We made our jungles look very crowded by overlapping leaf shapes. The "cloud" shape we left in the middle of the paper is for a surprise... we won't be adding that till next class.
It is kindergarten students' turn to look at the work of Henri Rousseau. Today we began by painting jungle plants with tints and shades of green. A tint is a color with white added to make it lighter. A shade is a color with black added to make it darker.
We made our jungles look very crowded by overlapping leaf shapes. The "cloud" shape we left in the middle of the paper is for a surprise... we won't be adding that till next class. Second grade is preparing landscapes that will soon be inhabited by dinosaurs. Each student included a background, middle ground, and foreground in their drawing. They had to consider how the size of objects change as they get closer the viewer. Watercolor paints were used to add blended color to the plants, rocks, and sky in the landscape. The students are looking forward to adding the dinosaurs to the scene after break! I promised some very excited 1st graders that I would post the link to a Rousseau "jungle-maker" on the National Gallery of Art website. The students have really gotten into the idea that Rousseau imagined all the details in his jungle scenes... and that they could too. I gave students paper, markers, crayons, and lots of Rousseau imagery to get them started. The only requirement was that their jungle contain five animals or larger details. I think the imaginations of our 1st graders are pretty active...
There is a hint of spring break fever in the air this week. Kindergarten is working on patterns of spring. They folded a paper to make four large stripes. Each stripe needed to contain a pattern that included spring things: bunnies, flowers, bugs, eggs, suns, snails, and butterflies. Each fold line had to have a different kind of line over it: wavy, straight, zig-zag, or dotted.
Fourth grade is working on color wheels that include tints and shades. We enjoyed some John Coltrane and Miles Davis while we worked on this mellow Tuesday morning. The plan is to slice these color wheels up into a more interesting radial design in the coming weeks.
I want to glue these paintings to a canvas and display them somewhere just like this. I love the colors and the unique perspective of each student. Mrs. Kirk's class did an amazing job using watercolors to created blended colors and value change within colors.
In April we will have a "visiting art museum" come to Kennedy featuring work by Henri Rousseau. After the exhibit comes to Kennedy some Rousseau--inspired student art will be on show at the Hastings Public Library. It's only March 1st... I know, I know. But with spring break coming and most of a class devoted to enjoying the traveling exhibit, we needed to get creating. We looked at some of Rousseau's work and viewed a digital reading of The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau. First graders know Rousseau lived in France, he didn't start painting until he was an adult, and that people did not always say nice things about his work. Students were most excited by Tiger In the Jungle (Surprise!) and began the first layer of jungles today with tissue paper. |
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