My Student Prodigy

Ok, I have to write about this special child that I get to teach. When I first got to the school that I am at now, his teacher came to me the first day of school and said…”One of my second grade students drew this, look out for him, you will know who he is, nurture his talent.” When I connected who he was I was in complete amazement at his giftedness. Have you ever had a student like this? If so, tell me about it. This student was painting on a high school/college level in second grade. He is in fourth grade now. This is his latest piece which he drew entirely free hand and painted with watercolor titled “Dreaming Awake” that he completed this week. He can paint for 5-6 hours straight with no break and he is only 10 yrs old! He is that kid that all the other kids want to sit by and call their best friend because he just has a magnetic sweet selfless personality. I LOVE teaching art!

He painted this last year,3rd grade, titled “Vendedor de Imaginacion”

Jazz Instruments

Students studied the art of Jazz music for this project. We listened to Jazz and I had people come to the class to play various instruments for the students. They looked at images of instruments and had to draw their instrument or two overlapping and running off the edge of the paper. You were not allowed to draw the whole thing; only a section. They could add music notes or whatever they wanted to embellish and make it their own individual painting. They used oil pastels after painting to outline and add detail.

Dog Multimedia Paintings

We first did a study about eyes and students looked at pictures of dogs and painted their eyes (eye lids, pupil,iris, and reflection of light) on index cards. Then we looked very closely at the noses and painted them on large index cards. Then students used the poster boards that we use as place mats on the tables. They already have paint all over them, to create a LARGE painting of a dog with bold brush strokes, lots of different bright colors and outline with oil pastels.

The paintings below were done with third grade as a complimentary color study

Still Life Roses

First and second grade made still life roses. When I teach still life, I tell the kids they have to learn how to draw with their eyes and let their brain guide their hand. First they have to draw a contour line around the rose 5 times until they see it as simply a shape..not a flower shape, just an organic shape. Then they draw the shape. They trace it with thier eyes and put it on the paper, then they look at the lines inside to make the petals. You can use fake roses , but it is good to do this in February b/c you can get real ones on sale cheap, and each class will have different roses through out the week because they begin to open.