Charley Harper Tints and Shades

Over the last several weeks the fourth graders have been learning about the artist Charley Harper and trying their had at creating a painting inspired by his work. Harper is an American artist best know for his stylized paintings of animals. If you would like to see some of Harper's work check out the video below that is part of a larger interview.

Our students focused on creating images of bugs, birds or fish using simple and repeating shapes as seen in Harper's work. They also worked mixing their tints and shades at add detail to their work. Below you can see photos of their in progress and finished works.

 

Junior Kindergarten Art by Melting

Recently I have worked in collaboration with the Junior Kindergarten class on a very exciting crayon melting project. Making cross curricular connections is always exciting, but when you see such a young student so excited about letters, colors and a touch of science, it makes for a very exciting teaching experience as well. 

For this project the students first work on their letter identification and with teacher help, create their first initial out of tape on canvas. Next we had centers setup in the art room where the students engaged in a variety of color mixing activities including painting, stamping, and as you saw in the previously mentioned first grade lesson, using light boxes. 

There was also a center where the students worked with a teacher to practice color identification and arranging the crayons the way they wanted them to be glued on their canvas above the letter they already taped. While the students were sorting and arranging colors, we had great conversations about their favorite colors and what kinds of things they find in the world that are their favorite colors. 

Lastly, for the exciting part! Using a hair dryer and working with a teacher, the students melt the crayons, again having great conversations and making fantastic observations about everything from why the crayons melt, what we notice about the crayons as they melt, what happens when the colors start to run together. Once the crayon cools the tape is peeled away leaving a white letter surrounded by all the melted colors. 

A few of the great things I heard students say include; 

"Wow! They're so shiny!"

"I see the red and green making brown!" 

"I know that snow and ice melt too!" 

"Which one is going to get to the bottom first?" 

"Wow! That air is hot!"

"The white makes colors lighter!" 

Exploring Color

The art room has transformed into a color mixing extravaganza! For the next month the first grade will be exploring color mixing at different centers; all of which encourage the students to work with the primary colors to create new colors. Throughout this process students will make several mini- projects and will be creating painted paper to use for several future collage projects. In addition to their exploration we will be reading books about colors and listening to songs about color! Please be sure to ask them about their observations.

Center 1

Here students work with light boxes and translucent color tiles to create new colors. 

Center 2

At this center students are working with tissue paper and glue to create collages that have overlapping red, yellow and blue shapes. They are trying to create new colors and observing the different combinations.

Center 3 

At this center,students work with ink pads and pencil erasers to stamp and mix colors. 

Center 4

 At this center students from each class will work with two primary colors to make a secondary color and paint paper that we will be using for collages in the near future.

Center 5

At this center students are working with iPads and play-dough made from different primary colors to demonstrate color mixing. 

As I mentioned above we are also looking at a number of books about color including Mouse Paint, Mix It Up, Monsters Love Colors, The mixed up Chameleon, White Rabbit's Color Book,  Color Dance and many more! 

We have also been enjoying this song as we work