Warm and Cool Color Hands & Mittens

PK and Kindergarten artists recently learned about warm and cool colors. We learned that warm colors, like red, orange, and yellow, remind us of warm things like fire and the sun. Cool colors, like green, blue and violet, remind us of cool things like water and the sky. We looked at pictures of different objects and identified whether they were cool or warm colors. Then we used warm and cool colors in our artwork. 

Kindergarten students used their hand to create a mitten shape and outline it on their paper. PK students traced the shape of their hand. Then, if they sat at a warm color table, they used oil pastels in warm colors to color in their mitten and if they sat at a cool color table, they used cool colors. Kindergarten students used a variety of different lines and shapes to add patterns and designs to their mitten to make them colorful and interesting. PK students focused on coloring and covering all of the white paper inside their hand. 

The following class, Kindergarten students added snowflakes around their mitten, using white oil pastel, which was a little hard to see but would be revealed during the next step! Then students who had used warm color oil pastels used watercolor paint in cool colors to paint over and around their mitten or hand. For Kindergarten students, the paint also helped reveal their snowflakes! 

The oil pastel and watercolor paint do not mix together so you can still see what you drew with the oil pastel, even after you add paint on top. This effect is called resist, since the two materials do not mix together but move apart. Here are a few examples of our warm and cool color mittens:

Andrew S., Kindergarten (Martignetti)

Clara, Kindergarten (Bolton)

Miguel, Kindergarten (Beatty)

Caroline, Kindergarten (Beatty)

Sorayah, Kindergarten (Blackwood)

Beatrix, Kindergarten (Blackwood)

Alejandro, Kindergarten (Martignetti)

Emily B., Kindergarten (Bolton)

Astrid, Kindergarten (Segreve)

Emily B., Kindergarten (Segreve)

Cristina, Kindergarten (Tan)

David, Kindergarten (Beatty)

Family Traditions Mixed Media Collage, Inspired by Carmen Lomas Garza

Recently 1st grade artists finished their mixed media collage artworks that tell the story of a family memory or tradition. This project took us a few weeks! We began by looking at two paintings by the Mexican American artist, Carmen Lomas Garza. Students were asked to look at the artwork carefully and then think about what is happening and what supports their thinking. 

Carmen Lomas Garza, Barbacoa Para Cumpleaños (1993) 

Students noticed that there is a girl hitting a piñata, a cake on a table, and many people of different ages gathered together, so it might be a birthday party, a backyard BBQ or a family reunion. Our observations helped us to "read" the painting and understand the story visually, without words. We noticed that the artist paints the story, using a lot of details to help us understand what is happening. Carmen Lomas Garza is a Mexican American artist who was born in Texas. She paints about her experiences as a Mexican American and her paintings feature her family. Students thought about a time they have spent with their family and family traditions they have experienced. They tried to remember who was there, where it took place, and what people were doing. 

Then they made their own sketches and drawings of this memory. For many students, it was a family tradition or annual event such as Christmas, Hanukkah, or Thanksgiving. For others, they remembered their birthday or a sibling's birthday. Some students drew about a family summer vacation to the beach or a long roadtrip, while others drew about playing in the park, weekend picnics, and building snowmen. 

The following week, students used their sketches and created a painted background for their artwork. Removing the details, students painted paper with solid colors for their background, whether it was yellow sand, blue sky or white snow. 

We let the painted paper dry and the next class, students began adding the people and details in their foreground using a variety of different materials. Students cut and tore shapes from colored paper, tissue paper, fabric, felt, and yarn and put them together to created a mixed media collage of their family memory. Students thought carefully about how the colors, patterns and textures of the materials would help tell their visual story. 

They tried to make the setting clear, whether it was indoors or outdoors, daytime or nighttime. Students worked very hard on these mixed media collages, and wrote a sentence on the back about their work, describing the memory or tradition. We participated in our first gallery walk, which is when we walk around the room to observe everyone's artwork. During a gallery walk we make sure not to touch the artwork, just like at a museum. We also did our first turn and talk, where we picked a partner and shared our artwork with them. 

