Ms. Edwards' Art Room

  This lesson was inspired by the artist and illustrator Eric Carle and his book "Mr. Seahorse" which teaches about the male seahorses role. I chose not to read this book to my classes, but instead talked about the way Carle uses collage to create his seahorses.    In the first class, we reviewed warm, cool, primary and secondary colors. Students were asked to chose one grouping of colors for their seahorse. A quick demonstration on gluing tissue paper down using a glue and water mixture followed.    In the second class, students traced a basic seahorse shape I had made for them. After they traced, I taught them how to draw a fin and some extra spines. Googly eyes were added. Students cut out their seahorses. Using watercolors, students created a background for their seahorses. I gave them the option of using similar colors and having their seahorse blend in, or using opposite colors in order to make their seahorse stand out. I added salt while their watercolors were still

    The third and fourth grades learned about how masks are used in other cultures. After looking at examples of many different masks, we discussed the different purposes masks might be used for. As a class we created a lists of the similarities and differences we found in the examples. After creating a list of the requirements for their masks, the students started a rough draft drawing for their own masks. They were instructed to decide on a purpose for their mask and write it on the back of their paper. The second class was devoted to demonstrating the many different ways to manipulate paper to create cut outs, pop outs and other details. The masks were decorated with sharpies, glitter, pom-poms, feathers, metallic paper, and yarn. I was impressed with the creativity and variety in the final products.

The second grades learned how to build pinch and coil pots. After practicing for one class with Model Magic, students were introduced to clay. The final coil pots were glazed and came out fantastic.

The third grades learned about warm and cool colors and practiced drawing accurate animals. Applying their understanding of colors, students chose one color family to use on their animal. They learned four different watercolor techniques to use in the backgrounds. The final works were assembled with 3-D O's so that the animals popped off the backgrounds.

The Kindergarten classes learned how to make pinch and coil pots. We spent one class practicing using model magic. In the next class, students had to chose a 2 or 3 color pattern to make their pot out of. They all did an excellent job and each one was unique.