Clay Monsters!

Clay monsters

2nd Grade

To begin this unit on monsters, we turned to one of our favorite Pixar films, Monsters, Inc.!  We began by  looking at early character sketches and talking about how the animators thought of their ideas.   We learned that the Pixar animators usually go through many, many, many drafts, continually revising and growing their ideas. 

Check out some early versions of Sully:



We then watched a clip from the movie and brainstormed ideas of what can make monsters look either scary or silly.

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Students used these ideas to imagine their biggest fear as a monster.  They first imagined what it would look like as a scary monster, and then turned it into a silly monster!  Sometimes our fears aren't as scary as we think. 

Students then took their monster ideas and transformed them into clay monsters!  Students learned how to make a pinch pot, to score and slip, and to add texture.  Before beginning on their final monsters, students experimented with the clay and shared their discoveries.

Experimenting with new tools.

Creating texture

Next up, glazing!  This was the first time these students experienced the magic of glaze.  It's hard to believe that chalky paint will turn into glossy awesomeness!

Come see all the monsters now on display at school!

Improv and Elaboration

After naming our monsters and sharing our work via a gallery walk, we did a little improv in the art room!  This activity was taken from the art teacher at Chapman Elementary School, read all about improv in the art room, here!

The game we played is called "let's plan a party."  Read the directions and watch a demonstration video, here.  This game is all about teaching the concept of elaboration, or adding onto ideas.  After having a super fun time with our party planning, students paired up and used the "yes and" process to create worlds for their monsters.  It was amazing to see all the collaboration and imagination students engaged in!  

Texture and Monsters

Kindergarten Update

Texture and Monsters

After finishing a unit on color, kindergarten moved on to a new element of art, texture!  Texture is all about how things feel and we explored textures in many different ways.  Above, you can see students reaching into mystery bags and describing the textures they felt. 

We then became "texture detectives" and searched for textures outside our school.  When students found textures, they created texture rubbings.

The next class, we continued using texture rubbings to make art, this time using texture plates.  Students thought of ideas for their art from their memories and imaginations!

Monster Collages 

After our texture work, we moved on to creating monster collages!  We read monster books like "If You're a Monster and You Know It" and "Glad Monster, Sad Monster" to think of ideas.  Students could use wacky scissors to give their monster a texture.   Students did an awesome job with cutting and glueing the monster body parts!  

Our last day on the topic of monsters was a stations day filled with experimentation, imagination and play!  We made monster costumes, monster food, monster homes, and painted with monster body parts!

6th Grade Trimester 1

Surrealist inspired art

6^th Grade – Trimester 1

Surrealism was a literary and artistic movement that began in the 1920s in Europe.  Surrealist artists were upset with the reality of their world and were more interested in their dreams.  These artists developed techniques for accessing their unconscious and created many dreamlike images. 

Salvador Dali is the famous surrealist artist who painted the above painting .  He developed the “paranoiac critical method” as a way to create artworks.  In this method, Dali would “look into” a photo, stain, or other images and turn it into something new.  

6^th graders used this process as well, by staining paper with tea and finding images in the stains.

Students spent a class period playing with different games and surrealist techniques to think of ideas for their work.

One of the favorite games was the “exquisite corpse” game.  This is a game invented by surrealists that combines the drawings of 3 or more artists into a creature.

After experimenting and playing with the stations, students developed their own idea for a surrealist inspired artwork.   Students then completed the trimester by developing fantasy creatures and experimenting with texture and value.