2nd grade and Cezanne * updated with recent pictures

I read a book about the history of Paul Cezanne to the 2nd grade class.  Like Jackson Pollock, the students enjoyed hearing about how he struggled in art class.  In this unit, the 2nd graders will be working on the following objectives:

-basic shading

-capturing different viewpoints/points of view 

-drawing from observation

-overlapping subjects to show distance

In the book, we focused on Cezanne's painting titled, "Still Life with Basket."  I wanted them to notice how the rules of perspective did not apply to this painting and how he painted from different viewpoints.  

For our first exercise, we had to draw an apple from 3 viewpoints in the same composition, create overlapping apples, and add shadows.

I was so proud of how well they did!  Some students did struggle, but when I reminded them of how Pollock and Cezanne struggled, they relaxed a bit and did a great job.

Day 1:

Day two update:

Day 3 update:

Defining Diversity

Here are some of the previous photos that were taken while we were exploring how to capture the meaning of diversity through our school environment.

Their ideas were great, but we just had to get outside for the natural lighting.  

"The Scarecrows in the Garden"

The 5th and Middle School classes are participating in the annual Scarecrows in the Garden event at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

http://atlantabotanicalgarden.org/events-classes/events/scarecrows-garden

Each class submitted a scarecrow that they designed and created themselves.  This year, they created sculptures in the style of the American artist, Mark Jenkins.  He is most famous for his public installation pieces, made entirely of packaging tape.

http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/storker.html

To create their unique pieces, the students first decided who would be casting parts of their body and who would be assisting with the wrapping of plastic wrap and tape.  Those who eagerly volunteered were first wrapped with plastic wrap then wrapped with clear packaging tape.  Students were disappointed that they could not make casts of their heads, but just the thought of that and all of the possibilities would make me cringe.

After we had all the pieces we wanted to work with, we laid them out on 3 tables and made sketches of the possibilities.

The two classes had very different sculptures! It's amazing to see what they can come up with on their own.

I have to admit that this lesson and project didn't turn out like I had imagined or planned, because there were some technical difficulties with the whole wrapping and cutting process.  I was beginning to feel like this project was going downhill, but then I stepped back for a moment and just observed the students at work.  They were engaged, they were working together, they were problem solving, they were thinking outside of the box, and most importantly of all, they were really enjoying the process and proud of their work! 

It was a learning process for all of us!

The scarecrow exhibit will be on display throughout the month of October.  The exact location of the students' scarecrows are not available to us yet.  When I know that information, I will create a post about it.

Fourth grade photography trip

Here are a few fun pictures from our "outdoor photography adventure."

We really needed the natural lighting when using our iPads.

Even though I gave them a designated area to work with, I was amazed with the level of creativity from each student.  There was a wide variety of pictures and it really captured the diversity within the fourth grade class.

I hope that this project will influence the way they will now use the camera on their iPad...

5th - 7th grade charcoal drawings

The students have finally finished their scarecrow sculptures for the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and they were dropped off on Friday (pictures to come soon).

The students are now working on their Indirect self portrait, charcoal drawings.  Since some students forgot their object, I had them choose a still life object to practice their charcoal drawing technique.  They all did an amazing job.