Fall Birch Tree Art Lesson

One of the autumn art lessons is featured in the school's main entry. This collection was created by the third graders at Coral Academy of Science. Let me walk you through our lesson:

We started by exploring basic painting technique using coffee. Yes, coffee! Instant coffee to be more precise. This gave the students an opportunity to get aquainted with using the brush and how to apply paint for value--the lightness and darkness of a color. When in a pinch at home, a teaspoon of instant goes a long way. They can also experience the art element of texture with the grounds as well. Already brewed coffee grounds work too but harder to get the variety in tones.

Birch Tree Steps

Analyze birch tree photos as a class.

On white A4 (standard 8x11.5) paper the students used black tempera paint to brush the outline of a birch tree.

Using a small piece of card stock, the students created the lines of the birch bark by dabbing along the tree shape. The larger areas of black were created by pulling the card stock piece, dipped in tempera, across the tree like a squeegee. Use quick flick movements to create that pull across the tree.

Set aside to dry. The students will cut these out and glue to a painted background.

Background

Discuss the warm and cool colors of the color wheel.

Students picked either warm or cool colors for their backgrounds. Using watercolors, they could paint any scene or pattern they wished, knowing it would be the background for their trees. Students are only given the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. All the secondary colors (orange, green, purple) must be made by mixing. Once completed the trees were glued on and "frames" (colored onstruction  paper) were selected. The students chose the color they felt would best compliment or enhance their paintings.

Critique

Once a project is complete, the students have an art walk. They walk the room admiring the other students' work, no talking, like a real gallery or museum space. A numbered popcicle stick is chose, that student gets to select his/her two favorites and explain to the class why they were drawn to that particular piece. I do allow students to choose their own as I believe it is important to be proud of one's work and be able to speak about it to others.

Language Arts Extension

Many poets have been inspired by the beauty of birch trees including Robert Frost. For our class, we read the following poem:

BERYOZA (The Birch tree)Poet – Sergei Yesenin ( ?- I am having trouble validating if this poem is indeed a Yesenin or not. I found it online with no credit but a mention to Yesenin)

The white birch below
My window stays
Covered by snow,
As with a golden blaze.

Snowflakes are gliding,
In the grip of air held,
Sun on them is shining,
Sparkling as on gold.

A birch tree stays lazy
In the morning air,
Its snow cover blazing
Like golden fire.

Again comes the blizzard,
And moving around,
Like a hoary wizard
Drops gold on the ground. 1913.

The students added poetry to their  own art pieces:

By Laura

As the sunset is bright

     just before the night

I go out and make a wish

    as the sunset is bright

    just before the night

I go inside and get inside my bed

     As I go insdie and get inside my bed

     As I keep that wish inside my head

Blue Night Sky by Izabella

Beautiful as a singing bird.

Lovely like a lover bird.

Unusable birch trees stand here for us to live.

Every birch tree stands for a piece of

love.

Neat and so special, nothing is prettier than a birch tree.

In the night sk with a smile on my face, I stand at a nice birch.

Grateful for you birch trees for being here.

Happy living in a lovely forest.

These birch trees help us live without them.

We wouldn't be here now.

Birch Tree Study

3^rd Grade

Our exhibition  shares our art exploration of:

v     COLOR THEORY

·         Warm & cool colors

v  Media

·         Cutting

o   Scissors

·         Gluing

o   Glue sticks

o   Liquid Glue

·         painting

o   watercolors

o   tempera

o   brushes

o   card stock

v  Observation

·         Visually analyzing photographs of birch trees for Art Elements;

o   Shape

o    Color

o   Form

o    Texture

o   Lines

o   size

v  Discussion

·         Composition

·         abstract Art

·         realism

v  Art Criticism

·         students acted as critics and chose peer work for display

·         explained their aesthetic choice



Artist of the Month - Marc Chagall



Marc Chagall, I and the Village, 1911

It's time for the changing of the calendar as well as the Artist of the Month wall. During the month of November, we learned about Marc Chagall, a jewish, russian expressionist painter who lived to be 98 years of age. He happens to be one of my favorites; not a secret if you've seen me sipping tea from my "I and the Village" cup or the wall lined with Chagall wonders in the classroom studio. Grades 2 through 4 have been using Chagall's works as inspiration to create their own expressionist paintings.

What elements help us identify an expressionist work of art?

• Expressing emotion
• Bold colors
• Distortion
• Lack of perspective

Are these paintings Expressionism?
Have your child analyze and discuss the following images with you:


Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night          Edvard Munch, The Scream           Henri Matisse, The Dessert Harmony in Red

Our literacy extension included a reading of I am Marc Chagall by Bimba Landmann and thanks to Willow in 3rd who shared her Dreamer from the Village: The Story of Marc Chagall by Michelle Markell with her class.

Enjoy the students'  I and the Village  inspired works in progress... scroll below to see some of the completed pieces.

