1st graders are now learning about the artist Wassily Kandinsky. After a short powerpoint on Kandinsky's artwork and life, the students first experimented with conveying their emotions through colors and sound (music.) Kandinsky was widely known to paint while listening to music and letting his emotions speak through the music and colors. While listening to different genres of music, the students will select a color that coincides with the emotion they feel from the particular song. They then will close their eyes and quite literally, draw to the music. Through this exercise, we learned that according to our emotions can change our lines, color choices and pressure of the art supplies.  ​

click here to view the powerpoint the students have received on the artist, Wassily Kandisnky.

Watch below for a biography on Miró.

​Welcome back students and welcome to PS31q to any of our new students! I am so excited to get creating in the art room! This year we will be working closely at the foundations of art, the elements of design! In each lesson we will be learning about a different element as well as learning about some artists too! I can't wait to get messy with you all! ​​

1st grade students have been introduced to the warm and cool colors on a color wheel. We first dicussed what items in their lives that they think of when they think of things that are hot and cold. Answers like fire, water, ice and lava brought the students to the realization that the warm colors are red, yellow and orange and that the cool colors are blue, purple and green. The students will discuss the artwork of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai along with his most famous painting, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”. With their knowledge of warm and cool colors, students will create a wave in a pattern of the cool colors. The students will first draw a wave in the same shape as Hokusai’s and color it in using cool color oil pastels. Once they complete this, they will then create a sunset using a pattern of the warm colors.They will then complete this project by cutting out their wave and glue it to their sunsets.
 
Objectives: students will:

• Understand the connection between the artist and their own artwork.
• Be able to identify the cool colors.
• be able to identify the warn colors.
• Be able to create a pattern of the warm and cool colors in the form of a wave and sunset.
• Be able to properly use a scissor to cut out their wave and glue it to their sunset.

ART WORDS:
Warm colors: red, yellow, orange
Cool colors: purple, blue and green

1st graders were introduced to the artwork and the life of the artist Keith Haring through a powerpoint presentation. Keith Haring was heavily influenced by graffiti and street art as well as the cartoons he watched when he was a young boy. He put these elements and came up with his famous figures that always told a story and implied movement. Before going any further, the topic of graffiti and street art were introduced. We discussed as a class what it means to be commissioned for outdoor murals and how that is a legal form of street art. We also discussed the illegal form of graffiti or in other words vandalism where the artist does not have permission to use the surface in which they've painted. Once this was understood, we all stood up from our chairs and ran in place, jumped up and down, danced and skipped. When I yelled "freeze!" the students would stop in the position they are in and notice where their arms and legs are in relation to their bodies. We then drew together a running man figure in our sketchbooks, colored him in and added Keith Haring's famous movement lines in black and outlined our figures in black as well. In the next class the students were given a paper that was cut into 3 5" x 7"  panels. On those pieces of paper the students drew in their own figures, showing movement. They outlined them in black sharpie and then colored them in using oil pastels using only the primary colors (red, yellow, blue). In the following class, the students used water colors in the secondary colors (orange, green and purple)  to fill in their backgrounds of each figure. To finish off these artworks, the students will paste their figures onto a piece of bright construction paper. The result is a beautiful artwork, influenced by the great Keith Haring!

Learning Objectives: drawing, painting, mixed media, art history, movement 

ART WORDS:
Figure: Keith Haring's "figures" had no face, expression, hair or anything to specify gender. Instead of calling them people, they are referred to as figures. A figure in art is a drawing of the human form. 
Implied movement: The way an artist shows movement through technique without the picture actually moving. 
Primary Colors: Red, yellow and blue
Secondary Colors: Purple, green and orange

Click this link to see the powerpoint on Keith Haring:

Students have been introduced to the life and the artwork of the artist Wassily Kandinsky. In the presentation, the students will be able to identify the different shapes, lines and colors that they see in Kandinsky’s artwork. The students will then create a drawing with different types of lines that intersect and that create shapes in pencil. Once they have finished their drawings, the students will outline their drawings in sharpie and then color in any shapes that they see (ones drawn intentionally and some caused by intersecting lines) using oil pastels. The backgrounds will then be covered in watercolors, using colors that reflect their feelings that day. 

ART WORDS: 
Abstract art: artwork that uses only lines, shapes or colors in it's composition. 
Vertical Line: a line that is straight and goes up and down.
horizontal line: a line that is straight and goes across.
Diagonal line: a line that is straight and is on a slant.
Emotion: a feeling
 
Click on the link below to view the powerpoint the students received!

