Spooky Trees in Charcoal

Happy Halloween! My grade 2s created these spooky trees just in time for Halloween. It's still not a major thing in Australia but seems to be gaining popularity every year. This lesson has been doing the rounds on pinterest thanks to Jennifer Lipsey Edwards who posts many of her elementary art lessons to her pinterest page here.

Many students hadn't used charcoal before this lesson and it was a great introduction to different charcoal techniques, creating different shades and beginning to understand perspective.

Abstract Paintings

 This was an introductory lesson to abstract painting for grade 2. I love exploring abstract art with younger age groups as they always seem to have an innate understanding of abstraction and never question its relevance the way older students do. 

After discuss the meaning of abstraction and viewing many examples of well-known abstract paintings, students set about creating their own abstract paintings. I loved watching them paint and seeing their personalities spread out in paint on their page.  Those who love colour used all the colours, those who are neat and organised painted organised lines and patterns and those who love mess and chaos went a little wild.

In the next lesson we made a square window frame from black card and I asked the students to frame the section of their work they felt was most interesting. Each student also titled their work after we discussed the convention of artists creating titles for their work. 

 

 

Animal Pattern Prints

 Grade 3 students made drawings of animals that travel together in groups before choosing one design to draw and engrave into a small styrofoam block. The process of block printing was demonstrated to students and they then repeated their print as many times as they could fit onto an A4 page. 

Once complete, students used a coloured dye to paint one section of their pattern to act as a focal point.