first grade spring cocoons

We have made insect mobiles before but I changed it up a little this year. This time the first grade artists added a real silk cocoon to the end of their mobiles! I bought the silk cocoons along with some silk squares from this etsy artist: WCMercantile.



The silk cocoons took the metallic watercolors beautifully. We used the cocoons with the tops cut open that make a little lid (sans worm)- perfect for inserting written wishes on little paper strips. We hope that when these wishes are ready to mature they will open up and come true. There were lots of good wishes for friends, family, and school and I saw more than one wish for the ability to fly!

first grade tree portraits

The first grade artists have been sketching and observing many different kinds of tree branches and looking closely to see how those branches diverge. We have been enjoying our outside art time!

Students were then asked to create a self portrait with a twist. Imagine yourself as a tree! I was very much inspired by the lovely work over at Chesterbrook Academy Elementary.

There is something special about imagining yourself as someone or something else. It helps to build empathy and understanding. Feet become roots, arms become branches, and hair becomes a home to little nesting birds!

fifth grade naturalists

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
-Henry David Thoreau

Each fifth grade artist used one of his/her own photographs taken on our photography field trip to the beautiful Missouri Botanical Gardens to use as inspiration for a drawing, ceramic sculpture, and painting. This is a rigorous exercise in observation and perspective! It is also a wonderful way to experiment in different mediums to discover new strengths and work with challenges.

For the drawing portion of this project, students learned how to make a value chart and show roundness of form using shading, highlights, and shadow with special 2H-6B drawing pencils. They chose to render their full photograph, a portion of the photograph, or to abstract the photograph.