Robots and Chicks

I just wanted to show you one more very cool picture.. it was another parody of American Gothic.  This student was absent and had to catch up on this project. 

Here are the baby chicks our school hatched, which are now growing into chickens!  They grow so fast!

I realized that I did not show you the pictures of the chicks when they were first hatched:

Winter Landscapes

2^nd Grade Winter Landscapes

For this project, we read a book about Grandma Moses: 

Grandma Moses (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)

We discussed how to draw a river or road showing depth (by drawing it converging to a point in the distance).  We talked about using size variation to show distance while drawing houses and other objects. 

The students cut out mountains from gray paper and a snowy patch from white paper (I walked them through this step-by-step).  Houses were cut from construction paper and details were added with crayons.  Trees and snow were painted with watercolor cakes. 

American Landscape Paintings--3rd/4th Grade

 American Landscapes  The 3/4s learned about Colonial times and Westward Expansion.  The students watched a video about American landscape artists during the 19th century and they painted their own landscapes.  One of the goals was to use inspiration from the environment to create a painting.  The students chose a landscape scene from pictures of America.  Painting lessons include how to add texture with a fan brush, how to mix colors and how to add shadows on a mountain.

I showed them my painting of a rolling hills landscape and demonstrated how I created those textures through sponges, fan brushes and using the edges of a flat brush.  

American Gothic-- Third Grade

This is a tried-and-true art teacher lesson plan.  The students enjoyed learning the story behind Grant Wood's American Gothic painting.  We read an article about his famous painting.

They also enjoyed seeing various parodies of this artwork.  They envisioned their own parody of this famous masterpiece.

  

You can also read this book about his artwork: