4th grade Color Mixing Bubbles Abstractions

Check out these wonderful abstract mixed-media artworks by our 4th graders! 4th graders reviewed/learned about primary, secondary and tertiary colors. They started this project by tracing a variety of circles and some rectangles in an overlapping composition across their papers. Next, they used only the primary color crayons (red, yellow and blue) to color in some shapes. Where primary colors overlapped, students mixed them together until they created secondary colors (purple, orange and green). Once students had mixed all the primary colors to create their secondary colors, they overlapped one secondary and one primary to create intermediate or tertiary colors (i.e. red-violet, blue-green) in the overlapping areas. When students had finished creating their tertiary colors, they were allowed to overlap any colors of their choosing. Lastly, students painted the background areas with watercolor. This project is one that is simple but challenging and the results are beautiful!

Recycled Bug Puppets - 1st through 3rd grade at Valerius

1st through 3rd graders recently wrapped up their sessions with visiting artist Carol Taylor.

We had so much fun building our bug puppets using recycled materials. Thanks to all the parents who volunteered their time to help us wield glue guns!

Check out a link to the Des Moines Register article about us and some photos of first grade student examples:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101029/NEWS02/10290317/Valerius-kids-get-bitten-by-art-bug

Visiting artists to come to Valerius!!

Valerius Elementary is partnering with Metro Arts Alliance and Green Arts to bring visiting artists to all art classes! From October 18th to November 19th, all first to fifth grade classes at Valerius will participate in workshops led by local artists in the Green Arts program.

GreenArts is an arts education program that uses the arts to help Polk, Dallas, and Warren county community members of all ages connect with nature and become more involved with conservation initiatives and practices. The program is an offshoot of Metro Arts’ highly successful and virtually free Education on Location outreach program. There is a growing need to educate people of all ages about the human impact on our natural resources, and the ways everyone can help make a difference in ensuring the future of our planet. Artists go to school and community sites to conduct programs that connect conservation and nature to the fine arts.

1st-3rd graders at Valerius will be working with artist/educator Carol Taylor. Through puppetry, storytelling, interactive pantomime and songs students will learn fun and fascinating facts about insects, their life cycles and value to humans and the planet. Students will work with the artist on additional stories and create an original insect puppet from recyclables.

4th and 5th graders at Valerius will be learning about mammals of Iowa's past and present. Artist Bettie Jane Bibler will work with students on the elements of design, color, symmetry and animal motifs. Students will create masks or collages from a variety of recycled, reusable and natural material. Bettie Jane will also use multicultural folktales as a part of her programming.

Paul Klee Castles Projects- Completed!

As you read on my last post, 3rd graders have been hard at work on their Paul Klee-inspired Castles Projects. Check out some of these completed mixed media projects - they turned out incredible!

This has quickly become one of my favorite all-time projects. It's so multi-layered, rich, promotes success for all, stimulates creativity, and the kids enjoyed it immensely!

The last two photos show you how far the students have come and all the steps we had to take to finish our artwork - we had to create a complex grid of shapes, mix colors to paint nearly every shape, cut out our shapes, assemble them to creatively form castles or fantastical buildings, glue down our shapes and then blend two colors of chalk pastel for our backgrounds!

1st grade Crayon Resist Turtle Paintings

Check out these wonderful Crayon Resist Turtle Paintings by our 1st graders!

A few classes have finished and some need just one more art class to finish these beautiful and detailed works of art! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I love doing this project with first graders because it really shows them they can create "realistic" drawings if they follow instructions and when I show them how to break subjects down into simple shapes and lines. I've been receiving all kinds of turtle drawings in my mailboxes when I arrive at my schools - so I know that kids are practicing at home, and showing their families - how fantastic is that?

2nd grade Chalk Pastel Lion Drawings

2nd graders have just completed their Chalk Pastel Lion Drawings, and they look fantastic! Chalk pastel can be a really tough medium to work with, especially with younger ones, but 2nd graders did a great job! It was a little tough at first, but we learned how to color very lightly with chalk pastels (using zig zag lines). We also learned how to overlap colors, and blend colors together using our fingers. We did a great job following directions to draw our lions - I showed students different possible ways of drawing lion parts and features, they chose their favorite and added a little creativity to make it their own. We also reviewed the concepts of the horizon line, filling the page with details and coloring neatly.

3rd Grade Paul Klee-inspired Watercolor Castle Collages

3rd graders have finished painting their shapes for their Paul Klee Castles Projects (see last photo), and have started to cut out their shapes and arrange them to create castles and other kinds of fantastical buildings!

For this project, I don't give kids glue sticks until we've talked about their compositions - at first some don't understand why and want to glue right away, but I encourage big picture thinking and planning. Once they've started arranging and planning their castles, they understand why they can't glue right away - it's challenging to design buildings!

I love watching the "wheels turn" as students place down their shapes, arrange their shapes, remove shapes, move other shapes across the page, wipe the page clean and start all over again. In another week or two, all students should be done with these amazing Watercolor Castle Collages - and they will look amazing and reflect all their hard work!