A Room 4 Art - Website for Art Classes with Miss K. at Arnold Mireles Academy, Chicago Public Schools

- Kinder. to 1st Grade Gallery -

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Kindergarten - The Kinder "Garden"

This was a combination of two lessons exploring art and science.

First, an introduction to the Primary Colors by making a simple poured painting [with the paper folded in half, afterwards] and noting the NEW colors we’d made.

Then we chose an insect for Miss K. to draw HALF of and these were cut-out and decorated with markers and paper - but the same designs on both sides. [An introduction to Symmetry and discussion of insect parts.] The last detail was adding wire antennae and bead eyes.

Second, we began building large-scale flower colláges with a center that had a drawn pattern. We reviewed what patterns were, as well as the basic parts of flowers.

Both projects were combined, in a location chosen by the class ;-)

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Kindergarten - Favorite Color Colláge

We are finishing a project exploring color - which began by finding photos that contained our favorite and gluing them to a background of the same color. Since these pics were taken, we have added 3-D objects to our colláges:

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• FINALLY - Some of the final pieces: ↓ ↓ ↓
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Kindergarten - Textures in Clay / Necklaces

This project began by learning about textures and taking a walk to "collect" them on paper. We then practiced making textures in modeling clay, making beads with textures in modeling clay, and finally made air-dry clay beads. These were painted with colors chosen by the artist. [We practiced making new colors using watercolors + white tempera cakes.]

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Kindergarten - Underwater Life

We used photo resources to draw underwater life in crayon. A layer of thinned tempera was added to make the ‘water’ and a resist over the colors.

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Kindergarten - Classbook

Our first lesson of the year was a Self-Portrait in marker that involved a review of shape types and face parts. Our second was a classbook of our Favorite Sports & Games - where we tried putting "clues" in our drawings.

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First Grade - Greek-Style Buildings

The next lesson involved a discussion of the differences between Egyptian and Greek artworks that we saw. We also saw how buildings made at this time are often made in the same style today - with columns supporting the roof.

After an introduction to stencil printing, we created Greek-style buildings and are now adding a background landscape, patterns and other details.

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First Grade - Egyptian Mummy Cases

Our first Art History lesson and group project - to work together to create a paper sculpture in the style of ancient Egyptian artworks.

After forming groups, one member was traced on a large, folded piece of kraft paper. This shape was filled-in with elements the students found in photos and books - and the hieroglyphic alphabet. Then we colored everything and added metallic paper decorations.

Our final step was to cut-out and stuff the mummy case with paper [+/or plastic bags] and to draw/ write about the our favorite part of this project!

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First Grade - Still Life Colláge

The final lesson in our Subjects of Art series, we viewed then created a Still Life of fruit in a bowl. After making a "pocket" bowl shape, we discussed colors and shapes of fruit, then created and added them inside of our paper bowls. A place was drawn / colors added, then a pattern with glitter and glue for that special finishing touch! ;-)

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First Grade - Watercolor Landscapes

Our next lesson was a review of watercolor "tricks" and introduction of landscapes. Everyone practiced making thin [lighter] and thick [darker] colors, and some tried drybrush and showing near vs. far.

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First Grade - Portraits

We did portraits in the style of American artist, Romare Bearden - who often used photographs with papers to make colláges. To start, we reviewed types of shapes together, then cut them from many kinds of papers and sorted them into folders. After selecting a photo head and a background paper size, everyone ‘built’ a body for it from the shapes we’d made. Details were added later to show a place or activity for our person.

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First Grade - Pinch Pots

Our first 3-D work of the year: small, clay pots made by pinching the sides to make the form. It was also a review of Patterns and Color-Mixing. [No idea why I have no pics of the finals...sorry!]

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First Grade - All About LINES

Our very first class together was a line type review and "contest" to see who could come-up with the largest variety of drawn lines! We then played a game, indoors and outside [with sidewalk chalks], where students had to ‘mirror’ one another’s lines.

We put that knowledge to good use in a large painting that was all about Brushstrokes - just black on white. Areas of color were added later, using chalks.

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