1st grade has been introduced to the life and the artwork of the artist, Claes Oldenberg. Oldenberg was mostly a sculptor who created huge, larger than life sculptures of everyday objects. The really interesting part about him was that he created this objects so that the public were able to walk on, touch, and climb on which was a very big difference than the sculptures shown in a museum or gallery that are roped off and untouchable. He wanted to have the public interact with his artwork. The students were shown his exhibition, "The Street and The Store", an exhibit in which was included in a retrospective of his life at the MOMA. Included in this exhibit were his "soft" sculptures and clay artworks of food. The students were then told to draw and color in their favorite foods into their sketchbooks to use as a reference when creating their food collages. In Claes Oldenberg's soft sculptures, he created these by painting canvas and then stuffed it with batting. (the stuffing thats on the inside of stuffed animals) The students will follow suit by creating their own colored paper by painting an entire paper. Once these papers are dry each table will use them as the paper to create their food collages. In the next class, the students are given black construction paper, they cut out their plates and paste them onto the paper. Then students take their painted paper and first draw each part of the food, cut it out and paste them together to create a plate of their favorite food.

Learning Objectives: Art History, collage, fine motor skills, painting. 

ART WORDS:
Sculpture: the art of making two- or three-dimensional artwork by carving stone or wood or by casting metal or plaster.
Collage: cutting and pasting paper to create an artwork
Large-scale: larger than life objects.


Click here to view the powerpoint on Claes Oldenberg that the students revived in class

1st graders were introduced to the artwork and the life of the artist Keith Haring through a powerpoint presentation. Keith Haring was heavily influenced by graffiti and street art as well as the cartoons he watched when he was a young boy. He put these elements and came up with his famous figures that always told a story and implied movement. Before going any further, the topic of graffiti and street art was introduced. We discussed as a class what it means to be commissioned for outdoor murals and how that is a legal form of street art. We also discussed the illegal form of graffiti or in other words vandalism where the artist does not have permission to use the surface in which they've painted. Once this was understood, we all stood up from our chairs and ran in place, jumped up and down, danced and skipped. When I yelled "freeze!" the students would stop in the position they are in and notice where their arms and legs are in relation to their bodies. We then drew together a running man figure in our sketchbooks, colored him in and added Keith Haring's famous movement lines in black and outlined our figures in black as well. In the next class the students were given a paper that was folded into 3 columns. In those columns the students drew in their own figures, showing movement. They colored them in using craypas and outlined them in black. In the folioing class, Complementary colors were introduced. Complementary colors are colors that are opposite from each other on the color wheel and when using them together or side by side, it compliments the other or makes the other color stand out. Depending on the color they used for their figure, the students picked its compliment to paint into the background of each column. The result was a beautiful artwork, influenced by the great Keith Haring!

Learning Objectives: drawing, painting, mixed media, art history, movement 

ART WORDS:
Figure: Keith Haring's "figures" had no face, expression, hair or anything to specify gender. Instead of calling them people, they are referred to as figures. A figure in art is a drawing of the human form. 
Implied movement: The way an artist shows movement through technique without the picture actually moving. 
Complimentary colors: colors that sit across from each other on the color wheel. 

Click this link to see the powerpoint on Keith Haring:

1st graders have been introduced to the element of design, pattern. Pattern is an important part of art making and it is important to be introduced at a young grade level for future use. The students were given verbal introduction to pattern. To my surprise, most of the students already knew what pattern was and how to explain it in words that didn't consist of them using an example of a pattern to describe it. We looked around the room and tried to find patterns that existed within the classroom! Some of the students pointed out patterns that even I have never noticed before! We then played a pattern game. 2 students came up the board and I gave them parameters (i.e. the first to make a pattern using 2 shapes and 6 shapes long wins) Well, they sure LOVED this and were even cheering each other on as the students created patterns on the board. After the majority of the class got a chance to play, we moved onto creating 10 different patterns in their sketchbooks. The students were reminded that patterns can consist of shapes, images, numbers, letters and designs. They first drew these patterns in their sketchbooks and colored them in using markers and crayons.While coloring, the students were again reminded that color was an important part of their patterns and they couldn't just be colored at random! After they created their patterns, they were told to transfers those patterns onto a 12"X13" lined paper. After they transferred the patterns to the lined paper, I drew a line horizontally across the paper and folded it. They cut on the lines up to the horizontal line to create a loom-like structure. The students then were given strips of colored paper to weave in and out of the "loom" they created also, using a pattern of the colors. Paper weaving is a great fine motor exercise for all students, especially at this age.  To finalize the project, they glued their finished masterpiece onto a piece of construction paper and created a pattern around the border. They came out so aesthetically pleasing! 


Learning Objectives: Pattern, paper weaving, fine motor skills, cutting


ART WORDS:
pattern: an image that repeats itself in an even sequence.