ELEMENTARY

Lower elementary learned about still life art and created their own still life vase with paper crumpled flowers. Again, another lesson I wish I could do in person so we could paint and use tissue paper, but I love how they came out anyways.

Day 1

Warm-up – thumbs up or thumbs down – have you heard of still life art before?
Introduction to still life art
Still life freeze game – I showed students pictures of still life art/photography and some photos of animals or things that move, and students stayed frozen like a statue for still life images and moved around for non-still life images.
Introduction to Matisse – fauvism
Student independent work time

Day 2

Still life review
How to crumple paper to make flowers
Continue still life art
Gallery walk/artist statement

Student Art:

I think this has been one of my favorite lessons I’ve taught to lower elementary this year. The project is fairly simple, but students came up with so many creative ideas! I taught the lesson virtually, but for whenever in-person lessons resume, I would definitely have the students use construction paper for their creatures and paint for the background.

My teacher examples:

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

Identify symmetrical and asymmetrical images
Create a symmetrical creature using folding, drawing, and cutting
Create an asymmetrical home for their creature using drawing/painting
Write an artist statement

Day by Day Breakdown:

Day 1:

Introduction to symmetrical balance – stand on one leg, what happens?
Symmetrical identification game
Looking at symmetrical photos/art
Art demo – how to create symmetrical creature
What does your creature look like?
- Does your creature have:
  - fur?
  - scales?
  - patches?
  - a tail?
  - arms/legs?
  - eyes?
  - clothes?
  - fins?
Student work time

Day 2:

Introduction to asymmetrical balance
Review of symmetrical balance
Symmetrical or asymmetrical identification game
Art demo – how to create asymmetrical background
Where does your creature live?
- underwater?
- the woods?
- mountains?
- beach?
- house?
- island?
Student work time

Artist Statement:

For lower elementary, I have students write a mini artist statement including the title of their artwork, describing their artwork, and explaining how they used one of the concepts in the lesson. This is my Google forms virtual version: