elementary...

Kinderbeaners!

I Can create a sunflower made from shapes.

Day 1: Started the class with the Mati and Dada video that I showed 3rd grade at the end of their intro. Then we looked at more of his paintings and the sunflowers up close. Because this was their first real project I wanted to take it fairly slow so the only thing we did the first day was cut the grass and make the stem and leaves. I talked up the idea that we were making the flowers start to grow this art day and then they would finish growing the next art day to flow with the way to were making them. I also really tried to get them to to focus on the shapes of the different pieces but they get carried away and I'm okay with that ;)

Day 2: Had the van Gogh artist poster up when they came in as a re-fresher and then they watched just the first time lapse of the real sunflower. We had a nice chat about what other things would be good to use time-lapse for, I love listening to them think out-loud! Sometimes I wonder where and how they think of some of the things they say! For work time, I did a demo of creating the head and petals of the flower and showed them my "magic trick" of folding paper and then cutting to get more than one. Surprisingly enough finishing their flowers took almost the entire time!

Jefferson Elementary...

McDill Elementary...

Still contemplating re-visiting van Gogh later in the year to do a Starry Night project....Too much van Gogh? Thoughts?

Keith Haring Tooling

What a better way to celebrate the first year anniversary of my blog than with one of my favorite projects!

I did this project last year with my 6th graders and did it in conjunction with a 3rd grade Haring project of positive/negative space. You can see more details of the project and the 3rd grade project from this post. I didn't do the 3rd grade project this year because I wanted to switch it up but the 6th graders loved this one too much last year not to do it again!

I can statement: I CAN create a metal tooling artwork inspired by the artist Keith Haring.

Day 1: Haring intro with the best YouTube Keith Haring video EVER. My students thought I was awesome for finding this gem...

Then, a little demo of how to draw the figures and brainstorming/sketching time before they put their final drawings on this sheet..... Its just a 6" x 6" box and directions that the metal gets tapped to for easy transfer....

I leave this project pretty open ended with the only requirement being one "Haring figure" and the option of narrative or design based....

Day 2: Artist poster review of Keith Haring and then a demo of the tooling. If they finished their drawing last time, I already have the metal taped to the back of their drawing. I found this little YouTube video that someone must have made for a school project that shows a great variety of his work and all types. I have to mention that they loved his sculptures. I will have to keep that in mind for future projects.

Day 3: Sharpie! Just a quick set of reminders about how the sharpies like to jump the edges because they are rounded and to get different values of sharpie you need to layer the color. Found one last Haring YouTube video to share as well...I didn't show the whole thing because the quality wasn't that great and some censoring issues so I just played the first 2:50-ish minutes which did the job! It is great to watch the whole thing without students too!

Once again, totally in love with the final product and the process!

Jefferson Elementary...

I really hope I can get a bulletin board for this school! I hate strips! SO BORING.

McDill Elementary...

Drawing with Scissors

Sorry for being MIA! I have been busy getting the year underway with projects and activities! I started the year off with a collaborative hand project and an adventure to the Museum to get us inspired for our first all school theme of Art History inspired projects!

Matisse is probably one of my favorite artists just for his use of color. One of the lessons I remember most from student teaching that my cooperating teacher did was a Matisse paper cutting one. After seeing these beauties on Pinterest via Drip, Drip, Splatter Splash, I knew I had to try my hand at it with 1st and 2nd graders.

I can statements for this project: I can "draw with scissors" like the famous artist Henri Matisse.

Before Project Day 1: 1st grade finished their school museum activity early so we did an all class activity where I gave them some old, terribly faded, paper and challenged them to cut different shapes. I didn't let them keep anything as a way to practice not being invested in your art to the extreme.

The rest is the same for 1st and 2nd grade...
Day 1: Did a little intro about Matisse and watched one my FAVORITE books When Pigasso Met Mootise.

We also had a nice discussion about how Matisse must have felt when he found out he was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Pretty awesome when six and seven year olds can connect with humans so innocently...

Then I shared with them what we were going to create and that the only similarity in our art works was going to be the direction of our paper. I showed them how to make a swirl and reminded them how to cut something from the center of their paper. Then the scrap paper boxes went out and they got cutting! No pencil allowed :) They got a large manila envelope to keep their pieces in for next time.

Day 2: Did a small review about Matisse then watched another AMAZING YouTube find! Apparently this series is Italian (I think!) and only a few have been translated including van Gogh and Pollock. Which is a shame! They are a great resource and perfect language for elementary!

After the video I did a demonstration about composition with pieces I had cut. We talked about three main things...not too much of one color by each other, connecting pieces to others, and not piling them all on. They had to arrange everything before they could glue. Some kiddos in the first class used glue stick (even though I advised against it) and their projects fell apart so glue sticks were put away for the other classes!

Really love these, and my kiddos who really struggle with drawing and coloring were really successful and I could see the love of art back in their eyes!

McDill Elementary...

These two contrast each other so well :)

Jefferson Elementary...