Starry Night

Second graders learned about Vincent Van Gogh and his most famous work of art, “Starry Night.”  They used oil pastels to create the impressionist brushstrokes of this famous swirling night sky.  

Learning Goals: I Can...

• Use oil pastel to create impressionist marks
• Use line to show movement
• Use value to show form 

Fall Trees

This year 3rd grade created fall trees.  This was a great project we used to talk about space, blending, texture, highlights, shadows, form and shape!  I found this project on Pinterest which is a place I get many lesson ideas!

Learning goal:  I can show space.  We began by reviewing a number of ways to show space and then we focused on two ways: size and overlap.  We used perspective lines to show that as you look upwards the tree gets smaller.  We used overlapping to show how leaf clusters that are farther away hide behind clusters that are closer to the viewer.

After coloring the tree brown, we added highlights and shadows to make our tree trunks look more 3D and to show texture.

We practiced blending our warm colors to create a smooth transition between colors.

Finally, we painted our backgrounds blue! Everyone had great results!

Fish

We read the story "Only One You."  The fish in the story taught us about the value of uniqueness.  This story served as inspiration for our drawing and painting project.

Learning Goal: I can use line to create shape.  After explaining that a line does not become a shape until it connects I tried to trick the kids!  As we began to draw the oval for the fish body I stopped while it still looked like the letter "c."  Then I asked, "Is this a shape?"  "No!" the kids exclaimed until the moment I connected it into an oval. I tried repeatedly to trick them while drawing fins and eyes but once they caught on there was no way they were going to let me get away with calling a line a shape! Great job kiddos!

We also practiced coloring in with good craftsmanship.  Ask your child about these phrases:
- Sides first (and then the middle)
- Lawnmower lines
- Goodbye Mr. Whitespace (and hello color!)