2nd Grade

2nd Grade Art

2nd Graders celebrated the International Day of Peace

O'Keefe Flowers

   

   

Mexican Bark Paintings

For our first Mexican project we replicate Amate paper paintings. Strips of bark are soaked in water and then the fibers are pounded to make a strong mat of tan-brown paper with bark patterns in the surface. Students may simulate the texture by wrinkling brown paper and spreading it flat again. Common themes of contemporary Amate paintings are scenes of daily life and the tree of life. The tree of life is a universal symbol that has been depicted in just about every culture for centuries. The roots connect us to the earth, and the branches connect us to the heavens. It may or may not have spiritual meaning. We looked at Egyptian, Asian, Celtic, Native American, Amish, and American folk art examples, as well as the tree of life in the Animal Kingdom at Disney World.  The tree motifs, complete with colorful birds, are brightly colored, whimsical subjects we see frequently in traditional and contemporary Mexican folk art. The students draw their own whimsical trees and birds, coloring them with oil pastels to get the famously bright colors of Mexican folk art.

 

    

 

Oaxacan Animals
The woodcarving of Oaxaca (wa-HA-ka), Mexico is colorful, charming, whimsical, unique, and exciting…a perfect inspiration for an elementary art project.  Second grade students make their Oaxacan animals out of the safer medium of clay. First they roll the clay into a short, thick log. They split each end into two sections, creating four legs with a body in the middle. Then they attach a head and a tail. Finally they can stand the animal up by bending the legs down. It seems children always want to make people and animals out of clay. Rather than attaching legs separately, this method shows them how to make appendages by pulling them out of the main clay body. The legs are usually stronger and result in a more successful creation. Once the animal is formed and fired in the kiln, we talk about the Oaxacan culture and look at many examples of Oaxacan animal painting. They use bright colors and intricate patterns to decorate their animal sculptures. Students are shown several ways of applying paint to make small, neat patterns

        

  

ON EARTH!!

From our 2nd Graders

 

O'Keefe Inspired Cityscapes

Towering Trees

If you stood under a tree and looked up, what would you see? This is the question posed to second graders in this lesson inspired by O’Keeffe’s The Lawrence Tree.  The concepts of perspective and point of view are discussed as we notice how the trunk gets thinner the further up you look, in part because things that are far away look smaller.

After the students drew the tree, they traced their lines and colored the trunk in oil pastel and paint with watercolors. The oil pastel on the trunk creates a rougher texture on watercolor paper, simulating bark.  The students also learned watercolor techniques. We observed how the oil pastels repel water, keeping colors separated where we don’t want them to flow together. We also learned the wet-on-wet and the wash technique.

               

LINE PORTRAITS:

“ISH” ART: 

 

Second graders read the book Ish.  This book taught us that not everything is going to turn out perfect; instead it may look “ish.”  For example, when we draw shapes, they might look “shape-ish.”  It is okay to make mistakes as long as we try our best.  Throughout this project, we learned about lines and we drew these different lines using colored pencils, crayons and markers.  Next, we learned about shapes.  We practiced cutting out shapes and gluing them to our paper.  We continued making shapes with paint.  We learned how to hold a paint brush and paint neatly.  Overall, we learned how to use several basic art supplies while creating “ish” art.