Self Portraits

Self Portraits by Paloma and Myers

After winter vacation, all students will begin their Original Works project.  Original Works is an art-based fundraiser, and the Coffin-Gerry PTO organizes our participation.  It gives families the opportunity to have their children’s artwork printed on keepsakes, such as mugs, shirts, and keychains.  They look fantastic and the fundraising helps our wonderful PTO help us!

Every year we choose a different theme.  This year each student will make a self portrait. To warm up Coffin’s students, we are doing practice portraits!  We discussed proportion and positioning of our features.  Students used mirrors to make note of the details that make them unique: hair style, freckles and birth marks, glasses, accessories, and clothing.

 

Isabella’s Self Portrait

Updated on the last week of February: Gerry students are starting right away on their final portraits.  They used rulers to create a border around their image; this will ensure nothing important gets cropped out during production!  We’ve started with pencil and Sharpie.  Next week students will use crayon and watercolor to add color to their portraits.  Coffin students are using all watercolor on their practice portraits.  We are working on mixing colors for our skin and hair.  Students have to mix, test, and make small adjustments to the paint.

Origami Choice Day

Tatum’s Origami Cup

Whew, it’s been a while!  Now that the wonderful whirlwind of the Winter Concert is over, I wanted Gerry students to do something relaxing.  Today Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Drummond’s classes had Origami Choice Day.  We reviewed four origami projects: the whale & swan, the dog & cat, the cup (or envelope), and the rabbit.  Students selected an origami to start with and made a large, medium, or small version.  Most students made a large cup to hold the rest of their origami!  We used crayon and Sharpie to add details — no marker, since it can smudge when the origami is handled.

A Star is Born!

Bridgette’s shooting star collage

Kindergarteners and first graders are busy preparing for the upcoming Winter Concert.  This year’s concert theme is Outer Space.  Gerry students will perform a dance with star props.  Each student is creating a star to hold in their left and right hands.  I will laminate them and we will glue them onto craft sticks — you’ll have to use your imagination for now, hah!

Our stars are a great example of radial symmetry.  We see line symmetry all the time, but radial symmetry can be a little harder to spot — wheels, starfish, flowers, and snowflakes are all examples of radial symmetry.  Students chose a shape for the center of their star and built a design around it.  One of the collage concepts we are working on is layering — gluing paper on top of paper on top of paper!  Students are discovering that it is possible to create complicated-looking effects just by layering pieces.

The Witch’s Kitchen

Witch’s Kitchen watercolor, by Nicholas

1st grade students have been thinking about what kind of things a witch might have in her kitchen.  Students decided she would probably have “normal” kitchen things — a refrigerator, an oven, a sink — as well as “creepy” kitchen things, like bat soup, spider cake, and Frankenstein’s monster as a dinner guest.  Students who prefer to do something other than Halloween can choose a different theme for their kitchen — one year we had a Christmas kitchen and an animal kitchen!

Witch’s Kitchen watercolor, by Gabby

Students spent one class drawing details with pencil and outlining with Sharpie.  For the next class, they used watercolor to paint the kitchens.  Students just used tempera paint for their outer space artwork, and they were happy they could mix watercolors in the tray lid just like how they mixed their tempera.  1st graders continued to show great respect for materials by taking care to wash their brushes and keep their trays neat.  Next week we will continue painting to make sure our witches have colorful walls and floors!

Outer Space Wrap-Up

Ella’s Outer Space Collage

First graders are wrapping up their outer space artwork.  Students glued their painting onto a black background paper and began cutting out their favorite outer space drawings to collage onto the painting.  We decided it was okay to let the collage pieces overlap parts of the painting because it makes the collaged paper look closer and the painting look farther away.

Our skill focus today was on cutting and gluing neatly.  Students worked hard to follow the outline with their scissors and smooth out ragged cuts.  First graders also worked on gluing down all the edges and corners so their collages stay flat and secure.  Their first art project in the first grade is nearly complete and they did a wonderful job!

1st Graders Are Out of This World

Maddie’s Space Painting

First graders at Gerry have been working on an outer space-themed mixed media project.  Last week we drew things we would find in outer space, like planets, stars, and comets.  Our plan is to cut out our favorite drawings and collage them on top of a painted background.  Students had to keep in mind that anything very small or complicated might be too difficult to cut out.  This week we used tempera to paint more outer space objects for our backgrounds, and this time we could do all the tiny and complicated things we wanted!  Some of the things students decided would be easier to make with paint are: the Milky Way, the glowing sun, and tiny distant stars.

Students received cups of white, red, yellow, and blue paints.  We learned that red, yellow, and blue are called the primary colors and they are special because you can use them to mix the secondary colors: green, orange, and purple.  We discussed how important it is to rinse off the paintbrush between colors to make sure the colors stay clean and bright when we mix them. We made a chart together to show the formulas for mixing our colors, then everyone got to work on their painting!