BunBun. Bugs, Shrimp, Jazz,and Rocketships (an update)

Ok, I havn't updated this year on what everyone has been up to! 

Bunbun created his likeness in pumpkin form and looks forward to visiting school soon. He has a new brother, a parrot named "Shrimp". I look forward to bringing him to school to visit as well!!

I will start with a sneak peak of our 4th grade project that is almost done. I will post more when we finish. They are creating paintings of the Jazz culture of New Orleans and the historic French Quarter! They are very colorful and each piece is a unique composition!! They are gorgeous so far!! 

Kindergarten and first grade just finished making watercolor paintings of insects on flowers. They used cool colors for the bugs and the sky, and warm colors for the flowers. They could choose any bug, and had to overlap the bug on top of the flower. They made a frame using metallic colored pencils with "follow the leader lines" 

Third grade just finished making out of this world Rocket ships! I got this idea from the very talented Patty Palmer over at Deep Space Sparkle!! Go check out her blog filled with an endless nsupply of fabulous art lessons! Deep Space Sparkle We had fun learning about space and the Space shuttle! I love how the one below has E.T. attached to the shuttle!!

Second grade worked in groups to create GIANT insects! They had to draw and paint the insect first, then add patterns of interesting lines and designs with oil pastels! They turned out gorgeous!!

                                                                  Happy Fall Y'all

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.

Jazz Culture

A few years ago I did this project with my students to learn about the Jazz culture in New Orleans. We recieved quite a few students from New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina and I like to integrate music and different cultures in with our lessons. We listened to lots of Jazz music and talked about the different instruments and veiwed many photos of the French Quarter.
Students could either draw a scene from the French Quarter or a Jazz instrument. We talked about how to draw the different architecture with balconies, storm shudders on the windows, long sidewalks,city lights, and streets. Students drew first with pencil, then painted with tempra paint, then used oil pastels to outline and accent their paintings. Students could also add little people dancing and stars, and use 3D o's to attach them so they pop up a little.