5th Grade was a Barrel of Monkeys!

Last 5th grade fun project with my 5th grade monkeys...we did warm and cool colors drawing our versions of the Barrel of Monkeys!  I had them add captions...quite funny.

Lady Liberty, Peter Max & Andy Warhol

                                                                                               My 4th graders made these cool pieces after learning about 2 artist Andy Warhol & Peter Max.  We looked at several pieces of their art work and did a study on Lady Liberty.  We looked at the map of New York and discussed what other landmarks were in New York.  Some of my classes did the print making piece with foam and my final classes did theirs in the style of Peter Max with water colors.  Unfortunately my print making photos were deleted and these are all I have to show, but they did a great job!  Each student created a red, white and blue background for their artwork to be mounted on as well.

We used this book The Story of the Statue of Liberty by Maestro to learn more about Lady Liberty.

Art is a HOOT!

Love these water color owls.  We did the wet on wet technique and my artist completely stressed out because they could not be so precise.  We talked about how the colors would blend and give it a cool tie dye look.  I really think they turned out well.
They wanted to define their owls at the end so they used sharpie to go back over and outline their pieces. 

             We used the book Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan because I LOVE the illustrations. View the book trailer here:  http://youtu.be/RS7I2tfWQMU

The Tree Lady - Art with Nature

The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever Hardcover by H. Joseph Hopkins(Author),Jill McElmurry(Illustrator)

         My friend Alyson Low, the amazing children's librarian @ the Fayetteville Public Library (which by the way if you have never been too...is AMAZING) introduced me to this book.  It is a wonderful NON-Fiction book about Kate Sessions and her story of turning San Diego from desert to a lush green environment.  It is a beautiful story and fabulous illustrations.  I have 2 groups of students working on pieces with this.  One group is doing their version of the cover of the book.  It was a great lead into teaching PERSPECTIVE in art.  You can see their beginnings here.  I also decided to have them take actual PHOTOS of each other from up above to collage into their watercolor pieces.  They selected books to look like they were reading in their art work.  Yes...I'm all giddy already!

And even better is what KINDERGARTEN is going to do with the book.  I love the first page of the book where it talks about Kate using nature to create artwork and get her hands dirty.  This week my kinder artist will be using nature to paint their backgrounds...and finishing their pieces with a muddy hand print right on top.  Yep...I will probably pull my hair out...but how stinking cute it will be!

Well...I had left over paint that my kinders used today.  But I have already made changes for tomorrow.  I really want to just use shades of GREEN for the backgound nature printmaking.  Then do the muddy handprints on top.  I have my fingers crossed...and my room is a disaster!!  And our custodians are not real happy with me right now, :).