Parts of a Castle

1st Grade: Parts of a Castle/100th Day

1st graders learned about parts of a castle: drawbridge, moat, tower, keep, portcullis, crenels, etc. They also learned about Paul Klee and his fabulous Castle and Sun art work. It was neat that this project was around the "100th day" at our school. So, I also challenged students to draw 20 shapes in each of their 5 castle towers to equal 100! We did a bit of multiplying here...some cool "2nd Grade" math for 1st grade. Students came up with awesome designs on their castle projects. I let students choose between a "sun" or "moon" for their sky, though Klee had of course, used a sun. 

The moat water was review with color values. Students were reminded to tint the blue color using white to gain a lighter value. Students loved creating a "real" waving flag (step-by-step whole class flag instructions for that part). I also introduced parallel lines with this project, as students had to initially draw 4 parallel lines on their paper for the tower lines. Castle were done with black permanent marker for outlining and colored markers. Moons, suns, and moats were oil pastel. I almost always use mixed media for projects..it keeps art fresh and interesting and keeps the students interested to.

And my students' favorite part? Learning the purpose behind each castle part, especially arrows shooting between those crenels on the battlement walls!  Now what student wouldn't love an action packed lesson like that?

I think my 1st graders did a fantastic job on this project! 

 These projects just would not flip correctly on this page..sorry for the sideways format!

1st Grade: Fruit Still Life

1st grade students were inspired by Jan Van Os and Frida Kahlo. They studied the fruit still life art done by these 2 very different artists. Students compared and contrasted fruit still life by these 2 famous artists. Styles were very different..but both artists painted their fruit so it looked good enough to eat! After taking in all that fruit art, students were ready to create their own fruit masterpiece.

I brought in some plastic fruit for students to observe and touch. We talked about composing fruit and different ways to arrange fruit so it looked inviting and balanced. Students drew a horizontal line through the center of a black cardstock paper. Then, we talked about drawing fruit on the line or below it. Drawing any fruit completely above the line would cause it to "float" in space..something we did not want for this project. Students got to work drawing fruit onto their cardstock. I also drew pieces of fruit on the white board for students to assist them in transitioning from 3-dimensional to 2-dimesional. Students created decorative tablecloths for their fruit, as well.

I introduced soft pastel chalk blending for students. We talked about adding lights over medium and dark pastels. Students added color to their fruit and tablecloths. Finally, they added color to the background. 

Aren't these nice? I think our 1st graders did a magnificent job on their fruit still life.

1st Grade: Positive/Negative Design

1st graders studied M.C. Escher. We talked about how many of his tessellations were in 2 contrasting colors and how positive/negative design was important to Escher. This was a fun  project as it was also challenging to create a completely symmetrical designj.
Students traced a template of a half of a bumblebee onto a folded yellow paper. Keeping the paper folded, students cut out the bee and then cut the bee in half. They also cut down the fold line of the paper. Students glued on the cut out half bee and the cut out paper to a black 9 x 12 paper. They then glued that down to 2 more papers-1 yellow and 1 black. Students drew an eye and 1/2 smile with permanent black marker to the yellow bee face. They drew and cut out a yellow circle for the eye for the black half of the bee. Yarn was glued on for antennae and stripes and a half smile. Students cut out shapes of their choice for the "frame". Shapes had to keep with the positive/negative design.