Works Of Second Grade Artists by Carolyn Olenslager

Summary

This is an engaged learning unit with technology infusion in which students will make a Kid Pix slide show of artistic styles while creating art works that mirror the second grade artists' styles of landscapes, abstracts, and portraits.

Materials

Lesson 1: Big A video 8 'What Does It Mean - Show how to view art to see what it means.'...video machine with tv...the following prints: Pieter Breughel's 'The Harvesters'...Marc Chagall's 'I And My Village'...Thomas Gainsborough's 'Blueboy'...Jean Francois Millet's 'The Gleaners'...Henri Rousseau's 'Virgin Forest'.......Lesson 2: computer with 'Kid Pix' disk available...art books with pictures of landscapes, abstracts, portraits, and scenes of people...scanner...aids or specialists (if available) to teach small groups.......Lesson 3: materials as needed for chosen art products

Background for Teachers

PIETER BRUEGHEL was also called 'Peasant Brueghal.' A peasant is a poor person who usually works on farms. Brueghal was actually very rich, but he and his friend would dress up in poorer-looking cloothes and go to the peasants' weddings, fairs, dances, and church meetings so he could study them. Brueghel always painted crowds of people, landscapes (discuss this term), or political problems. His scenes are always in great detail with warm, bright colors. 'The Harvestors' ........... MARC CHAGALL was born in Russia to a Jewish family. As a child he was never allowed to view any art at all. His parents considered drawings as a graven image. When he saw a classmate drawing at school, copying a magazine illustration, he couldn't believe his eyes! He later said, 'It aroused a hyena in me.' Finally he talked his parents into letting him study art. He found a great enjoyment in drawing a 'world of fantasy' from his experiences in his boyhood town in Russia. This style of art is called abstract because nothing appears quite how it truly is. 'I And My Village' ........... THOMAS GAINSBORO was a famous portrait painter from England. (Discuss portraits.) He hated school as a boy and would often get other children to do his assignments by drawing pictures for them in return. In his early teenage years, he was already such a good artist that learned art dealers would hire him to repair old paintings for them. This made it so he could study famous artists' works close up. From the time he was 13 years old, he supported himself (that's junior age!) He became the favorite painter of King George III and Queen Charlotte because he could paint so elegantly and with such finesse and detail. Sometimes one single portrait would take him more than a year to paint! 'Blueboy' ........... JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET spent most of his boyhood working in his father's fields. They were poor peasants. At an early age he showed the talent of being an artist so was sent to Paris to study and paint. As long as he painted like other people wanted him to, he was successful. However he loved the quiet dignity of the peasants and began painting scenes of peasants' lives. People criticized him, but he kept painting these simple, sincere people. He felt like their beauty was their closeness to the earth. 'The Gleaners' ........... HENRI ROUSSEAU went to elementary school in France and often had to work after school so his family could have enough food to eat. He joined the army, fought in wars, and worked as an accountant until he was 40. When he retired, he finally got to begin painting. He taught little art and music classes. He is most famous for his dream-like jungle landscapes. (Discuss landscapes.) Having never been to see a real jungle, he visited 'hot houses' and intently studied the leaves of unfamiliar plants. Then he would dream about the wild animals that might inhabit these places. His dreaming led to these wonderful paintings he created. 'Virgin Forest' ...........

Intended Learning Outcomes

1.

