Unit Study: Plant Sun Prints

As part of our unit on plants, we made sun prints. First learners chose various plants that they wanted to work with. Then we placed them on the special paper, letting the sunlight "develop" the paper. The kids were super excited by the process and their results.

Step 1: Place plants on Sun Print paper and lay in sun.

Step 2: Let sunlight turn paper blue to white.

Step 3: Rinse paper in water.

Final process: All white paper turns blue, anything that was under shadow turns white.

Artist Study: Georgia O'Keeffe

 After doing the more traditional Georgia O'Keeffe flower paintings we looked at one of her more surreal paintings Ladder to the Moon. The class loved hearing about O'Keeffe's life, specifically how she would often climb a ladder at her New Mexico home and spend the night under the stars.

For this project we started by watercoloring a night sky using wet-on-wet technique. While it dried we made our textured paper by watercoloring or drawing in crayon or pastel on various shades of brown paper. Then we cut out the shapes of the mountains and ladder and glued them on. The final step was adding the moon and stars in white pastel.

Literature-Based: Miss Rumphius's Lupines

Miss Rumphius is one of my favorite books. It's worth a read-aloud, even if not doing a corresponding art project. Every year I do some version of this project, as it's a great way to review cool and warm colors.

The first step was to make a background with pastel in any combination of warm colors onto white paper. Then we started with the stems. We talked about how the greens in nature are rarely the same bright green as the paint straight out of the bottle. So after a quick review of value I gave out green, black and white and they painted their stems.

Then after reviewing the colors of the lupine in the book ("blue, purple and rose colored"), they mixed blue, red and white to make their petal colors. The last step was to use their finger-tips to make the cone-shaped lupine flowers.

Symmetry: African Masks

We have been studying symmetry lately and making African masks in art seemed like a like culmination of our work. First I read the book Spot the Leopard, an interesting book that discusses the different types of ceremonial masks and how they reflect the culture of their tribes.

Then using glued-on pre-cut pieces of construction paper and feathers, we made symmetrical designs on pre-cut masks. Many of the learners copied the African masks folklore by representing various animals. 

Spring: Chinese Blossoms

The recent warm weather and spring blossoms inspired this project. The first step was to look at examples of Chinese calligraphy and notice the characteristics of the various lines. Then we looked at examples of Chinese art that includes blossoms and talked about their symbolism (often a symbol of luck).






Then it was time to create our own versions. Step one was to place a cup on our watercolor paper. This would be the negative space of the moon. The next step was to paint around the cup, filling the paper with a shade of blue. (Some choose the dark blue of twilight, others choose a lighter shade of a foggy night.)

 

We waited a bit for the blue watercolor to dry and then we painted the black lines of the branches. 

 After a short break where the black paint dried, we glued small pieces of pink and white tissue on the branches. The final step, and the kids' favorite, was picking a Chinese stamp to decorate the corner of their piece.