Art: Monochromatic Habitats

After creating bugs based on themselves, first graders began making habitats for their creatures. They began by looking at paintings to figure out possible definitions for the word "monochromatic." They noticed that monochromatic paintings were all one color, but if you looked closely sometimes the color could be a darker, lighter, or just a little bit different. Each girl used cut tissue paper, tempera cakes, and colored pencil to create a monochromatic environment. They had the additional challenge of choosing one shape that would communicate something about the type of habitat they chose. First graders will place their bugs in their monochromatic paintings using 3D sticky dots in order to pop them out. 

Here is what demonstrations look like in first grade art: 

Art: Triangle Collages

First graders began by experimenting with a variety of art materials on different types and sizes of paper. They were challenged to combine the materials and work at varying speeds in order to find out the strengths and limitations of the materials. For example, one first grader discovered that watercolor was an easy material to quickly fill a large space while colored pencil took much longer.  Next, girls took these paper experiments and created a collage composition using triangles to help organize their work. They learned about the art elements, which we described as being the "ingredients" that artists put into their work. (Ask your child if she can name an art element!) Each student chose an element to focus on in her collage. After the works were completed, first graders split into "Element" teams for a scavenger hunt. Each team used iPads to document their assigned art element when they observed it in others' collages. They then shared their findings in a large group.