Razzle Dazzle Puzzle Pieces

This week we worked on coloring with crayons and learning the different shapes and styles of line. This is a photo of part of my project, I was given organic shapes instead of geometric shapes.  Organic shapes are shapes that do not use straight lines or are same on all sides. I was also told to use cool colors which include blue, green and purple. 

The students were given the choice of which animal to choose to be put into their project. I chose the frog for my animal. I thought it would be really fun to draw and my favorite color is green and since frogs are green that was a pick but you were also able to make a fox, fish, or a duck. Here is a photo of my frog...

I thought that this was a neat project in that the pieces we were given were in shapes to create a puzzle as a whole class. The final product is going to be really interesting to see all the different types of shapes the students chose. In my coloring i chose a variety of cool colors for each color. You were also suppose to use texture in your project somewhere, I have texture on my frog and in the purple background. 

An extension activity that you could use for this activity could be in a science classroom where you are actually feeling the different textures by having them placed in a bag and then the students guess what type of animal that texture would be.

plaid bunny

This week we also got to learn about complimentary color which include green and red, orange and blue, and purple and yellow. With these colors we were taught about plaid and how you create it by putting horizontal and vertical lines together using different colors. With our project we used the complementary colors to create plaid and then were given cut outs to trace out shapes and putting them together make a bunny... I create a red and green bunny which made me think of Christmas which is sort of funny since it is bunny shaped!!! Isn't he sooo Cute...

 An extension from this activity could be in math, you could count the lines created by the students or you could make problems up using the bunnies made as a visual lesson..

Contour blind drawing- Flowers

This week we created a flower painting where we used blinders to draw without looking. I thought that this was a different way to create art and was very interesting to do. My picture didn't show up as well as I would have liked it too but there is no say in how your art piece is going to turn out. This is a great project for younger students since they get to try something different by using the blinder and paint as well which is always fun.

An extension activity you could use off of this activity could be in geography where they create a map in a dark color but have a hidden city or place where the students could have clues to what the student's have hidden. The students could go around and try to guess what everyone has hidden on their maps.

Hidden Safari

The whole project...

Here is my "Hidden Safari" project. Take a guess on what animal is hidden within the picture... can you see him. This project was great way to get the students to use creativity with cool and warm colors. The students learn to draw in a way not really thought of when creating something. The artist turns the picture they are looking at upside down and starts with a line, you would be amazed at the drawings that form when doing this method. Then they are hide this animal as well as they can with warmer colors such as red, orange, and yellow but drawing different shapes throughout the piece.

"Close up of the Hidden Safari"

An extension from this activity could be for the students to look into their animal of choice even further by researching where they come from, the different characteristics of that animal, what they eat, how they find their food and other amazing facts to share with their classmates...

The note card for the hints to the hidden animal!

Story book Project

"The Lonely Penguin"

This is my story book project. Its a story about a lost penguin who is trying to find out where he fits in. It starts out with the lost penguin on his own and wondering who he is and where he is suppose to be in life. So he decides he is going to start looking, first he look to the sky and catches sight of two birds flying over the ocean just below the beautiful sun. He thinks himself, is that were i belong and tries to flap his wings and fly but can't so he continues along with his journey and sees a lot of different types of animals but in the end finds his home with the other penguins. the colored parts of the story are from mine and others paintings that were cut out into the characters and backgrounds of the project. This was a really fun and great way to interact literature and art together.

I think the best extension to this lesson would be actually having the students write a story about their picture, you could have them present the story if they want or just turn in a little part of the story so you can hang them up in the classroom for all the students to see what their peers have created and the differences and similarities of the stories.

Here I have a similar painting to Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. We used a teaching grade level of Kindergarten so the piece is actually finger-painted. I chose to make a picture of the Bismarck Capital for my art piece because I grew up in Bismarck and its truly one of my favorite places to be, the place I call home.  The other piece is used for 3rd graders, we used tissue paper to create background and made a city silhouette and to bring out some color we used Sharpe markers and oil pastels for some extra pzazz.

An extension from this activity could be to have the students make their own version of "Starry Night" with the use of pastels, markers, crayons or even pictures they have taken or ones picked from a magazine or book. I think you should also bring in some books about Van Gogh for the students to look at for inspiration.

Tissue Paper Project

"The Lights of the Capital"

Britlyn Sturlaugson

Texture-Rug

Emphasis-Table

Organic Shape- Trees

Unity- Puzzle

Space- Stairway

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