3rd grade Picasso

The kids love Picasso! Why? Because his work is silly and unexpected and the kids enjoy seeing art in that way. The third graders studied the life and work of Picasso touching upon his blue period, rose period and then cubism.
The students learned how to draw a portrait the correct way using guidelines. We learned that Picasso was an amazing artist at a young age, drawing everything realistically. After we drew our portrait, we outlined it in Sharpie and drew 5 lines through it. Those 5 lines created sections that were colored using crazy colors and patterns. Then, the whole face was cut out and then cut into 8 pieces. When put back together, the pieces needed to line up but not touch. This gives the look of cubism!

5th grade sketchbooks

In 5th grade we make sketchbooks. The purpose of these sketchbooks is to focus on drawing and observation skills. All drawings in the sketchbooks will be done in pencil only so we can work on value and shading in our drawings.
The first drawing was based off a black and white photo of 2 gourds and a pumpkin. Each student received a copy of the picture and we worked on the basics step by step - getting the 3 shapes right, then noticing details such as the number of stripes on the gourd and how they curved around the circle or the shape of the bumps on the small gourd. We worked on proportion and how the size of one thing relates to another. This was a real test in looking at a picture and drawing what you see...not what you think you see.
Students will be graded based on accuracy, value and effort.

1st grade snails

For this project, the first graders reviewed the various lines we had previously talked about: vertical, horizontal, diagonal and spiral lines. We then focused on the spiral line alone and drew a large snail. The trick was to make the shell large enough to draw different patterns inside. This was a great review on pattern with not only shapes and lines, but with colors too. The entire snail was outlined in Sharpie, colored in using patterns and then the background had lots of spirals colored in. We used one color watercolor to paint over the entire paper.

5th grade square 1

The 5th graders started the school year with their Square 1 self portraits. Not only will parents be able to purchase items with their child's self portrait, but the self portraits will also be put on ceramic tiles that will be hung as a class mural.

We reviewed how to draw a face using guidelines to help us place the eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair in the correct place. They filled the background in with either a pattern or with pictures of things that represent them. They turned out awesome!

2nd grade magazine cut outs

The 2nd graders looked through magazines and chose one image to cut and glue to a white piece of paper. They then had to draw the background around their cut out. Their background had to fit what ever it is they cut out! We talked about proportion and how the size of their cut out relates to those other objects around it. We also talked about horizon lines and coloring in the entire picture.

What creativity! These really turned out great and it was a great way to get the creativity flowing this school year!

4th grade Rock Art

4th grade just completed a project based on petroglyphs and pictographs. We talked about how the first form of "art" was found on the walls of caves millions of years ago. Petroglyphs were carved into rock where as the pictographs were drawn or painted on to rock.

We drew an animal, cut it out and then taped it on brown paper (to look like a cave wall.) We then used black ink and a brayer to roll the ink over the animal like a stencil. When we peeled the animal off we were left with an outline of our animal...this was our petroglyph. Our pictographs were symbols used by Native Americans on the walls of caves. These were done in oil pastels.

The results were fabulous! Students took a quiz over their knowledge of Rock Art!

follow along!

Calling all Alcott Parents! If you are already "following" Alcott's blog - thank you! Please tell your friends about our blog and have them "follow" too. I would love to have the majority of our parents following along by the end of the school year! I promise to keep things exciting on here!

Thanks and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments you may have!