In the Art Room - Kaliedescope Designs

I've seen these all over the place and it seemed like an easy, laid back assignment for my 5th grades.  It took them two class periods and A LOT of explanation, but in the end I think they turned out some very striking designs!

In the Art Room - Hidden Hands

I stole another AWESOME idea from Mini Matisse!!  I think Mrs. Hahn may be new hero!  Anyhoo, my 8th graders loved this project.  We started out by looking at contemporary Chinese artist Liu Bolin and his hidden city series.  I wanted the kids to understand that art is not meant to just be pretty.  Liu's work sends a very heavy message.  They enjoyed his work and I think they appreciated his struggle.  For their own project, they printed an image of a pattern found in nature, painted that pattern on an 8 x 10 sheet with tempera, then the following week, they hid their own hands in the paintings!

In the Art Room - Symmetrical Bee Hives

The Kinders made symmetrical beehives today by painting half the hive then folding their paper to create a print for the second half.  They loved them!

In the Art Room - Fireflies

The idea for this project came from smART Class, a fabulous art teacher's blog!  I made just a couple changes for my kids.  The focus was on color mixing with the goal of creating several blue and green tints.  Just like smART Class we also discussed how landscapes look different in the moonlight vs. the sunlight.  We also reviewed foreground, middle ground, and background.  We used tempera paint for the moon and grass, and fluorescent jazz gloss paint for the fireflies.  They came out gorgeous!!

In the Art Room - Shaving Cream Ice Cream

I experimented using water color and tempera paint for this project and you definitely need food coloring to get the right consistency!  The kinders loved making these and the room smelled great from the shaving cream!