Instructional Procedures

If an art museum or gallery is close to your school, spark the class's interest with a visit. The curator should be contacted ahead and asked to prepare an interesting introduction to the world of art that would stimulate a second grader's interest in becoming involved as a real artist. ........... If you have an artist parent who could come in and demonstrate his/her specific talent, this would be marvelous. Topic: What is art?....... Objectives: 1.Children will be able to give a definition of art. 2.Children will complete a homework assignment about a second-grade artist's work....... Lesson....... A. VIDEO... As the class gathers around the tv, ask, 'What is art?' Accept all answers. Continue discussion...'Do you know that people who are artists can't even agree on what art is. They just express what they feel and think inside themselves. Some use paints. Others use clay to form figures. Still others carve wood or forge metal. As many artists as there are, that's how many different kinds of art we have. So our job is to learn how to find the beauty in all art.' Show the video, pausing along the way to stress interesting points and listen to children's comments. Rediscuss the question 'What is art?' Evaluate to yourself: Did the children gain any insights? Comment positively about their deeper thoughts to strengthen their new-found ideas........ B. BRIEFLY INTRODUCE THE ARTISTS AND THEIR WORKS (See background information.)... Discussion: 'This year in second grade we get to study some wonderful artists who just happen to all be painters, but they all painted in different styles. Let me show you what I mean.' Give a brief synopsis of each artist's life and style. Show the appropriate artist's work as you proceed. Then let children comment. 'What do you see? How does it make you feel inside? Would you like to be in this picture? Would you like to be painted by this artist?'....... C. ASSIGNMENT....... Have children take a few minutes to study the paintings. Then challenge them to think of a nursery rhyme, poem, proverb, tongue twister, etc. that they could use to illustrate one of these pictures. Give examples (below) to get their creativity flowing. Children are to write the ditties down on the back of the homework sheet and return it the following day. Post their work by the paintings after the children stand by the coordinating picture to read aloud their discoveries. (What a great way to get parents involved - perhaps even a trip to the library together.) Blueboy - Little Boy Blue Come Blow Your Horn... The Gleaners - Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief... The Harvestors - There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Show... Virgin Forest - Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning, Red sky at night, sailors delight... I And My Village - There Was A Crooked Man Who Went A Crooked Mile... Topic: Kid Pix slide show creation.......Objectives: 1. In small groups, children will help create a class slide show depicting works in the following categories: landscapes, abstracts, portraits, and scenes of people. 2. Children will help scan in pictures on a scanner from a book for the slide show. 3. Children will import pictures from an internet site onto the slide show......Time: ongoing, to begin after the first lesson and continue while children are working on different art projects to learn artists' styles. **If at all possible, have specialists (college people, high school computer nerds, the computer teacher) take over this project while the classroom teacher works with the children on the art portion. ......Lesson:.......1. Teacher pre-divides students into groups that will work well together (approx. 5-6 per group.) 2. Have each child add at least one picture to the slide show to create the feeling of ownership. Pictures need not necessarily be by a second grade artist, but must fall in one of the categories listed in objective 1. 3. Teach the following computer skills as needed: how to search on the internet, how to scan in a picture and convert it to jpg., how to import pictures from the internet, how to create a slide show with transitions........At the conclusion of the unit, for the final test, the teacher will play the slide show one slide at a time. Individually children will classify each frame as a landscape, abstract, portrait, or scene of people. Topic: Create a picture in the style of a second grade artist......Objectives: Each student will create one or more art works in the following styles: abstract, portrait, or landscape.......*Take as long as necessary to complete a TERRIFIC art piece.....Listed below are some suggestions for projects......PORTRAIT: 'Photo Expansion'... Take a snapshot of each child in a creative action pose. Crop so that only torso and head shows. Glue this to a piece of white art paper. Children complete the missing body parts and action being performed using matching colors for clothes, hair, etc. Children add appropriate background.......'3-D Foil Figures'...Cut a HEAVY tin-foil sheet to 10 1/2 x 12 inch size. Slit into 1/3s along the top almost down to the middle. Slit in half from the bottom up to almost the middle. Twist bottom 2 sections into legs. Twist top 3 sections into arms and head. The center becomes the body. Then create an action figure....... 'Self-portrait'. Teacher must give body-drawing instructions and proportions. Have a child acts as a model for the class to draw. Place him/her in an action pose up on a desk........ABSTRACT...'Mirrorless Mirror Art'...Tape a paper to a desktop so it remains stationary. With crayon or colored pen in each hand, use both hands at the same time to make designs or pictures in which the left side is the mirror image of the right side. (Can require overlapping if desired.).......'Scribble Picture Profiles'...Using black crayons, draw two profiles facing each other and overlapping on a white art paper. Still using black crayon, make a scribble picture through the profiles. Color sections with bold colors and creative designs. Are the profiles still visible?.......LANDSCAPE...'Crepe Paper Landscape'...Draw a horizon line on a piece of white art paper. Using 2 inch crepe paper strips in browns and greens (for earth) and blues and whites (for sky and clouds), stretch and glue to form a swirling landscape. Overlap for unique eye appeal. Then in creases of the 'earth, add dried weed stems to create a 3-D effect of a country field or roadside......'Jungle Picture with 3-D Animals'...On a white sheet of art paper, draw a horizon line where earth and sky meet. Draw a large tree that is perhaps too large for the paper. (Read The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry for great pictures of exotic rainforest shrubbery with fantastic detail.) Details are a must! Then use overlapping skills to add more bushes. Show near and far with different sizes. Make the jungle full. Very little sky will show. Color with different shades of greens. (Show blending and shading techniques.) When complete, draw jungle animals on separate paper. Cut out and add to the jungle.

Bibliography

Campbell, Ann Paintings - How To Look At Great Art (Watts International, ) Micklethwait, Lucy Spot A Dog - A Child's Book of Art (Dorling Kindersley, 1995) Micklethwait, Lucy A Child's Book of Art-Great Pictures First Words (Dorling Kindersley, 1993) Johnson, Sally Of Course You Can Draw People (North Mountain Publishing Compan, 1985)