Students took turns talking about their work and asking questions, considering what their work was about, what they were proudest of in their work, and what was the most challenging part of creating it. At the end of class, we shared them with class on the rug so that everyone could take a look at the finished work, and we could learn more about each student's story. Below are some examples of our work, with a description written by the student.

Amit, 1st Grade (Massa)
"At my grandma's house with my sister."

Asher, 1st Grade (McIsaac)
"My family watching the solar eclipse in Nashville."

Audrey W., 1st Grade (Salvucci)
"Me and my mom on Christmas Day."

Ava, 1st Grade (Massa)
"My family at the beach."

Avneet, 1st Grade (McIsaac)
"My brother and I at the playground."

Dakotah, 1st Grade (McIsaac)
"Me and my brother on Christmas."

Dylan, 1st Grade (Landay)
"My family decorating our Christmas tree and eating turkey."

Kaylin, 1st Grade (McCarthy)
"My family at the playground."

Layla, 1st Grade (McCarthy)
"At the beach with my mom."

Max, 1st Grade (Salvucci)
"At the beach with my family."

Maya E., 1st Grade (McCarthy)
"On a road trip to New Hampshire with my family."

Najeeb, 1st Grade (McIsaac)
"At the park with my brother."

Rishi, 1st Grade (Landay)
"Building a snowman with my brother."

Sarah, 1st Grade (Mandile)
"My family at a restaurant for my dad's birthday."

Soren, 1st Grade (Mandile)
"At the park with my sister."

Will, 1st Grade (Mandile)
"Building a snowman with my sister."

Zion, 1st Grade (Salvucci)
"At the beach with my family."

Arts Around the World: Venda Pots and Cave Drawings from South Africa

The next country we learned about this year, as part of our Arts Around the World curriculum, is South Africa. 

We began by learning that the country is located in the southern part of Africa and that many different peoples make up South Africa, each with their own language and history. The country has 11 official languages. This colorful mix of cultures gives South Africa its nickname "rainbow nation.” 

For our first project, we looked at examples of pottery made by the Venda tribe. We noticed that the clay is a reddish color and there were many different shapes and sizes of pottery. We discussed how different size pots were for different purposes, such as carrying water or storing food. Students also noticed that the designs on the pottery were mainly red and silver in color and involved geometric shapes and repeating lines and patterns. 

For our pinch pots, students got terra cotta clay which is a similar color to the red clay we saw in the Venda pottery examples. Students formed a ball with the clay and pushed their thumbs in the middle of the clay ball. Then they pinched around in a circle to create a pot or bowl shape, creating the walls of the pot and flattening and smoothing the inside. After shaping their pinch pot, students used tools to draw lines and shapes into their pinch pot. We let them dry for a week and then they were fired in the kiln. 

After being fired once, students got to glaze their pinch pots. Even though the Venda primarily use red oxide and graphite (which created the silver color) to decorate their pots, students selected from several different colors to glaze their pottery. After glazing, the pinch pots were fired again and students shared their finished pottery with each other through a gallery walk. Below are some examples of our pinch pots, inspired by Venda pottery from South Africa: 

Calvin, 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Lily, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Mahnoor, 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Marie, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Niko, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Sean, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Theo, 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Adriana, 2nd Grade (Hinds)

Antonio, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Caitlin, 2nd Grade (Hinds)

Duncan, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Gabe, 2nd Grade (Hinds)

Jayden, 2nd Grade (Hinds)

Olivia, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Tigran, 2nd Grade (Stone)

We also learned about rock paintings made by the San Bushmen, Africa's oldest hunter gatherers. The San Bushmen lived in the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa about 4,000 years ago. During that time they created art on the walls of caves and rock shelters. We noticed that the art features animals and people, although the people are not represented with a lot of detail. Some students connected this to Egyptian hieroglyphics they had learned about in Social Studies and the idea of symbols. 

The people are often shown running or hunting, since this was a big part of their lives. We noticed that they used very natural colors, like brown, red and black, since they probably had to use natural materials to make these artworks. We also found it fascinating that 4,000 years ago, people were making art! We made our own interpretation by crumpling a piece of brown paper to give it a rock-like texture and using charcoal and chalk pastel to create our drawings. We experimented with blending and smudging the materials.