First Graders Visit Egypt

Georgetown firsties are learning about the art and culture of Egypt.  We found many of shapes and mysterious Egyptian symbols on the beautiful mummy case of Lady Teshat.  First graders learned that Lady Teshat was the daughter of the treasurer of the Temple of Amon at Thebes.  Her detailed burial mask gives us a clue as to how she may have looked as a young girl.

 Lady Teshat

After experimenting with some practice paintings, first graders painted these fancy mummy cases.

Preparing our background with a little colored chalk.

 I just love how each painting has a personality all its own.

Of course the best part was selecting just the right jewel to adorn their paintings!

Parents – you’ll find these portraits on our ARTSONIA on-line art gallery soon.

Good Stuff From The Art Room

Georgetown artists have been busy, busy busy!  Here’s a look at some of their latest creations!

Sweet little oinkers from first grade…exploring 2D and 3D concepts with fun “Pig In A Puddle” landscapes.

Second grade Van Gogh landscapes with a warm color “Starry Night” sky – gorgeous!

Fourth grade abstract paintings in the style of Kandinsky’s “Several Circles No. 323”.  Love these bright oil pastel and watercolor beauties!

More piggies, starry nights, and abstract circles can be found on ARTSONIA, Georgetown’s on-line art gallery.  Visit HERE!

 

 

STEAM and ART = BEAUTY!

Georgetown’s Art and Steam teachers collaborated on a very cool project.  Our Kinders and First graders were challenged in Mrs. Totten’s STEAM Studio to design and build their perfect paint brush.  (See the project in STEAM class here.) They thought about the kinds of marks they wanted to make with their brushes and created brushes that would dab, draw, and make different types of lines.

STEAM Brushes – ready to paint.

Their colorful brushes were put to the test in Mrs. Brouwer’s art class.  First grade artists created an abstract landscape with their newly built brushes.

First step – a little texture rubbing.

Step two – putting those brushes to work with paint!

A little black paint to outline – and beautiful landscapes by First Graders are complete.

Kindergarten artists were also excited to create with their STEAM brushes.  We explored the work of Eric Carle, and created a background of water for our darling Eric Carle inspired yellow ducks.

We wrapped up our Steam/Art Brush Project with a discussion about the brushes and how well they worked.  Our First Grade and Kindergarten students had some great ideas to improve their brushes, including using clothes pins to hold cotton balls on the brushes so they could change the cotton balls when they got gooey with paint.  Many wanted to go back to Steam class and figure out ways they could design ways to clean their brushes to re-use them, along with attaching more objects to the brush to make different painted lines.  This was a great thinking + creating project, with beautiful results!

 

First Grade Meets Frederick

First graders learned all about neutral colors, tints, and shades this week.  Leo Lionni’s book Frederick was the perfect introduction to neutral colors.  First graders decided that neutral colors don’t care if they are warm or cold, primary or secondary; neutral colors are “just in the middle”.

We began by mixing white and black to create neutral gray colors, learning about tints and shades along the way.  Next we learned a fancy new painting technique called “scumbling” – ask a first grader how to “scumble” color to make some rocks for Frederick!

Their finished Fredericks are super cute!

First Grade Christmas Amaryllis Paintings

My first grade artists have been begging to paint – so of course we did!  The result?  Beautiful Christmas amaryllis paintings!

We began by looking at pictures of amaryllis plants and examining a large silk amaryllis flower.  We talked about how the plant grows from a bulb, sending up a tall skinny stem, and then a wonderful flower opens up at the top of the stem.  Everyone noticed right away that the amaryllis plant has Christmas colors of red and green.

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First graders began by creating a textured pot.  They drew their plants with marker, painted, and added details with black crayons.

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See more of these beauties at our ARTSONIA on line art gallery here.

I CAN….explain how to create texture, describe an amaryllis plant, use careful painting techniques.

Turkeys ‘N Trees

Before winter arrives…two more fall projects from G-Town first and second graders.  Both classes focused on the art element of LINE as they created turkeys and trees.

First Grade Fall Trees – firsties worked on their cutting and glueing skills while creating their trees.  Bonus – a little painting, a favorite in the first grade crowd.

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Second Grade Line Turkeys – gotta love the knobby little turkey knees.

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See more turkeys and trees at our ARTSONIA on-line art gallery HERE.

First Grade Black Cats

Firsties focused on their cutting and glueing skills while creating these fun black cats!

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We learned how to hold our scissors and to cut carefully…..

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No Glue Monsters here…just a dot, not a lot!

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We learned how to make curly whiskers, and zig-zag folded whiskers too!

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“Most fun art project ever!” say Georgetown’s first graders!

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I Can…use careful and correct cutting, glueing, and paper folding skills

 

 

From the GTown Art Room…

It’s been a busy first couple of weeks in our Georgetown art room!  Here’s a look at what we’ve done in the last 9 days since school began.

img_0961 We did this!

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Quarter circles – we put them together to make some fancy circles.

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We talked about three big Art Elements and read an awesome book – because we are all MAGNIFICENT artists!

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Kinders and Firsties drew their favorite things and made table tags to help Mrs. B. learn ALL their names!  Yikes, I have lots of leaning to do.

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Fourth and Fifth graders put new pages in their sketchbooks and did some drawing.

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Third graders described warm and cool colors and began a new watercolor project.

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Second graders began torn paper masks (mean Mrs. Brouwer took their scissors away and ugh, they had to TEAR the paper!).  No Glue Monsters allowed for this project!

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Kinders met Mr. Mondrian and practiced their cutting skills to create their own Mondrian Broadway Boogie Woogies.

And Firsties began a cool Picasso project….but I was too busy to take pictures – more later.

Whew!  And that is just the first nine days folks!