January/February Art

The kindergarten students will begin working with collage. Our first project will be a snowman to celebrate the winter season. They will create the background for the snowman by rubbing a white oil pastel on blue paper establishing a snowy day. The students will draw and then cut 3 different-sized circles. Using colored paper, the students will decorate their snowman cutting out shapes to create a hat, eyes, nose and other features. Going forward, the students will continue with other types of collage work focusing on building fine motor skills and using their creativity.

The first graders have created their drawings of their version of a “Wild Thing”, inspired by Maurice Sendak.  They will be using four different animals. Starting with drafts, the students drew each part, considering animals with special features that can be easily identified, such as a giraffe’s long neck and spots, an elephant’s large ears and long trunk or a tiger’s stripes. The students selected their favorite draft, drew it large and then added a background. They will paint their work using tempera paints.

The second graders took a detour before starting their Georgia O’Keeffe project.   The students created a continuous contour line drawing of a giraffe.  Their drawings are adorable.  The giraffes are being colored with oil pastels and watercolor crayons.   Once completed, the second graders will be introduced to the renowned artist, Georgia O’Keeffe and her work with the book, My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter. The students will learn that Georgia O’Keeffe is known for painting oversized flowers, bones, leaves and other things from nature with vivid colors. The students will be drawing from closely observing photographs, creating a composition that is large and cropped.   The students will observe size, shape, color and more.

The third grade students have mastered drawing an apple, in fact, three apples, a MacIntosh, Red Delicious and a Granny Smith.  The still life drawings of the three apples on a plate are now ready to be painted. They will work with watercolor paints blending colors to create the various reds and greens found on the different varieties of apples, layering tones.  Once completed, the third graders will move from drawing from observation, a disciplined skill, to Abstract Art.  They will explore Expressionism and the work of Sonia Delaunay and Wassily Kandinsky. The students will create an abstract painting learning that it is more than just lines and color.

The fourth graders are finalizing their tool drawings.  The final drawings are large, cropped and on bright bold paper.  The chalk pastels added to the bold color paper and the oversized object creates a huge impact.  The new fourth grade unit will delve into Zentangles, an image with repetitive patterns which requires patience, increases focus and creativity.  The students will draw an image with a defined border, then divide their image into several sections. Using colored markers, they will create varies patterns within each section filling them with bright colors.

Fifth graders have begun their cartoon images. They are using a grid system to assist them to draw and enlarge an image. The students are looking at one box at a time, then drawing what they see on the smaller grid to the corresponding box in the larger grid. Once the drawings are complete, they will color their drawing using oil pastels.

Tracy Dykeman, Art Teacher

tdykema@school.nyc.gov