Kindergarten Trees and Stars

Not only did kindergartners get to put their newly learned star making skills to the test on this lovely large scale work featuring stars, snow, and pines; they also learned how to fold and cut papers to make  symmetrical shapes.  They designed their tree using that fabulous zig zag line that we practiced earlier in the year, touching the fold only at the start and finish of their line.  After the trees were cut in the cutting station, the stems were glued on at the gluing station, and kids circulated into the painting station for a little sponge painting action.
Painting, as opposed to drawing a star was a new challenge for Kinder artists and the sky is lit up with a lopsided charm.  After attaching their trees, kids dotted on snow with the back end of a pencil.  Well done Kindergarten!

Art Blooms

It's been a while since Pinwheels for Peace and I figured it's time for another big school-wide art collaboration.  "Art Blooms at Currier" is our theme, and we think it looks spectacular.  Each student, K-6 completed at least one bloom for the wild (and I do mean WILD) flower garden, but some many more than that.  The photo doesn't do the display justice.  The colors are a delight for the eyes.  As of today, the flowers climb up the wall, cross the room above the bulletin board and are creeping toward the library.  And the best part is...we still have dozens and dozens left to put up.To complete this project we spent one class discussing axil and radial symmetry.  Then we brainstormed things we have encountered that have 2-D or 3-D radial designs.  Using paper and pencil I showed students how to make a hand-drawn radial design.  We worked on an 8"x 8" piece of square copy paper .  First students located the center of their paper and drew a small circle.  We added rings around the circle--6 to 8 are about right.  Not too many, not to few.  We made some rings close together and some further apart.  In each ring we added a simple pattern. (Maybe a zig zag, a  looping or wavy line, I showed various examples).  We noticed that we could go back into the simple pattern and add more elements and watched the design move from simple to complex as it grew out from the center.  Once they got the hang of it, students used the rest of this class to finish their designs and add color with markers or crayons.

Next we made radial designs using paints and brushes on the papers we decorated during our Eric Carle Festival.  Students began their designs with oil pastels by drawing a set of circles or rings as guide lines.  They used pastels to begin planning their design and switched over to paint when they were ready.  Students were instructed to leave some areas of their design unpainted so that the wild colors of the decorated papers would show through.  For some this was more difficult than others.  After the paint dried students went back to oil pastels to outline or add additional elements to the design.  Then they cut them out. 

We arranged our flowers and taped them to a sheet of paper.  To give the floweres a bit of dimension we added a wire spring made by twisting a piece of florest wire around a pencil.  The spring was taped to the back of some of the flowers and then to the background paper.  To our great surprise the spring gave the flowers an unexpected movement.  They oscilate back and forth when a breeze hits them (like the flywheel in  a watch).  And...as our secretary said when she saw it "how cute is THAT."