Our Organic Octopus Garden!

My second grade class learned about geometric and organic shapes in a lesson I call the Organic Octopus Garden! After talking about the differences between geometric and organic shapes we watched a short video and read a book about different types of octopus and then drew our own. After all, an octopus is a wonderful organic shape! Next we used tissue paper to dye our octopus drawings by spreading different colors of tissue on our papers and adding drops of water to cause the colors to bleed. We had so much fun learning this new way to use tissue paper and seeing how the different colors blended together to create a "tie dye" type effect. Then everyone added shading to their octopus with colored pencil and cut them out.

Another Fun Day In Nature's Art Room!

We had another beautiful day for Nature's Art Room, thank you mother nature! Our class enjoyed the sun again and headed outside to gather more textured materials for a printmaking lesson. We painted our natural materials with white acrylic paint and experimented with printing them on black paper to see what textures and patterns we could create. Next we are going to use our beautiful texture prints as covers for our stick books! We will use sticks we choose outside and rubber bands to bind our books and then take them outside to sketch from observation next week!

Collaging Color and Identity, A Fifth Grade Identity Quilt Project

In this project my fifth grade students began by creating a poem using the five senses to describe how they perceive their favorite color. The fifth grade class went on to create monochromatic collages using mixed media and we combined their collages into an identity quilt in the fifth grade hallway. I'm so proud of the careful thought my students put into this assignment and of the insightful critique we held as a conclusion to the project.

Creative Compass Solar Systems!

My fourth grade students learned to use two types of compass tool for this project and used a compass and ruler to create their own solar systems complete with rockets and aliens and astronauts! This was such a fun way to learn about finding the radius and circumference of a circle and proper use of a compass tool while creating an imaginative visual art project.

An exciting day in Nature's Classroom!

Yesterday Nature's Classroom students (grades k-3) went on a mini adventure outside our school to gather textured materials! We brought our materials inside and pressed them into clay to create picture frames and texture ornaments. We talked about the importance of respect for the environment and brainstormed ways we can help preserve the beauty of the environment in our community.

Finding friends in nature!

I am so proud of the work my second grade students created for Finding Friends In Nature a lesson I created on environmental art and natural found object sculpture. They gathered their own natural materials near our school and made amazing little sculptures of animals both real and imaginary. Then my students practiced the use of implied texture in their observational sketches of their projects and completed thoughtful self reflections.

We see shapes in fish!

My third grade students have been creating beautiful fish by studying the shapes they see in real tropical fish in the ocean and then beginning with a geometric shape, they draw their own fish and create an imaginary ocean environment for it!