Second Grade - Finished Perspective!

Second grade classes are wrapping up their perspective projects by adding their moon and additional coloring and details with oil pastels.

Final First Grade Tints and Shades

Students used the orange's complementary color blue to create shadows. Students finished this project by cutting out their pumpkins and adding a stem and vine!

Kindergarten - Finished Pumpkins!

The Kindergarten classes are finishing up their pumpkins and pumpkin patches. They have been working hard on learning how to trace a tracer and cut out shapes. They worked on circles, ovals, semi-circles and squares in this project.

First Grade - Tints and Shades

First grade students are learning how to create shadows and highlights on an object by mixing paint. They began by drawing a pumpkin. Next, they slowly added white paint to get different tints - each getting lighter as they went toward the outside of the pumpkin. Next, they will be mixing shadows.

Second Grade - Perspective

Second grade is learning about perspective and how to make artwork appear to be 3-dimensional on a 2-dimensional surface. Classes discussed how to use size and placement in order to achieve this look.

 To begin, students created a pumpkin field by making the lines further apart as they came toward them on the page. Next, students added pumpkins. Large forms in front, medium in the middle and tiny shapes in back. 

Students began to add chalk pastels and created a "spooky" moon with coffee filters, markers and water which will be added next week.

Fifth Grade - Contour Line Drawings

After practicing an upside down contour line drawing, 5th grade students began their own layouts. Students focused on line and detail of the objects. They also incorporated overlap, size, cropping and position into their layouts in order to create visual interest. Next week they will use watercolor and ink to finish the project.

Third Grade - Colors Complete!

Third grade took their paintings and created dandelion color wheels. Students created and organized primary, secondary and tertiary colors.

Fourth Grade - Rousseau Collage

Fourth grade is studying the work of Henri Rousseau. They are learning about creating art based on nature and how artists use color to emphasize some areas of their work and de-emphasize other areas. Students are also learning about visual texture and how to create this 3-dimensional appearance on a 2-dimensional paper. Classes started the project by creating a cool colored background using tissue paper and water.

First Grade - Torn Paper Owls

First grade studied the art of torn paper collage. After listening to the book "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell, classes discussed the characteristics that they saw in the owls in the book. After discussing shape, color and texture, students began creating their owls. Students focused on using ovals, circles, triangles and rectangles to create the shape of the owl. They then moved to creating the visual texture of owl feathers by tearing their papers and overlapping the pieces throughout the owl body. After the facial features of the owl were added, students created detail in the background by blending oil pastel.

Kindergarten - Color Mixing

Kindergarten is beginning a lesson on color and shape. Students are beginning by painting sheets of paper using a base color and a highlight. Students learned how yellow can be mixed to brighten green and peach can be used to lighten orange. Once the paintings are complete and dry, students traced ovals and circles. They are in the process of cutting them to begin assembling their pumpkins!

Fourth Grade - Keith Haring Sculptures

Fourth grade students began the year by looking at the work created by Keith Haring. Classes discussed how he used symbols, motion lines and patterns to create his works of art. We also discussed his simplistic figures and unusual ways of applying color and pattern on his art and to interiors. 

Students used the influence of Haring to create a symbolic self-portrait. After designing a simple figure, they applied patterns, symbols and lines that represented themselves. The final step was cutting the figures and assembling them to create a 3-dimensional sculpture.

Fifth Grade - Radial Designs

Fifth graders looked at the Amish Quilts found in Lancaster county before beginning this project on radial design. They noticed the use of radial design and colors that are unique to the quilts. Students created several radial design sketches, making sure that the design radiates from the center and looked the same no matter how they turned it. 

Students folded squares of paper to achieve a quilted look. They applied the paper to a background to complete their designs. Craftsmanship and design were very important in this project.

Welcome to the Lititz Elementary Art Room!

I am so excited to begin this blog and share the awesome artwork that the students are doing here at Lititz Elementary School! I will be posting each week to update you on project progress and so that you can anticipate what your child will be bringing home from the art room. My hope is that this information will help you to talk with your child about what he or she is learning in art and further develop their skills and understanding at home.

Enjoy!

– Melissa Reifsnyder

Sixth Grade - Self-portraits

Sixth grade students began the year by looking at themselves! Classes took each feature of the face and practiced it individually. They then placed all of the features together and tweaked them to reflect the intricacies of their own faces. 

After looking at the portraits of Vincent Van Gogh, students thought about the importance of background in a self-portrait. They made sure to design the background to further reflect themselves and allow the viewer to learn more about their stories.

Second Grade - Mondrian Robots

Second grade began the year by studying the work of Piet Mondrian. Students looked at line in Mondrian's compositions and practiced creating line and using rulers. Students also looked closely at the squares and rectangles along with the primary colors used in Mondrian's work. Paintings were made using elements influenced by Mondrian. Second graders then cut their paintings apart and reassembled them in originally designed robots. Embellishments were added and personalities were developed by the students.

Third Grade - Color!!!

Third grade started the year by learning about color. We began with primary colors and experimented with what happens when we mix these colors in different combinations. We discovered secondary colors and then tertiary colors. Students created all of the colors through experimentation with water and paint. We cut up the colors and reassembled them in a dandelion "color wheel".

First Grade - Kandinsky

First Grade began the year by looking at work by Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky uses many shapes in his abstract paintings. Classes discussed what they thought the shapes were representing in his work. Students realized that abstract art does not need to represent one specific idea. Instead, it allows the viewer to decide what is going on based on his or her own ideas and experiences.

Kindergarten - Lines

Kindergarten began the year by discovering line. We discussed what a line is and counted how many different lines we could think of. Next, students learned about paint and how to properly use painting tools and materials. After filling their pages with their lines, we glued their photo in the center. This gave the appearance of a burst of lines coming from their heads! (I do not want to post student photos, so this is my example).