Description of the Unit – A simple yet delightful exploration of symmetry and color, students will create their very own bugs as seen under a “magnifying glass”.
1st Grade – Insects under a Magnifying Glass
Tag: visual arts
2nd Grade: Henri Matisse & Rex Ray: Cut-outs & Collage
Description of the Unit – Students will explore the famous cut-outs that Henri Matisse innovated in the 1940’s, as well as Rex Ray’s inventive contemporary collages. Throughout their exploration students will note the use of color, line, shape, texture and positive and negative space in the creation of a dynamic yet balanced composition.
5th Grade – Dot Painting inspired by Australian Aborigines
Description of the Unit – Students will observe and discuss examples of aboriginal dot painting, from very early examples to the art produced by the culture in present day. Students will use what they learned about color, pattern and symbol in their observations to create their own dot paintings, expressing scenes from nature.
8th Grade – Wayang Kulit Puppets
Description of the Unit – Students explore the fascinating shadow puppet art form from Indonesia known as Wayang Kulit. Students then create their own shadow puppets, taking particular care to carve patterns on the puppets’ costumes using negative space.
3rd Grade – Mexican Amate Paintings
Description of the Unit – Students will explore the fascinating Mexican folk art known as Amate bark painting. Using their observations of the art form, students will crumple brown kraft paper (a part of this project they love) to give it a bark-like texture, and paint their own painting onto it in the same bold and bright colors as used by Mexican artisans of Amate.
4th Grade – The Mola of Panama
Description of the Unit – The Mola, a traditional cloth worn by the Kuna (from the tiny San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama), are quite brightly colored, in contrasting patterns of various shapes, and in the center depicting what is typically an animal, plant or person of special interest to the Kuna. Students will explore the tradition of Molas, noting the use of contrasting colors, abstract patterns as well as noting the contrasting organic shapes of the main subject to the mostly geometric shapes of the background patterns. Students will use their understanding of these elements to create their own interpretation of the Mola in colored construction paper.
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Kindergarten – Warm Autumn Leaves
Description of the Unit – While outside on a beautiful fall day, students observed Autumn leaves, noticing the colors, shapes and textures of each leaf. Back in the art room, students used their observations to create their own vibrantly colored fall leaves.
3rd Grade – Colorful, Fun Basic Sewing Sampler
Description of the Unit – Students will learn basic sewing techniques to sew a simple image onto burlap
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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.”
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5th Grade – Nighttime one-point perspective
Description of the Unit –
Students create a basic nighttime one-point perspective drawing that includes a vanishing point and a horizon line.
Problem/Activity statement –
As objects recede in space, they become smaller to our eye, and eventually meet at a point. A horizon line meets at a vanishing point to separate sky and ground. Students will observe different examples of cities one-point perspective to begin to get a sense for how we perceive things up close and at a distance, as well as to learn to identify whether the perspective is high (“bird’s eye view”) at eye-level, or low (Cat’s eye view”). Additionally, students are challenged with expressing the qualities of color and light at night.
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In the K-8 Art Studio with Anita Sagastegui 