Pinch Pots

My first graders made pinch pots.  We studied Mexican pottery made by the Nahua Native Americans from Central Mexico.  They learned how to roll the clay into a sphere, push their thumb into the sphere to make a hole, and pinch with all four fingers while they turn it.  Then, they learned how to shape the rim of the pot, and use a finger tip of water to smooth the surface of the clay.  Finally, they glazed them using a pattern for their surface design.  On the day they get them back, the students do an observational drawing.  We talk about how to make something look 3D when drawing.  The students love to work with clay!

Clay Animal Sculptures

My 2nd graders made clay animal sculptures.  We build off of their clay technique from 1st grade.  They start by making a pinch pot and turn it into the body of the animal.  I teach a variety of clay techniques such as, pinch, score, slip, bond, coil, additive, and subtractive.  After the sculptures come out of the kiln the students glaze them.  When I give them back, in class they do an observational drawing of their sculpture, and they write a Cinquain poem about their animal.  They love this project!

Radial Prints

My fourth graders just finished their printmaking unit.  They created Radial Prints.  They had to use a "wet on wet" technique to paint the paper, so they could create a tye-dye affect.  I wet the paper before they painted and then if they wanted me to I sprayed it with water again at the end.  They could pick it up and tilt it to let the paint drip if they chose.  Next, they had to draw a design (using lines and shapes) on a small sqaure of paper starting from a corner.  Then, they had to trace their design onto a piece of foam to create the printing plate.  I have them trace it one more time after they pull off the paper to make sure the lines are deep enough.  Finally, they roll ink onto the foam and print it four times on their painted paper.  To make sure they print in the right direction each time, I had them mark the corner they started from on the back of the foam.  I told them the mark has to point to the center of the paper each time in order to create a radial print.  For their assessment they had to write a "How-To" paragraph.  They look fantastic!

Spooky Trees

My third grade class at Sweet Apple ES did this Spooky Trees lesson.  It was a great value lesson.  They had to paint a value scale in circles for the background.  Then, we studied the shape of trees.  They did a contour drawing of a tree on black paper, cut it out and glued it over their value painting.  They loved this lesson!  They turned out great!

Bark Paintings

The Second Graders created bark paintings inspired by the Nahau Native American tribe from Mexico. They studied the culture to prepare themelves for their paintings. The students drew from observation with pictures of animals from Mexico that I provided. They used their drawing as the emphasis for their bark paintings. Before they drew their animals they had to prepare the paper to make it look like bark. They crumbled the paper and painted it with watered down black tempera paint. They painted their animals with tempera paint after they drew them. Finally, they painted a pattern in the background. Great Work!

First Grade: Mexican Plates

My First Grade classes made Mexican Plate Collages.  They also studied Mexico to prepare the students for the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition coming to the High Museum in February. The students looked at the colorful Fiber Art, specifically rugs, that come from Mexico to get ideas for their placemats.  They drew patterns with oil pastels and painted over their patterns with tempera cakes to create a paint resist for their placemats.  Then, they painted something from nature as the emphasis for the plates.  They used oil pastels to draw a line pattern behind their emphasis.  Next, they traced a circle on their painted paper and another on a plain colored paper.  They cut them out and glued their plate design on the the plain paper to make the plate.  Finally, they glued the plate on the placemat.  Fantastic!

Kindergarten created a Bug on a Rug collage.  They studied Mexico to prepare the students for the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition coming to the High Museum in February.  The students looked at the colorful Fiber Art, specifically rugs,  that come from Mexico.  They made their rug out of paper, oil pastels, and tempera cake paints.  They used a paint resist technique.  In the first unit they studied lines, shapes, color, and patterns.  They had to use lines to create a pattern for their rug.  Then, we talked about how there are shapes all around us.  They looked at bug pictures to see what kind of shapes they could find.  They used shapes to make their bug out of construction paper.  Finally, they glued their bug onto the rug.  They turned out great!

We just finished up Unit 1 and I have some great artwork to share.  Check out what we have been doing!

2012-2013 School Year

I am ready for another great school year.  It has been a while since I have posted anything new.  At the end of the school year, I was out on maternity leave.  It has been a very busy summer for me.  There will be a lot of creative thinking going on in the Cavenaugh Studio this year.  Please make sure to stop by periodically and check out what we are creating.  I am looking forward to sharing all the wonderful art my students make!

First Grade Cityscapes

Students Entries:  Ms. Martin's 1st Grade Class

I made a cityscape.I learnd about a horizon line and dephth.we drew cars and birds.The color of the sky was  purple.I drew a firetruck.It was fun.

by: Allen

I made a cityscape.I love it so much.I worked so hard on it.We drew cars suns and birds.The color of my sky was blue.I hop you like it.              
by: Ella