Kinder Torn Paper Snowmen

Kinder students are making snowmen! We are using our fingers to tear paper instead of scissors. This gives the paper texture, somewhat like the texture ice crystals have.

2nd Grade Georgia O'Keeffe Flower Paintings

Second Graders are hard at work on their O'Keeffe flower paintings. After learning about the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, students created their own color wheels and mixed the intermediate colors: yellow-green, blue-green,blue-violet, red-violet, red-orange, and yellow-orange. Then students chose their favorite intermediate color to mix on their large flower petals.

Fifth Grade Horse Sculptures

After learning about the artist Leonardo Da Vinci and his never-finished horse sculpture, students created their own horse sculptures out of clay. After firing the clay to the high temperature of 1,945 degrees Fahrenheit, students are painting glaze on their horses to add some color.

4th Grade Clay Milagros

Fourth Grade students are studying Folk Art from Mexico. Milagros are small metal pendants that represent a wish or a prayer. Milagros are found in many countries all around the world, including Peru, Greece, Italy, Morocco, and India, as well as many Latin American countries including Mexico. Students chose a wish they would like answered, and had to draw how they wanted to represent the wish as a milagro. Some students chose to symbolize their wish literally, while others used symbols to represent their wishes. In these photos students have already attached their second piece of clay to the larger piece using scoring and slip, and are drawing in texture, pattern and details using a clay needle tool. Check out their intricate details!

Third Grade Gyotaku Prints

Third Graders are learning about Gyotaku prints. Japanese fishers first started printing their fish to make a record of the type of species and the size over 100 years ago. Gyotaku printing is now considered a fine art, with many artist embellishing their prints with watercolor paint and other details. Here are third graders printing their fish prints. Next, we are going to add color with watercolor paint. Find out more about Gyotaku Printmaking at http://gyotaku.com/.

1st Grade Self Portrait Gadget Prints

First Graders are creating self portraits using cardboard, spools, marker tops, and bottle caps. They first carefully dip each gadget into paint, then stamp it onto their papers in the shapes for their face, eyes, hair and more. Lots of fun!

1st Grade Cool & Warm Color Paintings

First Graders are working hard on their color theory books. One day we discussed the Cool Colors: Blue, Green, and Violet. Students created cool color paintings using those three colors.

On this day we discussed the Warm Colors: Red, Yellow, and Orange. Students had fun painting a picture full of the warm colors.

4th Grade Aboriginal Dot Paintings

Fourth grade students are studying Aboriginal Dot Paintings from Australia. We looked at several different examples of dot paintings, both contemporary and prehistoric, and noted a running theme across centuries: native animals. We discussed how important animals were to the Aborigine survival and in their day to day lives. Then we turned to our daily lives in Austin, Texas, and how fourth graders are studying all aspects of the state of Texas this year. Students had to pick one native Texan animal to depict in their own dot painting. They first drew a silhouette of the animal, and cut it out of black paper. Then each student came up with his or her own dot design inside the animal, as well as depicting two "x-ray drawings":which show a bone or organ inside the animal. They finished off their designs with concentric circles, which is a common theme in many Aborigine artworks. Students used swabbed sticks instead of paintbrushes to paint the dots.

Kinder Five Senses

Kinder students are working on their Five Senses in art class. We are creating a page for each sense, and will put it all together as a book when we are finished. On the days pictured here, students were using their sense of sight. We looked at several different small objects very closely with a magnifying glass, and then tried to draw what we saw.


On the touch day, we played a game. Inside a long tube sock was a plastic cup, and inside each cup was an object. Students had to touch the objects with their hands, and then try to draw the object without ever looking at it. What fun!

1st Grade Color Wheels

First Graders are starting to create a book about Color Theory. On their first day, they painted their own color wheels using only the primary colors red, blue, and yellow. They mixed the primary colors to create the secondary colors green, orange, and violet. They also discovered what happens when all three primary colors are mixed together. The next few art classes will encompass exploring complementary colors, cool colors, warm colors, neutral colors, shades and tints of colors, and learning the order of the rainbow as well as the science behind it.

5th Grade Media Lesson

Our first field trip to the Blanton was on Friday, October 15th. The main idea of the lessons was artistic media - the specific materials and processes used by artists to create works of art. Before our field trip, students explored two different types of media in art class: pencil and watercolor. We discussed two artworks that had landscapes as subject matter, but were different in terms of media: one was an oil painting, and the other a print. After discussing the similarities and differences of the two landscapes, students looked at a photo of a small tree on our Zilker campus. They first drew the tree using only pencil, then painted the tree again using watercolor paints and brush. We then had a lively discussion about which medium each student liked best and why. This lesson set the stage for our first field trip that included a artwork media scavenger hunt as well as looking at different types of media in the museum's permanent collection.

3rd Grade Day of the Dead Drawings & Papel Picado

Third Grade students are learning about the Mexican celebration of Dia de los Muertos. On November 1st and 2nd Mexican families honor the memories of family members and friends who have passed away. Families will go to the cemetery and decorate the graves with marigold flowers, and sometimes will have an altar in their home with the person's photo that they are remembering. Skeleton toys and candies are also a big part of the celebration, and are often silly and fun to show that death is not something to be afraid of but is part of the life cycle. The Day of the Dead celebrations show that people all around the world share many common rituals: a reference for life, respect for death, and the acceptance of the cycles of life. Third graders drew skeleton characters performing an everyday activity, such as skateboarding, cooking, or going to school. We also each cut out our own piece of papel picado to hang in the hallway for our Zilker celebration Zamboree.