Tag Archives: fourth grade

Seurat Pointillism Mural (and more!)

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Seurat Pointillism Mural group project uses $8 downloadable PDF

Need a group art project? 4th grade just completed a pointillism mural based on Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon at the Island of La Grade Jatte”.

‘La Parade’ by George Seurat. 1889

 

Day 1:

Introduce pointillism. We discussed how Seurat made paintings in a whole new way: instead of blending colors, he placed different colors of dots side by side and let the viewer’s eye mix them.

Close up view:

I passed out some greeting cards with pointillist art and let students examine them closely. They really need to see the art works up close to appreciate how many dots Seurat put in his paintings (tip: pass out magnifying glasses for a close up view).  I added some great close-ups to this Seurat Powerpoint  (sadly I am not sure who posted this Powerpoint).

Pointillist notecards + magnifier

UPDATE: Thanks to Google Art Project, you can view A Sunday on La Grade Jatte at incredible zoom level (flash required).
Google Art Project has a Seurat from MoMA in its online collection: you can view Seurat’s ‘Evening, Honfleur’ at incredible zoom level. Notice that Seurat used dots on the artwork and the picture frame!
Individual warm-up project: make your name in dots on a 4.5″x12″ strip of paper. Color the background with dots as well. We used Q-tips and pan watercolors.

Make your name in dots as an introduction to pointillism.

 

Days 2-3:

Group project. I purchased the downloadable pdf mural ‘Sunday in the Park’ from Art Projects for Kids ($8). The pdf contains a 28-piece mural (perfect size for a 4th grade class!) which you print onto cardstock. Each student ‘dotted’ their respective part of the mural, using the coloring guide included in the download.

 

Seurat’s famous ” (aka ‘Sunday in the Park’). Seurat’s masterpiece contains over 3 million dots and took over 2 years to complete.


28 individual pointillist artworks come together to form Seurat mural.

The assembled mural is 55 inches x 40 inches.

We carefully assembled the mural by attaching long strips of masking tape on the seams (note: get a helper for assembly!). Bonus: it folds up like a map! Easy to store until the art show.

The completed mural.

The kids really enjoyed this project.  I did notice there was a lot of variety in the assembled mural – some students made a near-solid dot pattern with almost no white paper showing.  Others had sparsely dotted areas. Next year I will use this pointillism practice worksheet from Miss Young’s Art Room blog.

Pointillism worksheet from Miss Young’s Art Room blog.

Options:

Individual coloring sheet for ‘Sunday in the Park’. From Practical Pages blog.

Want an individual project based on ‘Sunday in the Park’? There is a great post including download on the Practical Pages blog.

Try out different materials for pointillism:

  • Q-Tip + tempera
  • Marker
  • Unused eraser tip from a standard pencil + pan watercolor
  • Unused eraser tip from a standard pencil + stamp pad

Stamp pad + eraser tip

 

How do you teach pointillism to your students? Leave a comment!

UPDATE 10/17/13:

NEW!!! Pointillism art project – make pointillist FOOD using watercolors, q-tips and markers! AWESOME pointillism video! Click here.

seurat pointillist food: Q-tips, pan watercolor and markers. Very successful!

*****Thanks for visiting! Don’t forget to please vote for 2012 Art Ed Blog of the Year, which you can do by clicking this link and voting for K-6 Art! Voting open through December 14, 2012.******

 

Molas of Panama

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The 4th grade studied fabulous, colorful molas. Molas are intricate, multi-layered textiles made by the Kuna Indians, of San Blas Island, Panama.

Panamanian Mola textile. Photo by galenfrysinger.com

 

Luckily we had a tour guide. Ms O’Brien came to the art room, talked to us about the Kuna and shared her extensive mola collection with us. We are so lucky to have Ms. O’Brien at our school!

This paper toucan mola looks like the one on Ms. O'Brien's shirt

Our resident mola expert! 1st grade teacher Sharon O'Brien lived in Panama for over 20 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids were fascinated! They loved turning the bright colored molas to the back and looking at the tiny stitches.

For the art project, we used the lesson plan found in the excellent book Dynamic Art Projects for Children by Denise M. Logan. This year I made (optional!) paper templates enlarged from the drawing aid page in the book. Kids focused on making intricate designs and colors. Art is finished with colorful paper strips glued down to simulate textile cut-outs.

This project was perfect for the 4th graders. Some used the templates, some didn’t. All the student art turned out vibrant and colorful. A highly successful art project.  This is a popular art project for kids around the world!  Click here to see paper molas from some talented Australian kids.

Armadillo mola

A+ Elementary Weaving Videos

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Tayli’s YouTube video: ‘Weaving on a Cardboard Loom’

It’s a new era for an ancient art!

Tayli posted a series of elementary weaving videos on YouTube. If you teach weaving to kids, YOU MUST SEE THEM. If you can show them in the classroom, even better.

I LOVE this primary weaving video for beginning weavers. The great part: the cardboard loom is warped with two alternate colors of yarn. If you have ever taught weaving to kids, you probably know some of them don’t ‘get it’ right away. Our fourth graders watched this video, and we have be following the directions step by step. Now they get it!

Tayli also posted a fast weaving video. Only 1:44 long, this video shows real elementary students making their own cardboard looms, warping, and weaving. This would be a good intro video on day 1 of the project.

Next comes Tayli’s weaving on a cardboard loom video. Amazing! The video shows a three color weaving featuring blocks of color and rya knots. Last year, I showed this video over and over to my fourth graders.  The more advanced students ‘got it’ right away and were soon making elaborate weavings.

 

 

Two Part Shoe Art

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The fourth grade recently completed their shoe art.  We did a two part project.

Students drew their shoes and took crayon rubbings of the soles

Part 1: shoe drawing. We started with each kid taking off a shoe and putting it on the table. Kids traced the shoe contour onto white drawing paper. Then students moved into observational drawing mode and added the shoe stripes/logos/dots to the drawings. We colored the shoes – kids could use realistic or imaginative colors.

Part 2: sole texture rubbing. Shoe off and on the table!  This time, we did a texture rubbing of the shoe sole.  We used newsprint and peeled crayons.  Kids were encouraged to to multiple rubbings of their shoe in different colors, and then trade shoes with friends.  So much fun!  It was like collecting autographs, but of your friends’ shoes….

Last step: cut out the shoe drawing from part 1 and glue it on the texture rubbing.

Wow!!!  Super successful project.  Just be sure do this one when its dry outside or you will have mud on the tables.

Inspiration for the shoe contour lesson comes from long, long ago, when I was a parent volunteer in Jenny Luce’s art room. The sole rubbing portion of the lesson comes from the book ‘Make Prints!’ by Kim Solga.

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