Learning About Art and Artists (Art Investigation Part 1)

It all began around February when we chose Bing Davis for our door decorating assignment during Black History month.  Once we started learning about him and the different kinds of art he does, the kids became inspired!  They started asking  questions about different types of art and artists... and so an investigation began.

Beginning the Investigation:
We made an EKW to tell what prior experiences and knowledge we had about art and artists and made a list of questions.

First we learned who can be considered an artist and what things they have in common.

We also learned about the different elements of art.  Students memorized this poem and added it to their poetry notebook.

Learning About Famous Artists:
We narrowed our study down to a selection of artists and the style they did. As we learned about each artist we recorded facts and mimicked a piece of their art work.

These students are creating Van Gogh inspired pieces.  First they made a piece to practice different types of lines.  Then they made still life flowers using oil pastels and watercolors.

These students are using tissue paper and glue to make Monet's Water Lilies.

Exploring in Areas:
Students explored different types of art and expressed themselves in our various center areas.

Art Area
In the Art Area students used different tools to make their own masterpieces.

At the beginning of our investigation, we learned that "art is a talking tool" (Bing Davis)  so once students would finish a piece of art in the art area, we would have an "Art Talk" about it.  We discussed what we observed in the piece, how it made us feel and what our interpretation of the art was... then the artist would describe his or her thinking behind the piece.

Loose Parts Area
Students worked in the Loose Parts Area to make faces with tree cookies and loose parts.  They used mirrors and pictures of real faces to make different expressions.  They also named their pieces.

Once we started learning about butterflies, students used the loose parts to make beautiful butterfly wings by practicing symmetry.

Clay Area
In the clay area, students used clay and loose parts to make sculptures.

Building Area

In the building area, students practiced their architectural skills by creating some amazing designs for buildings.

Small Group Art Projects
Students worked in small groups to work on two projects.  Students worked with me to make pottery.  They made bowls, plates and statues with air dry clay.  Then students used liquid metallic paint to paint the pottery.

Students worked with Ms. West to make Wiki Stick masterpieces.

Making Masks
Students worked in teams to make masks to hang in our art museum.  Each mask represented a different feeling.  Students chose a color for each of the feelings (red- hot, blue- cold, yellow- happy, purple- loud/crazy, black and green- angry, pink-sweet)  Students chose the team they wanted to be on.  Then they made a plan about what they thought should be on their team's mask.  Then they worked together to paint the mask and add objects that represented that feeling.

Making Sculptures
We also wanted to make sculptures to add to our museum.  We used air dry clay, pipe cleaners and beads to make 3D sculptures.

Marble Rolling
Since we were learning about 3D shapes, we used marbles (spheres) to do a marble rolling.

This was just the first part of our Art Investigation... the second part is all about the Art Museum!  It will all be included in the next post.