Mrs. LeVar's Little Artists

03/30/2020

Welcome back and some brief comments on art AMI going forwards.

02/05/2020

Kinder funny from today:

Student 1: "When I grow up, I'm going to have a ferrari, and a (unintelligible). They go really fast. I'm going to have 2 cars."
Student 2: "When I grow up, I want to be a science."
Student 3: "When I grow up, I'm going to be a pickle man."

Dream big, my friend, dream big...

02/05/2020

You know when you are teaching a project and the stars are aligning, and everything is working the way you planned it to? Well, the project 1st grade is working on is one of those projects. Knock on wood, since we are in the middle of it.

We are stamping robots with found objects and black acrylic paint. Students drew a robot "skeleton" in pencil, focusing on the basic parts of the robot. Today was stamping day!

Students used pieces of cardboard, dipped in black paint, to go over their pencil lines and outline the robot. They used bottle caps, cut paper towel rolls, and other plastic lids to create circles for details.

These are just a few of the really great robot outlines. We are going to add tempera paint to them next time.

01/29/2020

Bubble Prints and Lollipop Trees!!

For the past couple of months we have been learning about an Austrian born New Zealand artist named, Friedensriech Hundertwasser (https://www.wikiart.org/en/friedensreich-hundertwasser). Hundertwasser was a printmaker, painter and architect.

We started out making bubble prints using a clear dish soap, food coloring and water solution. Students blew into the solution with a straw to make a mound of bubbles. Then they printed those bubbles on a piece of paper by laying the paper on top of the bubbles. They did this with the three primary colors; red, yellow and blue. These turned out really amazing by themselves. Students learned about primary and secondary colors as the primary colors mixed.

We took the project further for 1st-4th grades, and looked at Hundertwasser's signature "lollipop trees" for inspiration. Students then cut out circles of black construction paper, drew lines and patterns on them, glued them on top of their bubble prints and finally, drew the tree trunk. The bright colors set against the black lollipop trees is beautiful.

11/08/2019

You guys!!! My Donor'sChoose project for Sherwood Elementary only needs $112 to be fully funded!!!!

If you can help me out, would you please?? Every little bit helps.

Go to the link below and check out the project information. You can see a list of the items that my classroom needs.

Help me give my students a better organized Choice Based classroom with easy access to a myriad of art supplies. I see just under 300 K-5 elementary students. Many of my students are from low-incom...

10/26/2019

First grade through fifth grades have been working on a color wheel project lately. We have learned about primary colors (red, yellow, blue), secondary colors (orange, purple, green), and tertiary colors (yellow – orange, red – orange, red – violet, blue – violet, blue – green, yellow – green).

Students were taught how to mix secondary colors by combining primary colors. Then how to mix tertiary colors by combining a primary and a secondary color. We practiced mixing colors And talked about which colors are warm and which colors are cold.

Finally, we did a color wheel on a larger piece of paper. First graders showed primary and secondary colors only. They were allowed to draw whatever they wanted, they just had to have the primary and secondary colors in order. Many chose to do ice cream cones because that was one of the examples that I showed.

10/26/2019

We have been creating bubble prints in kindergarten for the past couple of weeks. It is a fun, messy project, but also very worth it! The prints came out wonderfully! This project teaches color mixing by learning about the primary colors (red, yellow, blue), and how they mix to create secondary colors (orange, green, purple).

Here are just a few samples of the amazing prints that we have made. If you would like to try this at home, I will be posting the instructions on how to do it. 

10/02/2019

The art room is an ever changing entity. This year, we are focusing on student choice. This means, students have more choices than ever before, as to how they create their projects.

In order to have more choices, I have set up a Donor'sChoose.org project to raise money for our classroom.

We could use your help! Spread the word, and donate by sharing the link to our project page.

DonorsChoose.org/G.LeVar

or

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/organized-and-stocked-choice-based-class/4468075/?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=page&utm_campaign=project&utm_term=teacher_6809385&rf=page-dc-2019-10-project-teacher_6809385&challengeid=21488184

Help me give my students a better organized Choice Based classroom with easy access to a myriad of art supplies. I see just under 300 K-5 elementary students. Many of my students are from low-incom...

10/01/2019

Zentangle names. 5th graders worked hard to complete their projects. The names were supposed to be colored in only one color and that color was not to be used anywhere else. This was to create emphasis (focus) on the names. Students were able to use any other color they wanted to in the other areas.

10/01/2019

Zentangle Names!

We are creating Zentangle names with 1st-5th grades. Students wrote their name in block or bubble letters, divided up the space around their name, drew patterns in all spaces and then colored, using colored pencils or crayons.

1st graders had lots of help writing their name. The other grades had varying levels of help with their name too. The main point was to learn about patterns, emphasis, repetition with variation, line and color.

09/26/2019

Welcome to the ART ROOM! I am an elementary art teacher, at Sherwood Elementary, doing my best to inspire my student artists' creativity and exploration.

Posts will not only include art projects students are working on, but amazing explorations and discoveries students are having while using the techniques, skills and materials available to them in the classroom.

The philosophy of the art room at Sherwood Elementary, is to guide students to learn the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design, following state and national education standards. While learning these things, students get to choose which supplies, skills and techniques they want to use to complete the projects given to them. Just like in an artist's' studio, there are many supplies available to choose from. Students will be taught how to do different techniques, so they can experiment with them and then choose which techniques they want to further experience.

We have done some amazing projects over the last three years. My goal this year is to transition into Choice Based Art. Much of what we are doing, especially in this first year of the transition, is a modification of Choice. Students will have more choices than they have in the past. I'm excited to see how we do and to witness my student's progress as they create more meaningful art.