Description of the Unit – Students will discover Orphism through the work of Sonia and Robert Delaunay, creating their own Orphism-style design, focusing specifically on the dynamics of color.
Continue reading “4th Grade – Intro to Orphism with Sonia and Robert Delaunay”3rd Grade – Colorful, Fun Basic Sewing Sampler
Description of the Unit – Students will learn basic sewing techniques to sew a simple image onto burlap
Continue reading “3rd Grade – Colorful, Fun Basic Sewing Sampler”2nd Grade – Paul Klee’s Whimsical Cats
Description of the Unit – Students will explore color and shape as they create a cat face modeled after Klee’s geometric and colorful “Cat and Bird.”
Continue reading “2nd Grade – Paul Klee’s Whimsical Cats”1st Grade – Sakura: Japanese Cherry Blossoms…through a straw!
Description of the Unit – (Not a unit per se, as we only spend a couple of class periods on this.) Students celebrate the arrival of spring by creating Sakura, or Japanese cherry blossoms, in the most amusing way…

Kindergarten – Halloween Shadow Puppets inspired by Wayang Kulit puppets
Description of the Unit – When I was about eight years old, an uncle of mine returned from working abroad in Jakarta, Indonesia, and brought back a pair of Wayang Golek rod puppets. These two-foot tall dolls both frightened and fascinated me, with their elaborately painted, expressive faces and beautifully dyed, patterned clothes. Many years later I learned that these puppets were related to another Indonesian puppetry art-form: the Wayang Kulit shadow puppets. These puppets are mostly two-dimensional and are manipulated in front of a diaphanous, backlit screen. The puppets themselves have designs and patterns cut into them making them look almost lace-like, adding to the characteristics of individual puppets.
Continue reading “Kindergarten – Halloween Shadow Puppets inspired by Wayang Kulit puppets”7th Grade – Movement, Repetition and Balance with Jean Dubuffet’s Hourloupe
Description of the Unit – Emphasizing movement, balance and repetition with Jean Dubuffet’s Hourloupe
This unit revisits a second-grade unit which also focused on the Hourloupe to practice line and pattern; here we go further to practice the above-mentioned principles of design.
Continue reading “7th Grade – Movement, Repetition and Balance with Jean Dubuffet’s Hourloupe”6th Grade – Architectural Foil Repousse inspired by artist Stephen Wiltshire
Description of the Unit –
Students will learn about the life and work of artist Stephen Wiltshire. Using his incredibly detailed drawings of buildings and cityscapes, students will create a mini architectural drawing that they will then transfer onto foil.

5th Grade – The Eye of the Dragon!
Description of the Unit –
Students will use a variety of artistic techniques to create a bright, vivid and wildly textured magnified dragon eye. When you look through the students’ dragon eyes below, note how remarkably unique each one is: it speaks to the fact that by 5th grade, many students are really beginning to hone in on their personal artistic styles!

4th Grade – Suzanne Valadon and subjective approaches
Description of the Unit –
This unit will be guided by both technique and style. Students will observe the work of Impressionist painter Suzanne Valadon and discuss ways in which her paintings, particularly of animals, are impressionistic. How does Impressionism differ from realism?
Continue reading “4th Grade – Suzanne Valadon and subjective approaches”3rd Grade – Paul Klee’s Magic Square Series
Description of the Unit –
Students delve into a particular period of Paul Klee’s art, the “Magic Square” series. Students use their observations of Klee’s work to create their own cityscape in oil pastels, focusing primarily on geometric shapes and using one tone of color dotted with its complementary color.
Continue reading “3rd Grade – Paul Klee’s Magic Square Series”