Van Gogh flowers

6th graders learned all about Van Gogh! We learned about how he shows visible brush strokes, which is very different from other artists that we've learned about in the past, like Leonardo da Vinci.  We used oil pastels and white tempera paint to recreate the look of van highs brush strokes. Students were asked to draw flowers of the seasons in the style of Vincent Van Gogh!! 

Pinch pot creatures!!

6th graders created ceramic creatures using the pinch pot hand building technique. They had to create the body from a pinch pot, but also were asked to include a slab and coil somewhere on their creature. In our district, 6th grade is the first time our students ever used clay and I think they turned out great!! 

Dis de Los metros crayon resist

Dis de Los Muertos is one of my favorite holidays! It is a joyous and happy way to celebrate someone's life that has passed away. This holiday is celebrated around Halloween and includes skulls as a major role, so many people associate them together, but it is it's own holiday.  Dia de Los Muertos is filled with bright colors and skulls as it's theme. For this project, students created crayon resists of skulls. They could choose to draw it about a late family or friend, or just a cool skull image. When we colored we pressed really dark with crayons (some also use oil pastels). Next, we crumpled the paper to create cracks in the wax. Then we painted over it with watered down black paint. The paint should stay in the cracks or anywhere else that was not colored. This gives a really cool effect when finished!!

Collage

6th grade students finished their collages and they look AMAZING!! We used magazines to create a simple picture. We wanted the colors to be similar but to use different textures in the pictures to create more interest.

Dia De Los Muertos!

Last week SMS 6th graders learned about the upcoming holiday, Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.  We discussed the holiday including misconceptions of the holiday.  Many people think it is related to Halloween because it is during the same time of the year and because of the skull subject matter.  This holiday is not related to Halloween, it is a holiday that is celebrated in Mexico and parts of the United States.  Many people also think that it is a scary holiday, but it is actually a happy holiday.  This holiday is about remembering loved ones that have passed and celebrating their life instead of mourning their passing.  There are many traditions associated with this holiday, including sugar skulls, parades, special bread and papel picado.  Papel Picado means punched paper in Spanish, it is made of thin paper that has intricate cut-outs and hung from the ceiling. 

For this project, students created a collage using construction paper.  I really stressed to students to put the glue on the side that they drew on so the viewer did not see pencil lines. This really helped our craftsmanship on this project.  Some students chose to depict loved ones that had passed, some chose random characters and some chose previous pets. 



We also spent one class making Papel Picado to decorate the room!