I learned something today - teaching kindergarten students how to draw "self portraits" is harder than I ever expected! The hard part isn't teaching them how to draw themselves - the hard part is teaching them the correct color choices and that self portraits are supposed to look like them... we do not have blue or orange skin, we do not have purple eyes, and we do not have pink hair! No mater how many times I said this, there were still some blue students with green hair (still cute, but not a self portrait: maybe it is what they will look like in high school)? It was very hard for them to actually draw themselves using their true hair, eye, and skin color. They are so used to being creative and drawing things any color they wish - breaking this habit proved to be very challenging. Kindergarten: Here are a few of the completed self portraits. Notice the long eyelashes on some - any super model would love to have eyelashes like these! Another week, another group of "Artist of the Week" 2nd graders learned about a "Blue Dog" this week. Not just any blue dog, but the famous "Blue Dog" painting by George Rodrigue. We first drew our dogs with a pencil- so cute. The next step was for students to pick either a warm or cool color for their background. We then painted our dogs with different shades of blue. The paintings makes me think of... "How much is the dog in the window..." song! Pictures soon! 3rd graders are continuing to learn about overlapping and shading. We started a new project this week and it will take us 2 class periods to complete. We are using oil pastels on this project and we are drawing colored pencils - kind of confusing! Everyone is super excited about using oil pastels and I am excited that they actually are enjoying using the oil pastels (they tend to be messy). Pictures next week. 4th grade students had the chance to create a fun project this week! We first folded our papers and drew a cute fish, we then unfolded the paper and "expanded" our fish drawings. When the paper is pulled open - it reveals a surprise... These cute little fish aren't so cute ... Here are the sweet fish.... papers folded Here are those same fish - but not so cute when their mouths are open... paper unfolded 4th graders are starting a new project this week and it will take about 3 class periods to complete - so it may be a few weeks before you see their completed art. We are discussing Van Gogh and they are creating their very own sunflower "pop-up" art. Pictures next week. 5th graders are currently working on their Art to Remember project and their theme is "Tropical Birds". Some were not so excited about the theme and were disappointed that I actually gave them a theme for this project - they were hoping to make a picture of your choice.... ugh, I am working hard at breaking them of their "free draw" habit! They will thank me at some point :) Pictures next week. Remember keep sending in your plastic bottle caps: all colors and sizes, plastic only (no metal) and make sure you are washing them :) Here are the bottle caps we have collected so far, we still need many more. The kids love bringing them to class and sorting them into their color bins - makes my job easy!!!