2nd Grade- Visual Jazz

In honor of Black History Month, second graders are studying the African American collage artist, Romare Bearden. Bearden lived in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance and was greatly influenced by Jazz Music for his artwork.

In art class, we listened to music from the Harlem Renaissance while using paper, scissors, and glue to make our own collages. Didn't second grade do a brilliant job with their own music-inspired artwork!?

To learn more about Romare Bearden, check out this video:

To discover more of Romare Bearden's legacy, check out his official website:

http://www.beardenfoundation.org/index2.shtml

4th Grade- Symmetrical Cut Paper Names

These fourth grade artworks are symmetrical. They are exactly the same on both sides.

Can you find the names hidden in them?

1st Grade- Japanese Kimono Weavings

"Kimono" literally means "thing to wear" in Japanese. We learned about the history and styles of traditional Japanese kimonos. Next, we made our own colorful paper kimonos by using the ancient art form of weaving.

When we weaved, we made a pattern that goes like this: over one, under one, over one, under one. As we learned in Kindergarten, a pattern repeats, repeats, repeats. So, we repeated this pattern until we finished our beautiful kimonos.

To learn more about kimonos and other cultural symbols of Japan, check out this website:

http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/kimono/

2nd Grade- "Tar Beach" Dreams

We read "Tar Beach" written and illustrated by Faith Ringold, and we discussed how many great things begin with a dream (for example, MLK Jr.).

In Ringold's story, Cassie Louise Lightfoor's father was a hard worker, but he was not allowed to go inside the buildings he built because of his skin color. How ridiculous!

(Click on the book for a special surprise!)
Cassie dreamed of a better future for herself and her family. In her dream, when she flew over her father's constructions, they became hers. We each chose an architectural piece that represents something special to us and drew ourselves flying over it.

Architecture is something that is built by people. Schools, homes, theme parks, and bridges are all forms of architecture.

1st Grade- Radial Symmetry Snowflakes

The weather is getting colder, and we're hoping for snow in Texas!

Like many other things in nature, snowflakes have radial symmetry, which means that they're the same all the way around. To learn more about radial symmetry check out this informative slideshow:

Radial symmetry

View more PowerPoint from Nancy Walkup

In first grade, we used paper and scissors to create snowflakes that are the same all the way around.

Although the each have radial symmetry, no two snowflakes are alike and neither are our artworks!

A.C.E. - 3-D Collage Boxes & Scrap Paper Collages

3-D Collage Boxes

Collage is overlapping paper.  For this project, we recycled tissue boxes and cut symmetrical shapes out of construction paper.  We overlapped the paper and voila!

Scrap Paper Collages 

Not a single piece of paper was wasted in these projects.  We used the shapes that we cut out for the 3-D collage boxes to create a second collage.  Can you tell which scraps came from which box?

4th Grade - Photo Weavings

We learned about people from many cultures who use weavings for both functional anddecorative purposes.  

For our weavings to be precise, we used a ruler to measure and draw our straight lines.  We learned that there are 16 centimeters in one inch, so there are 8 centimeters in a half-inch.  

We made our weavings out of two magazine photographs.  Can you tell what each image is?