1st & 2nd Grade Eric Carle Collages

We are learning about the phenomenal artist and author Eric Carle in second and first grade art class! We read some of his books, including "Mister Seahorse," "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" We discussed how Eric Carle created his own papers by painting them and scratching textures into the wet paint.  After the papers dried, he would then cut them out to create the beautiful animals in his books.

Students painted their papers first.  This was a FUN day!  Students rotated around the table and painted six or seven different colors onto their construction paper.  Before the paint dried, students used tools to scratch lines into the wet paint, just like Eric Carle.

The papers were dry for the next class, and students traced shapes on the back to create their animals, as well as added fun things such as sequins, pompoms, glitter, and oil pastel details.  Some classes made butterflies:

Other classes created tropical birds:

 And still other classes made seahorses.  They are all so lovely!  Look for first grade classes' artwork to be displayed in April for the School-wide Art Show!

5th Grade Faith Ringgold Story Quilts

Fifth Graders studied the African American artist Faith Ringgold and her story quilt "Tar Beach." We also read her book named "Tar Beach" and discussed the main idea: no matter what your circumstances in life, you are free to chose where to go in your imagination.  Students chose a place in the world that they wanted to visit if they had nothing holding them back from visiting. They wrote a short two sentence story about why they wanted to visit that particular place. They each brought in a photo of the place that included an important landmark or natural feature.  They then had to chose how they were getting to that place.  This is where they were able to use their imagination to think up fun ways to get there: jet pack, flying animals, or magical shoes were a few of the choices.

After drawing themselves flying to their place, students added watercolor to the sky.  They then used color pencils to add details to their drawings and portraits.

 After students finished the drawing in the center, they added the patterned paper and fabric for the quilt edge. Finally, they wrote their short story on two slips of paper, and glued those to their artwork.  Enjoy these beautiful fifth grade story quilts, and see all of them at our online museum on Artsonia at http://

www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=105385.