Miss Fuehrer's Art Gallery

Description: This lesson was one of my favorites to do.  In this lesson, we learned about Pablo Picasso, continuous lines, and Earth Day. Pablo Picasso was a famous artist whose drawings all are made out of one continuous line. We got to practice drawing continuous lines to make a landscape, and it was harder than we thought it would be. It is a good way to practice hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Once we made our Earth Day landscape, it was time to add the bubbles. The bubble mixture was made from liquid cool-aid, water, and soap. Then we blew into the bubble mixture with a straw and created bubbles. After there were many bubbles in the bowl, we set the paper onto the bubbles to get them to transfer onto the paper. Extension Activity: I will defiantly do this project with my students. If I have younger students, I will have them draw a picture of their choice, and they will just need to use as least three colors of bubbles on their pictures like we did. If I have olde...

  Description:  In this lesson, we learned about clay making. We learned about the different types of clay and the different terms that are used in clay making. In this project, we made our own trinket plates. We had to have our initials on one side of the tray and an added and subtracted element. Add means that it is raised off of the surface, and subtracted means clay is taken away from the piece.  My added piece is the ridge around the tray that I painted blue, and my subtracted piece was where I carved out the image of a turtle in the middle of the tray. I choose to make a turtle because I have always loved turtles, and when I was younger, I had a turtle.  Extension Activity: I would incorporate a clay lesson into a social studies lesson. I would do it when we are learning about china or the Renaissance time period. If I did it with a lesson about China, I would have the students sculpt a terracotta statue like those excavated in China. Or I would do it with a Re...

  Description:  In this lesson, we learned about Andy Warhol and different types of printmaking. Andy Warhol was a famous printmaker. To start the project, we drew out the design on a piece of paper; we all picked a design that meant something to us. I chose a sunflower because they are so pretty, and we also grow a lot of them on our farm; I also wrote "Be Happy" because I think trying to be happy and kind is important, and sunflowers make me happy. We had to be careful if we wanted to write words because they would have to write backward. Once we finished our design, we traced/carved it onto a foam sheet. Then came the printmaking. We got to try printmaking four times with the design we carved into the foam sheet. We started by covering our design in the paint and rolling it out, and then we pressed it onto our sheets; I think my second and third attempts turned out the best.  Extension Activity: I would incorporate this into a Language Arts lesson and have the students...

  Description:  In this lesson, we learned about the history of weaving. Many different cultures use weaving, and they each use weaving in a different way, and their weavings are all made with different weaving styles. We were even able to see actual examples of Hutterite weaving in some of their rugs brought into class. For the project, we got to try paper weaving. We had to choose three different colors, and I choose blue, yellow, and purple. I choose these colors because they are close to complementary colors, and they are some of my favorite colors, so I thought they would look good when weaved together. This project was done by weaving the yellow and purple paper through the strips of blue paper to create a rug. We made sure our rug would stay together by gluing the edge pieces together.  Extension Activity: When we are learning about Native Americans in our social studies class, I will incorporate a weaving project so the students could learn how they made things. I...

  Description: In this lesson, we learned about Ted Harrison and his artwork. Ted Harrison was a painter from the Yukon who painted landscapes with very bright and bold colors, so the landscapes looked very child-like. We also learned about the Inukshuks, which were statues used for navigation in the Arctic which he included in his drawing. This lesson focused on the blending of colors in a landscape. For this project, we started by drawing out the lines for the sun and the ground and then traced them with a black marker. After we traced the lines, we painted the ground and the sun and blended the colors from lightest to darkest. After the paint was dry, we could add an Inukshuk to our painting if we wanted. We did this project using watercolors and learned how to blend the warm and cool colors because we painted the landscape in cool colors and the sky in warm colors. Extension Activity: Because Ted Harrison painted the landscapes in the Yukon where he lived, I would have the stud...

  Description:    In this lesson, we learned about what an Optical Illusion was and about the artist Bridget Riley. Bridget Riley created many paintings with optical illusions that used shapes, patterns, and colors to create art that plays tricks on your eyes. For the project that went along with this lesson, we created our own optical illusion.  This project includes the use of lines, four different types of mediums, and three different colors. For mine, I choose blue, orange, red, and green; I chose these colors because they were all complimentary colors, and I thought they would help enhance the optical illusion. We also included the four types of media we used to create our optical illusions, which are below my picture.  Extension Activity: I really enjoyed this project, and I think my students would like to create their own optical illusions. To incorporate this into math, I would have the students create an optical illusion using at least two shapes, and t...

  Description: During this activity, we learned about upsidedown drawing. We also discussed how things can be hidden inside of an image. We used a light blue color to draw an animal of our choice upsidedown on the paper. The animals we all drew were animals that could be found on a safari because we discussed safari animals in class. After we finished drawing our animals we then used warm colors to draw over it; we used a different shape or pattern for each warm color so the animal would be hidden. We then wrote clues about our hidden animals on the paper to help people try to identify the animal. We then looked at our drawings with our red glasses that block out the warm colors to see our hidden safari animal. Extension Activity: I really liked this activity and how it taught students to look at things a different way and allowed them to learn a new skill by drawing their animals upside down. I would change this project by not having it only be safari animals but I would have them...

  Description:   For this activity, we talked about Vincent Van Gogh and read the book a starry night. After we finished the book, we then were able to make our own landscape with backgrounds similar to starry night. We were given tissue paper and mod podge and used that to create the background. We made stripes and mod podge them to a black sheet of construction paper to form the background. Then we made a silhouette of whatever landscape we wanted. Some people made mountains, a city, or farms. I made a cactus silhouette to look like the desert because I used colors like sunset for my background. Once it was all dry we glued our silhouette to the background. We then took a white crayon or oil pastels to draw on our silhouettes. We also showed movement by making swirls (like Vincent Van Gogh) to represent wind or stars. Extension Activity: I really liked this project, and I would want my students to be able to do something similar because it allows them to be creative. One way...