Free Art City

When students finish a project early, they get the opportunity to pick something from Free Art City. At Free Art City there are books to read and draw from, puzzles to work on, pattern blocks to create with, and lots of other things. Students really enjoy taking a trip to Free Art City and I love seeing what ideas students come up with. Here are a few recent photos of students and their work!

A Giant Scorpion

A Long Red Snake

A Favorite Cartoon Character: SpongeBob

1st Graders start Butterfly Printmaking

All first graders have been learning about caterpillars and butterflies in their classes. I wanted to integrate the subject matter into this new project. We have started working on butterflies through printmaking. Printmaking is a pretty magical art for young artists. We started the project by drawing creative butterflies inside a bubble (the bubble is a template for how big the plate is). We then draw our practice sketches onto the styrofoam plate with pens. Then next part is tough. Where we have marked on our styrofoam plate we must push in so we can feel our line. Next week we'll be printing. Check back then for the final prints. For now here are some projects that are just getting started!

2nd Graders Start Klee City

This week all second graders start their job as city planners! After looking at an artwork by Paul Klee (pronounce clay) called Villas florentines (shown below) we were inspired to come up with our own cities.

Many students used some of Danville's local scenery for their picture. Students enjoyed putting the library, the Royal theater, and, of course, Dairy Queen in their pictures. Since this is our first week with the project we just started the drawing, but we will be adding watercolor paints and pastel in the coming weeks. These can be messy so make sure you don't dress in your best clothes! Here are some drawings that show the beginning stages of our project.

Kindergartners finish up collages!

Here are a couple of kindergarten collages that are being finished up. The students came up with lots of very different ideas. Some students worked with cut paper and pencil:

Students also came up with a people dressed up in ties that went right off the page! And one student made a picture of her house.

Several Finished Art to Remember Pictures

Kindergarten Collage

This week the kindergartners started a collage using colors and shapes. A collage is an art work that uses cut paper and glue to create a picture. We read the book Color Farm by Lois Ehlert and looked at one of her artworks. With this collage we are focusing on skills like gluing (without too much of a mess) and cutting out shapes. We will be working on these collages for two weeks.

Second Project: Art to Remember

Each year the PTO and I team up with a fundraiser called Art to Remember. Art to Remember is a very cool project where students create artwork to be placed on different objects like coffee cups, pillows, and t-shirts. Check out the Art to Remember website for more information http://www.arttoremember.com/. Buying these keepsakes makes for a great gift during Christmas, for birthday celebrations, or just because! Each year I give the students a subject to base their works on. Last year we created self-portraits for our Art to Remember project. This year we’re creating artworks involving animals. Students are creating from a broad range of animals; favorite pets, zoo animals, and memorable moments like catching a big fish. Here are some examples of recent student sketches…

Our first project: SPORTS!!!

I always start off the year in art class by creating a project based off the theme of the school. This year at North Elementary our theme is sports. We brainstormed all different kinds of sports. All kindergartners created pictures of themselves playing their favorite sport and 1st and 2nd graders worked on creating a brand new sport that has never been played before! They came up with incredibly unique sports like swacrosse (swimming and lacrosse) and basketball on skateboards (pictured below).

We used a variety of media with this project. Students could choose from crayons, markers, colored pencils, and collage (cut paper glued down). Some students even used a combination of all of these.

Welcome to the North Elementary Art Blog!

The purpose of this blog is to inform parents and students about everything that is happening inside the art classroom here at Danville North Elementary. On this site you’ll find what projects we are working on, links to different art websites, extra activities for curious students, information about upcoming contests and events, and other general information. The blog will be updated each week with new photos and art room info. I hope you and your student enjoy this website and find it useful.