Matisse Paper Cut-Outs with 2nd Grade (2015)

In my new district, Elementary Art curriculum for 2nd graders focuses on artists and art history. To kick this year off I started with Matisse. There is just something about all his artwork, from paintings to paper cut-outs, that elementary students enjoy. I think color is a big part of it but his artwork is also almost all positive and when they find out his life story (i.e. the wheelchair) my students get really inspired.

You can see my original post of my first time with this project here.

I did make a few changes including changing the background paper to a color of their choice, not reading/ watching When Pigasso Met Mootise (I'll save that for Picasso), and instead reading them this new book in my collection Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter, found here on Amazon.

We still watched this AWESOME video.

And played with this website on the SMART Board.

This is an amazing project for watching students explore and create. I don't give any limitations for cutting, gluing or dimensions as long as the paper color doesn't match and they use the entire paper. Because of this, and the idea that they can literally do nothing wrong, they EXUDE confidence during this project. A great project and feeling to start the year with.

Halloween Projects Round Up!

We had a very busy and creative few days in the Art Room before Halloween! I had a sub day and early release day mixed in to Halloween week and the week before so we took a break from current projects and did some one day create and take drawings/projects.

Second, Third, and Fourth graders were given the challenge to take the basic Frankenstein and take it to the next level. I had the draw along you see below to help get them started and then they were left to their own devices! Inspiration for this came from here via Pinterest.

Kindergarten and First Grade took two classes on these, one to talk about texture and create the main pumpkin (using texture plates) and then finished up the next class with the string and leaves. Inspiration came from here via Pinterest.

 When Kindergarten and First were finished with their pumpkins, we read the hilarious book Monsters Love Underpants and did a collaborative monster drawing on the SMART Board and then some quick monster drawing on their own.

Last but definitely not least I bought pumpkins for my small group of High School Adaptive Art students and we taped them off with masking tape and used acrylic paint to paint different sections. The paint peeled some but no complaints from that group :)

And a few bonus artworks...one class of Kindergarten and First did the the spiders on an early release day and the pumpkin man was a bonus drawing a 4th grader did with some extra time. Spider inspiration came from here via Pinterest.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!