CRITERIA - 25 point lesson

• Expresses Emotion
• Two Profiles (either human or animal)
• An X compotion or thoughtfully composed
• Tell a story with the other spaces; a dream, a meaningful place (imaginary or real), a special object
• Effort

Some completed masterpieces exploring:

• rough sketching to final craftsmanship
• composition
• oil pastels and watercolors
• visual storytelling

4th grade students

Some more finished masterpieces:

Samantha - 4th grade

Chloe - 4th grade

Tyler - 2nd grade

Jammie - 4th Grade

Sophia - 2nd Grade 

Lina - 4th Grade

Eli - 3rd grade

Alonzo - 3rd Grade

Sean - 4th Grade

Brianna  - 4th Grade

Grace - 4th Grade

Madison H - 2nd Grade

Sierra - 4th Grade

Mary - 4th Grade

Caleb - 4th grade

I Think I Can

Those of you who have visited my room have most likely been victim to my pleads for kindergarten ideas. Yes, it's true, kindergarten is my littlest big challenge (a challenge from a biggest little city teacher ;) The list below is what we have completed thus far; some successful, some funny, and some left a lot of broken pencils.

1) Drawing Different Lines
2) Drawing a Self-portrait
2) Making Color Wheels
3) Making a Train in a scene

For many kindergartners, this is the first formal art class they have ever attended; for others, the first school environment they'll ever participated in which means there is a lot to learn regarding art materials and expectations. I learned this the hard way--but I'm a quick learner and adapted at warp speed--almost as fast as them.  I learned they LOVE to move more than to draw the lines like I initially suggested. Lines on paper = not so successful. Making lines with our bodies = SUCCESS! Ask your kindergartner to show you a zig zag line, a curvy line, a straight line, a dotted line (dotted lines like to bounce), and a wavy line with his/her body. Now, ask them to recreate on paper. This is the proper order. I did it backwards.

Self portraits turned into a discussion of the shapes on our faces. Have your little one trace the shapes of your face using an invisible pencil and then recite the shape names they are discovering. They LOVED this. On paper, their drawings were much more "abstract" and unidentifiable as people. However, this is an important part of art and the world. They learn so many daily life skills in an art class. They are learning to observe their world and apply those shapes and colors into their art, their writing, etc. They are learning to  respect the art materials and their art studio. They are learning how to share supplies and choosing which material will work best for what they are trying to accomplish. They are learning to be imaginative and creative within some guidelines. Most importantly, they are refining their motor skills. It's hard to color within the lines when one cannot maneuver a pencil well.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

I learned they LOVE to be read to. We have enjoyed the story of a wonderfully creative little baby named, Harold, who adventures into the world by drawing the plot along. They, too, wanted to be creative like Harold and really started pulling out the artist in them by week 3 with their color wheels.

They learned there are three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. They learned you can make the secondary colors by mixing them and that colors have opposites! Some children advanced their learning by labeling their wheels with the color names.  {english and science connection }

Now, we're really warming up.  Last week, we read, I Knew You Could by Craig Dorfman. It's a take on The Little Engine That Could.  We connected it to art by stressing that you must "Think You Can" in order to draw well. The students listened to the story and took special note of the backgrounds through which the train was traveling. They created their own trains out of construction paper squares and rectangles, practiced their cutting, and glued them onto a piece of paper. They drew their favorite scenes for their trains to run through. We had cities and deserts, big trains, small trains, steam trains.  I hope their art work is making it home--please ask your child to discuss his/her artwork with you. Here are a few that I managed to photograph in class before they ran off to the next great adventure.

I think I can...I think I can... I think I can...and we did!
SUCCESS :)

Cave Art Lesson

To kick off our culture lessons, we began with prehistoric Paleolithic people and their cave art. The kids were impressed with the story of the Lascaux Caves in France and enjoyed prediciting what a Paleolithic artist would have used for paint, canvas, etc.
To simulate the organic nature of cave art, we used non-perfect, no machine-cut,  ripped paper shopping bags. { thank you parents and students for bringing those in! } We roughed the paper up by "sanding" along the corner of our tables and scrunching into balls. Some of the paper felt more like fabric when they were finished.
We built upon an earlier lesson of drawing animals using basic shapes first and then filling in the form and details. For the cave art, the students could only use:

 o   CHALK ( gypsum, limestone, etc)

o   SEPIA COLORING STICK (red clay dirt) 
o   CHARCOAL (charcoal from burnt wood, coal)

Most of the students had never used sepia coloring stick or charcoal and they LOVED it. Yes, it's messy so have your clean-up materials nearby if you are planning to do this at home. The coloring sticks were purchased at Nevada Fine Arts and the chalk and charcoal at Walmart in the crafts section.$5 worth of supplies that will last a while. If you don't want to introduce the charcoal to your white carpet, try substituting brown, burnt sienna, black, and white crayons. { daily life skills connection }

Some students used the animal books in the room to reference and others drew from memory. The final results have been displayed in our very own "Hall of Bulls" outside the art room. The pieces on display were picked by their peers. This leads to the opportunity to discuss how art is subjective and how people are drawn to different art than others. It doesn't mean the art that was not chosen was bad or wrong; the chosen pieces simply jumped out at them. It appealed to their mood, preference for order, or chaos, etc. Check out that CNN article on Art and Neuroscience. { art and science connection } 

I've been told by a handful of students that they have purchased their own "how-to draw animals" book after this drawing lesson. YAY! Way to go, little artists! Others were inspired to bring in rocks - paleo style - with their wonderful drawings. Awesome!

You may have this video in your home collection. Check out the cave art scene in Ice Age where Manny, Diego, and Sid enter the cave. Manny has an experience with the drawings which gives the viewer insight into his character and foreshadows the events for the sequel. {language arts connection}