Back into The Swing of Things

We've been back for three weeks now, so you might want to know what's going on. We painted with ice and powder tempera paint the first week. I talked a little about cold weather, friction (to keep hands warm), and the temperature at which water freezes. I have even heard some children remembered some of what I said! Woohoo! That makes an art teacher's day!

The next week we tried our hand at creating concentric circles in the style of Wassily Kandinsky. I taught again about abstract art and some of the children remembered that concept from earlier in the year. Woohoo! I am keeping some of these for the end of the year art show. If you don't see a piece of artwork come home, then know you will get it after graduation.

This week and the beginning of next we are working with oil pastels again as we emulate C.M. Russell art work. Russell was the cowboy artist and his works are incredibly realistic. Even though preKers are not up to that level of realism, they can do a great sunset. We will also work on cutting out some mountains to be a silhouette against the sunset. These are looking great!

I hope you are having a wonderful New Year. I want to say a big "thank you" for all the sweet gifts you sent my way. What a blessing you are to me as a teacher. Your thoughtfulness and generosity ministered to me. I pray that I will be a blessing to your child as well.

Painting With Our Tongues

I think you may have heard by now that we were painting with our tongues in art. This was sooooo much fun, you may want to try it at home as well.

I mixed jello and corn syrup together to a thick consistency. I mixed 5 or 6 separate flavors. Then I put those flavors/paints on individual palettes. (This is one time we certainly did not want to share paint with anyone else!)

The reaction from the students ranged drastically from the "I can't wait to try this!" to the "Ewwwww....that's disgusting." Mostly I had willing participants. There were one or two students that just weren't going there. And that is okay. I try to encourage them to try things and usually if others are doing it and having a good time, they will join in. If they don't try this time, maybe they will try the next "daring" project.

Anyway, the jello paint was totally yummy if you like candy or suckers. Some of the children licked their paint trays clean! Some painted pictures of flowers, rainbows, trucks, houses, etc.  Others were more abstract and those looked nice too. The paint is very glossy looking so it is quite pretty in almost any design.

This week brings our last week before Christmas break and that means parties and programs and presents. Hope to see you sometime this week!

Handprints, Abstracts, and Pointillism

Our surprise for you should has probably come home by now. We were learning about texture so we painted with scrapers, trucks, and then added a handprint. We used colored paper and two different colors of paint, so the effect was neat. The students not only created texture using the scrapers and toy trucks, they also got to experience the texture of the paint on their hands. It was a fun lesson and the project looked cool too. A win-win!

This week we have been stain painting an abstract painting in the style of Richard Diebenkorn. Your student should be able to tell you that he created an abstract painting and what abstract means. 

At the end of the week we will be moving into the studying pointillism and the painting of George Seurat. We will continue with this project the week after Thanksgiving.

As always I am blessed to teach your child. May you and your family have a blessed Thanksgiving!