2nd Grade - Mood Masks

This is another tried-and-true collage project that requires second graders to think critically, problem solve, and have a blast.  First, we talked about feelings, learned what an "emotion" is, and then came up with ways to show feeling in our artwork.  Then, the second graders got a piece of construction paper and had to come up with an emotion to portray.  With a variety of techniques, the kids did a great job with the task.  Take a look at a whole bunch of spectacular examples.

4th Grade - Cartoons

The fourth graders and I agree that cartoons are pretty much the most awesome art form out there, so we decided to create our own characters.  We looked at a ton of examples and really paid attention to how different cartoonists' styles can be.  After some truly excellent conversation, the kids went to their sketchbooks to plan their own characters, drawing off of what they liked in some of the examples we saw in class and some of their favorites from TV.  After the characters were complete, we spent some time critiquing each other's work.  I've included an example of one 4th grader's response to her classmate's work at the end of this post.

It's seeing the students' response to projects like these that really make me excited to teach art.  We got such a range of thoughtful, creative, and often hilarious characters that we were all very eager to share with each other, including this one from Devon C. of myself in cartoon form, complete with beard, hairy arms, and a pencil in my ear:

All the 4th graders did an outstanding job.  Here are a few more:

Kindergarten - Dancing Giraffes

One of my favorite Kindergarten projects, Dancing Giraffes is a challenging cap to all of the learning about lines we've done so far.  First, we read the awesome book Giraffes Can't Dance, and paid close attention to the types of lines the artist used to make the animals look like they're dancing.  Then we painted the background so that it before drawing a giraffe with curvy, wavy, and diagonal lines in the arms, legs, and tail.  Then we cut the giraffes out and glued them onto the background.  A lot of different parts and art techniques go into this one, and the kindergartners did a spectacular job.  Take a look at just a few of the great examples!

Special thanks to the awesome thomaselementaryart.blogspot.com for the inspiration.