This was one of my FAVORITE lessons this year. I just loved how each and every one of them turned out. They are so expressive and colorful. This is a new spin on a Starry Night lesson. I started by introducing Vincent Van Gogh’s art by showing prints of his art and by showing a movie: Then, the students drew swirls, dashed and dots to create MOVEMENT using markers. I told that this would be their night sky, so they … Read more…
2nd Grade Winter Landscapes For this project, we read a book about Grandma Moses: Grandma Moses (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists) We discussed how to draw a river or road showing depth (by drawing it converging to a point in the distance). We talked about using size variation to show distance while drawing houses and other objects. The students cut out mountains from gray paper and a snowy patch from white paper (I walked them through this step-by-step). … Read more…
American Landscapes The 3/4s learned about Colonial times and Westward Expansion. The students watched a video about American landscape artists during the 19th century and they painted their own landscapes. One of the goals was to use inspiration from the environment to create a painting. The students chose a landscape scene from pictures of America. Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows on a mountain. I showed … Read more…
I would like to introduce to you some of my favorite women artists. Molly, over at Her Speak, posted about some of her favorites. Without further introduction, here are some to get you thinking, exploring and looking. Shinique Smith Media: Fiber, Mixed Media Installation Status: Alive I just discovered her artwork this year. She had a solo exhibit at the contemporary art museum here in Madison. Her work is totally up my alley. Sandy Skoglund Media: Installations, Photographs, Conceptual … Read more…
During the summer, I’m going to dig back to some of my old lesson plans that I had posted on artsonia.com to show to you. Maybe I will revisit these again during the upcoming school year. This was favorite of mine and I don’t know why I stopped teaching it. The pictures all turned out gorgeous. CUBIST CATS for Second GradeThe kids learned about Picasso and his dynamic, fragmented Cubist artwork. 1. First we did a step-by-step drawing of a … Read more…
This is a tried-and-true art teacher lesson plan. The students enjoyed learning the story behind Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting. We read an article about his famous painting. They also enjoyed seeing various parodies of this artwork. They envisioned their own parody of this famous masterpiece. You can also read this book about his artwork:
