Message in a Bottle

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In my last post I showed you these two beautiful 1st Grade paintings.  Did you guess what they were?

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 Here is a little hint:  We have been riding a "wave" of excitement in the art room...

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My 1st graders have created some beautiful landscapes this year so we decided to explore the ocean with some colorful seascapes.  I really had fun designing this lesson and it is one I will definitely repeat!  Here is what we did:

1.  Painted wave lines with white tempera horizontally across light blue paper.

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2.  Using a palette of white, blue, turquoise, purple, and green we mixed cool colored tints and filled the spaces between the white lines.  This helped keep the white caps on the waves intact and made filling the negative spaces between the lines fun.  The lines help the little guys focus on filling small spaces with color rather than being overwhelmed by the entire page.

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They LOVED mixing all these great colors!

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3.  Using a similar technique we chose a palette of white, yellow, orange, magenta, and red to paint a sky on yellow paper.  We painted the clouds in white then mixed other warm colors to create a sunset or sunrise sky.

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I love how1st grade minds work - look at the shapes in these clouds...

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4.  I had my students trim the top edge of their ocean paper to create a wavy edge.  They just cut along the top white line as a guide.  Be sure to reinforce that they only cut the top wave NOT ALL the wavy lines...there is one in every crowd and we teachers have to anticipate every move, eh?

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5.  Glue the water to the sky.  Seems simple but monitor to make sure they align the two papers so the sea and sky match well.  I found putting a double line of glue on the bottom edge of the sky paper then laying the water on top works well.   *The original sheets were 12" x 18"so from this point on the work is a little more difficult to store due to the enlarged size.

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6.  Make a boat & glue it in place.  We used black paper and oil pastels.  We had fun designing mast heads, sails and naming our boats.  I suggested "The Whisper" as a name but they didn't take the hint - boat building is noisy.  The art room was ringing with happy voices.  I am having the kids use their art journals to write a story from the ship captain's point of view.  We are thinking about sending the stories out on our Artsonia Gallery as a virtual "message in a bottle".  TOO MUCH FUN!

This boat should be named "The Look Out"...

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Love the details - here is a fierce dragon Mast Head...

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And check out the mermaid...

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Here are a few of our finished seascapes - we definitely experienced some art endorphins after all the work.  Aren't they great?  If you use our lesson be sure to let us know how your students like it!

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I am planning on sailing away on the Pink Rose Bush...see you in a few days.

Sneek Peek - Can You Guess What it is?

I am SO excited about a new lesson I am just completing with my first graders.  I couldn't wait to give you a sneak peek - just wait until you see the finished work!

Lovely cool colors mixed up by 1st graders, http://artendorphins.blogspot.com/

Aren't these colors and brush strokes luscious?  Abstract or Realistic which will it be?  Can you guess what we are up to?  Check back soon to find out more!

Here are the opposites - Warm Colors, http://artendorphins.blogspot.com/

Love Is In The Air!

 Undoubtedly, last week every elementary school in America was filled with kids jacked up on heart shaped sugar packed treats.  My school was no exception!  In spite of the glucose filled kids, I do love Valentine's Day - it is hard not to celebrate a day dedicated to love...

Cupid draw back your bow and let your arrow go...

I spotted these two cupids on their way to deliver Lolligrams.  Fourth graders sold Lolligrams to help fund their upcoming field trip.  It was a real treat to have a visit from one of these guys.

Meanwhile in the Art Room...

Bend & rubber band a tube into a heart shape http://artendorphins.blogspot.com

I saw an image on pinterest that inspired this printmaking project for my 2nd Graders.  We used paper towel tubes to create a heart shaped stamp printing tool.  After a little experimentation here is the project I came up with:

The Language of Love

We used the printmaking tool to stamp print a border.  We used magenta tempera paint first leaving a space between magenta hearts to fill in with red hearts.  I discussed beginning with the lighter color value then changing to the darker red value to create a chain of hearts.  After a few frenzied moments of bending & rubber banding tubes we were off and running...er, stamping.

The finished product morphed into this as we went along.  I don't know about you but that happens pretty often to me. http://artendorphins.blogspot.com

It is hard to get printmaking standards covered so I liked the fact that I could squeeze in two printing techniques in this project:  STAMP PRINTING & STENCIL PRINTING

I had the 2nd graders create a heart on a fold (symmetry discussion), stencil print the heart, trim a little of the heart away and glue it in the center.  

*I had originally planned on creating small paper mache hearts for the center but the clock was ticking.  We looked up different countries on Google Earth (technology yeah!) and translated love into the multiple languages.  We just celebrated an International Day at school so this was a great connection. Students could choose a language to write their message of love.  These took two 40 minute art classes with discussion and research time, drying time, etc. 

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That is it.  Short and sweet - and it brought on some pretty good Art Endorphins too!

Check out our Artsonia gallery http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=615495

Te Amo Family           http://artendorphins.blogspot.com

I have to agree with the heart above... te amo family.   Family holds love in their hands...

Hands that Love
My newest Grand Nephew, his Grandmother & cousin

Hope this post brought you some love!

Welcome!

3rd Grade Art Endorphins at work!

My goodness, teaching art is a fun journey isn't it?  We have all felt that moment where everything is going just right in our classroom and the kids are exuberant about creating art.  Even the most resistant learners.  Why the blog title?  I love teaching and in my art room when we reach these euphoric moments we say we have created art endorphins.  I hope to share some of those moments here and the art projects that inspired them.  Enjoy!