Fall Bulletin Board: Pumpkins and Owls

Here are pictures of my completed fall themed bulletin board. It contains Owls from my first graders (idea borrowed from here) and Pumpkins from my second graders. The owls were created by using circle tracers, chalk pastels, white and black liquid tempera paint, sponges, and paint brushes! The pumpkins were created with chalk pastels.

I created this handout to guide my second graders after the demonstration. I'll scan in the sheet soon and add a downloadable version!

Here are some pictures of the finished bulletin board. I've received a lot of compliments so far :)

Kindergarten Macchia

After seeing this idea floating all around Pinterest I had to give it a try. My second graders drew their own versions of Dale Chihuly's Macchia (post on that still to come) and I thought these would be a perfect addition to the display I'm planning. Friday after school I stayed to rubber band and spray just under 60 of these coffee filter creations as well as label and cut the boards the Macchia will be glued to. I am excited to get back into school tomorrow and see how they turned out!

Kandinsky and Mondrian Bulletin Boards

My second graders' first project of the year was with the artist Wassily Kandinsky. They learned about his abstract compositions and the geometric and organic shapes he used in his compositions. They drew out their own Kandinsky inspired compositions using pencil, traced over their design with Sharpie and then used watercolors to fill in all the white spaces. Here are some pictures of the bulletin board I created to display these pieces:

My first graders' second project of the year was inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian. We talked about his use of vertical and horizontal lines that created squares and rectangles which he then colored with primary colors and black. We also talked about what abstract art is and how his paintings apply. My first graders practiced using rulers to draw their lines and then Sharpie'd over them. They used markers to color in the squares/rectangles. Here are some pictures of the bulletin board for this project:

Guided Critique Questions

Since I've been working so hard deciding on and creating handouts to support my SLO's I figured I would share this would the rest of the internet. My SLO for third grade is increasing written and oral communication skills through guided critiques and artist statements. I copied Jessica's idea from The Art of Ed and spun it to better fit my classroom goal. If you'd like to check out my Guided Critique Questions and download a set for yourself follow the link. Let me know what you think!

Warm and Cool Color Family Coloring Pages

So far the beginning of the school year has been busier than anticipated. I still need to take some pictures of my room to share, but I am still working on adding posters and quotes here and there. For now I've been working on my SLO's for the Teacher Evaluation SEED program. My SLO for second grade is about color theory. I created warm and cool color coloring pages for my second graders to use as an extension and easily allow me to monitor understanding.

Click on the images to download for yourselves.