It's Gogh Time

School Wide Collaborative Flower Collage Color Wheel * This is one project that fits a TON of art learning into it! I started my school year off with this project and could not be happier with the results. In the end I created two, floor to ceiling pieces for both campus that I teach at in my school (K-2 and 3-5). This was my first year at a new school and this lesson really allowed me to assess student ability and background knowledge. I also was able to adjust the pacing based on grade levels. For example 3-5th grade finished what 1-2 did in two lessons and kindergarten did in three lessons. So here's how it went!  Part 1: Students learned about primary colors and why they are important. They then painted in a small rectangle of paper with their primary colors; one red, one yellow, and one blue. Part 2: Together we went over our secondary colors . We did a whole class "science experiment" in which we took cups water mixed with tempera paint in our prim...

Van Gogh's Sunflowers 3ft x 4ft Oil Pastel Grid Drawing * This year our school has chosen Vincent Van Gogh as our focus artist. This means I get to create a lesson for each grade with Van Gogh in mind. These works need to be art show quality as well! For my fifth graders I struggled to pick a lesson. This is a very talented artistic group which struggle behaviorally. In the end I went with a grid drawing recreation of Van Gogh's Sunflowers and HOLLLLY COW did they knock it out of the park!  For the weeks prior to this lesson my 5th graders had been learning about line, specifically contour lines. They had also done a few small grid drawing studies with the idea of line incorporated into it so they had a fairly strong knowledge of using line and grid drawing to create a work. Day 1 we spent entirely on an artwork critic of Van Gogh's Sunflower work. We learned more about his life and how it can play a roll in how we interpret art. We also talked about Van G...