First Grade Portraits

After looking at portraits by various artists, students drew self portraits. They learned to create skin tones using pastels. After reading Faith Ringgold's "Tar Beach", we used "gadgets" to print patterns that we included in our quilt border.

Fourth Grade Underground Worlds

Fourth grade students reviewed prior lessons based on narrative artwork and viewed Surrealistic and other fantasy narrative art. We looked at Saul Steinberg's "Continuous Miner" and discussed how the artist used repetitive lines that produced a simulated texture in the "ground" area. Students drew a normal above ground scene with an imaginative world below, and filled in the surrounding area with simulated textural designs.

Third Grade Trees

Students looked at landscapes painted by Canadian artists, including Emily Carr and focused on the expressive skies. After learning how to paint trees, we looked at how various artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Gustav Klimt and local artist, Alynn Guerra created tree forms with expressive and symbolic characteristics.

Second Grade Narratives

After a VTS discussion and viewing several narrative artworks, students created an art work that told a story. They started with the setting, followed by their characters and details.