1st and 2nd Grade Art

What a fantastic group of artists we have in 1st and 2nd grade this year! We have already cycled through several projects this year! Our first project was a quick "get to know the classroom" project where the students could draw anything they wanted. They were given a large sheet of white paper with one dot placed in the middle. The dot could become anything they could imagine. We had eyes of monsters, sun-rays, heads of people and complex abstractions.  Following the introduction piece, we created a "warm fish, cool water" piece. This work reinforced the lesson of gradient value in work and taught the students the difference between warm colors and cool colors. The work is currently displayed in the main gallery, try to stop in to see. As a STEAM tie in to science, we had a one day self portrait project. The students studied the human body in science and in art we talked about the placement and "map" of the human face. They learned correct positioning of the features and finished the portraits with oil pastel.  The work is hanging outside their classroom. Finally, we had a double STEAM period on September 15th for Dot Day! Ms. Patel and I worked together to create several art and science projects around dots. The students made a collaborative dot painting, connected strings and dot magnets, drew observational drawings outside from their personal dot space and made dot parachutes. We can do so much in an 80 minute block! We all enjoyed the experience.

Making dot parachutes

Self portraits

Dot painting