Chatterpix for the Win with 1st Grade Self-Portraits!

Have you tried Chatterpix in your classroom yet?  No, well then you definitely need to.  It's easy to use, super fun, and helps students give voice to their artwork! This year the Fuller Meadow 1st graders used Chatterpix through one of my favorite self-portrait lessons.

1st grade artists started out by learning the basic rules for drawing the face.  They used an eye line to place the eyes right in the middle of the head.  Next, the nose line was added, followed by the mouth line.  Finally we placed in ears and a neck. We basically learned a simple version similar to this diagram shared by Expressive Monkey.

Throughout the project we examined an amazing group contemporary portrait artists like Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, and many others. 1st Graders made choices to make detailed patterned backgrounds in the style of Wiley or keep the backgrounds solid to highlight the figure in the style of Sherald.  Or they choose to put their self-portraits in a background that shows them in everyday favorite situations like figurative artist Jordan Casteel. We used these examples as inspiration in creating the details on our own first grade portraits. 

Finally,1st graders brought their self-portraits to life with the help of Chatterpix.  

They used Chatterpix to describe their unique qualities and show 

how they represented those qualities in their art.

Find your favorite artist's class below and enjoy!

  

Mrs. Higgin's Class

Mrs. Shaffenberg's Class

Mrs. Thomson's Class

Miss Tiexeria's Class

1st Grade Wintery Landscapes

1st Grade Artists dove into collage with these whimsical Wintery Landscapes.

We spent 1 class using printmaking techniques to create many different textured
and patterned papers.  Each student made a background paper for their artwork
and many other colored papers that we shared as a class.  

Students loved using everyday objects as printmaking objects.
Learn more about our painted paper week here.

We were then ready to put these papers to work. 
This project is inspired by Cassie Stephens 1st grade landscapes. 
Check out her lesson here.

Students had many choices built into this lesson to decide just how "wintery"
they wanted their landscapes to be.  They created a ground by cutting and gluing a
wavy strip of paper; white or green.

They were then ready to start cutting their tree tops.  1st graders had a choice of using circles. ovals, or triangles to create their trees.  These shapes were cut from the many painted papers we created as a class.  Firsties cut many different sized shapes of their choice and arranged them on their background learning about overlapping to create a strong composition. 

Finally, we added tree details using printmaking techniques again to 

add line and dot patterns inside the trees, and of course a little snow!

What do you think of our finished products?

They almost make me ready for a little snow!

Guided Winter Animals in Grade 1

It's hard to decide which of these animals I like better, the rabbits or the foxes,

 they all came out so dang adorable!

I have never done a guided lesson before and I found value in it that I hadn't anticipated.  I think its important to have lessons where children can feel success.   Almost every student felt good about their animal and were able to produce a work they felt good about.

My first inspiration for this lesson was on this blog, Mary Making. I then developed the drawing tutorials based on Art Hub for kids for the fox and then piecing together other tutorials for the rabbit. 

Art Hub has so many great drawing tutorials for kids, it's worth it to check it out!

We started out learning to draw these two animals step by step together as a group.

First graders learned how to take a guided drawing directive of a 

fox and rabbit and add their own artistic touches.

 Next class we choose one animal and perfected it in a final copy.  First grade artists learned how to layer and blend oil pastels to bring their animals to life.

 To create the backgrounds, we talked about perspective and how hills and trees way in the background would be smaller.  Their animal would be big and in the front because it is closer.
I used this lesson from Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists for inspiration!

 Finally, they cut and glued their animals into their background paintings.  

The finished products were so adorable, I'm so proud of their work!

Were you able to choose which animal you liked better?

1st Grade Painted Paper Collage Landscapes

After the painted paper week - check out our link here -1st grade artist got busy collaging.  

They used their knowledge of shapes to create painted paper landscapes.  

They first learned that every landscape has a foreground, middleground, and background. 

After creating the background and middleground, students selected 

2 different shapes to create trees in the foreground. 

They chose between circles, squares, and ovals.

Finally, they returned to printmaking to add tree trunks, branches, and patterns.  

How do you think they turned out?

 

Check out the inspiration behind this lesson - Cassie Stephens' Painted Paper Landscapes.

Painted Paper Week

1st and 2nd graders embarked on a week of painted paper creation in the Fuller Meadow Art Room. Each table was assigned a color paper and specific paints.  They then used a variety of objects, such as sponges, corks, forks, straws, and more to created beautiful painted papers.  

FM artists made paper after paper, some even made 6 or more! Each one was unique. 

Take a look at our paper factory at work!

Hmmmm, now what are we going to do with all of these papers?!