Asian Art Study: Russia

I realize that I have posted some of these projects before, but in looking at my schools' Artsonia galleries, I am so proud and happy with the way this year went that I thought I would break up the year into the units of countries that we studied. If you don't already know, I decided to focus my teaching on one continent each year starting this year. I chose Asia to start with and honestly, I think I could have spent all year just in Japan! The curiosity and genuine interests the students have shown in each country has been remarkable. Here is the first country we "flew" to; Russia. 

This was my kinder's second project of the year, and their first time painting with me. They learned about Kandinsky, concentric circles, and watercolor painting techniques along with my painting expectations, and how to clean up in the art room.

After completing their Kandinsky paintings, my kinders used strips and squares of paper to create these Russian tiger collages inspired by an image I found on Pinterest. The full lesson is found here. 

First graders did two projects in Russia. This is their study of landscape and the focus of the lesson was foreground, middle ground, and background. For full instructions to teach this lesson, visit my inspiration here. 

First grade's second project was Babushka (aka Matryoshka) Doll Drawings. We looked at a set of dolls my parents brought me from Russia and noticed how they get smaller, that most of them are holding something and there is a lot of patterns on them. I got out a variety of sizes of bottle caps for them to use to trace the heads and gave them pointers for drawing the details. Students were asked to use at least three different drawing media to color their dolls. The full lesson can be found here.   

Second graders looked at Russian architecture and compared their traditional buildings to what they see in Wisconsin. They noticed the elaborate designs, dome tops, and bright colors. They then drew their own version of a Russian building and were asked to color it with crayons, colored pencils, markers and oil pastels using their "artist brains" to choose the best medium for each portion of their building. They then watercolored the sky.

Third grade looked at the art and life of Russian artist, Marc Chagall. They learned that his paintings are dream like interpretations of stories of his life in Vitbesk. They wrote a story with four parts and then illustrated it using four different perspectives and at least three different drawing supplies. 

Like first grade, fourth grade looked at Babushka Dolls. They created clay versions using two pinch pots and connecting them to make the hollow "peanut" form and then painting them. While the clay versions were drying and being fired the also created a drawing using colored pencils. They were allowed to use the drawing as practice for the sculpture, or to design the two project differently. 

The fifth graders learned about Kazimir Malevich. They looked at the progression of his art from realistic to Cubist to the creation of Suprematism. Next I tried my hand at a modified choice project. I allowed students to either create a Cubist image using oil pastels or a Suprematist collage. Regardless of the media, students were asked to show movement, balance, unity, shape, line, and color in their composition. 

Paul Klee Non-Objective Drawings

Here is a sampling of my latest project from the 5th graders at one of my schools. My other school is starting it next week. It is inspired by another former colleague. Check out her gallery here.

We started by looking at images by Paul Klee. We first focused on his abstract images such as Castle and Sun and talked about abstract paintings. We defined abstract as art that is based on a subject matter but converted into shapes. We then segued into his non-objective paintings and defined non-objective as art that has no subject matter. 

Next, the kids were asked to draw 4-7 large lines on their paper to break up the space. Finally, we talked about color theory and focused on analogous colors. I explained how to read the color wheel and quizzed them with questions such as "If I am on red, which two colors could I use?" I then demonstrated how to blend the oil pastels and leave a space around the pencil lines for black. I stressed saving the black for last and explained that we didn't want the black to smear into the colors. 

Most of them turned out amazing! Here is our gallery, but you can see some of them below.

The Dot~Collaborative Work of Art

We have finally completed our whole school collaborative art project based on Peter Reynolds' book, The Dot. Unannounced to me when we began this project, there is an International Dot Day! With art only once every six school days for 45 minutes and school starting the first week of September, we didn't get it done in time to celebrate ON International Dot Day (Sept. 15th, the anniversary of it's publication), but all the kids had at least started it by then. The full work of art is completely stunning in person, and it is so much fun to watch the kids and adults alike stand in awe in front of it!

 There are a few combinations that really stand out to me. I find it interesting to listen to my colleagues. We each pick out different ones that really pop to each of us! Here are a few that I notice everytime I walk by.

This was the first project that I used a rubric for. I only used it with third-fifth grade, and it was a little confusing for some of the third graders. I plan on exploring rubrics much more this year, including picture rubrics for the younger grades to get them thinking about their art more. My rubric can be found here, if you are interested in it. However, if I do this again, I would move the writing portion to the top to get students thinking about the Elements of Design before they fill in the rubric. My student teacher and I have also discussed adding pictures of the Elements for the students to simply circle. I'm trying to add more writing though, so I'm undecided about that aspect.

The lower grades had one learning target: I can create with craftsmanship. The upper grades added in: I can use at least three of the Elements of Design in my artwork. The rubric requires them to recall with Elements they used (there are posters of them in my classroom for reference), and judge their own craftsmanship. Most kids were spot on, with a bunch being quite hard on themselves and just a couple trying to get a better grade than actually earned. The rubric certainly made grading much simpler!

The Dot~Collaborative Art

You may have noticed from my last post that I have changed a lot of my classroom around this year.  I moved classrooms last year and have purged a lot of "junk" and extra furniture. My main goal is to make sure that there is plenty of room for my students to create without a ton of clutter everywhere. It has been very freeing to get rid of so much stuff! The photo is of the bulletin board I am now using for my project samples and Learning Targets. It only has one project on it right now because the whole school is going to do the same project for the start of the year.

We began with an explaination of all the classroom management changes, which I reviewed in the last post (linked above, if you missed it!). Once the students expressed that all my expectations were clear to them we started the first project. First was a video animation of Peter Reynold's book, The Dot (except when the technology failed me, then it was a good old fashioned book reading. Complete with fifth graders sitting on the floor around me!) We discussed the lessons to be learned through the book; to try, believe in yourself, "make a mark and see where it takes you" and that these lessons are not only found in art. With the younger kids I then segued into the creation process but with the older kids we then talked about the Elements of Art. They watched this video on the Elements, and then we briefly talked about them. The younger kids have one Learning Target for this project: "Create a work of art using craftsmanship." The older kids also have that one, and also to "Use three or more of the Elements of Art in a work of art."

Kids were given a paper with a quarter of a circle photocopied on it. I had to make two versions because I didn't want to have to cut all the papers into squares. I have a post-it on the top of each pile where I am keeping track of which classes have used that version and how many kids are in the classes. I'll get them as close to even as I can and possibly add my samples in if needed to even it out when I display them. I also gave the students a ruler and circles to trace. I asked them to design first with their pencils and then fill in the shapes with oil pastels. Younger kids got a demo on some oil pastel techniques, and older kids had a verbal refresher of techniques they should already be used to using. Finally, they set to work. Some of them are really amazing! I will be sure to post the final work of art all hung together in our Atrium, as well as a link to their individual quarter dots on Artsonia!

This project was inspired by this Pinterest Pin.