Kindergarten Snow Families

My K's have been working with line, shape, and color so far this year. This lesson incorporates all three.  Students counted how many people in their family, and drew them as snowpeople.  We watched a video that explained about the artist George Seurat and pointillism. (Art with Mati and Dada) Students drew their families using circles for the bodies and qtips to paint the snowpeople bodies using pointillism dots.  Typically pointillism uses dots of many colors and the human eye naturally blends the colors, I feel that students understanding the process behind pointillism, will help them to understand the visual blending even with only 1 color. They painted the bodies of the snowpeople in one class, and added details with oil pastels in the next class. The results are an explosion of adorable.

This project was fun for students for many ways; trying new materials, painting with something other than a paint brush, and telling a story about their families.

Pointillism

Third graders have been learning their Warm and Cool colors, they are applying the concept of warm and cool colors to their pointillism project. They are also using their knowledge of foreground, background, and horizon line to complete their pointillist work.

We studied the work of George Seurat and his pointillism (dot painting) 

Students drew a tree, and chose either warm or cool colors to create a pointillist amount of leaves.

They used the back end of the brush to create dots in the leaves.

 

After allowing a day to dry the art, students began drawing a horizon line, small details in the background and at least one detail in the foreground.

Starting over

Welcome to Art! 

My name is Michael Kantor, this is my 4th year as an elementary art specialist. I am excited to be starting the art program at Cedar Creek Community School! I like painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography, and drawing. I love all sports, and local sports teams, especially the Wild.  I enjoy going to valleyfair and being outside. I spend my summers working at Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, MN.

Summer is long gone and the school year is here! This school year will be different than any I have ever experienced before.  I have the privilege of STARTING the elementary art program at my school. (That's right, a district who is ADDING art! Woohoo!) The classroom had been a random assortment of other classes in the 6 years since our district has had elementary art, and let me tell you, cleaning the random tools, books, and supplies was a daunting task!  As the clutter turned into an organized mess, I started to see how my classroom would look.  This will be my 4th year teaching and my first time really having a feel for how I want my class to look.

We have our own display case (great for square1 display)

My rules turned from paragraphs into a simple acronym.

I am more visual with the elements and principles of art.

The paints and brushes are sorted (Rainbow order)

Table bins are sorted and labeled by color.

Drawing books are at a good elementary height.

aaaaaaand finally my drawing mannequins and Vinny found a new home.

Will my classroom look like this at year's end? Who knows, but I am confident these students will be set up for success based on my experiences!