Why is the Blue Dog Blue?

This week in art my students paid tribute to a famous Louisiana artist, George Rodrigue.  Since we are from Louisiana our 3rd grade social studies curriculum focuses on our culture.  I love living in Louisiana.  I love our food, the architecture, the hunting and fishing, and so much more.  One of my favorite things about living here is being close to New Orleans.  For me, it is a beautiful city to visit.  I love seeing the various artists in the French Quarter.  Over the Christmas break I had the pleasure of bringing my two sister-in-laws down there for a visit.  They had never been before and its a city you have to see.
                                                                                 Here we are strolling through the French Quarter.                                                     

                            
 This is my little one being silly and sporting her Mardi Gras mask. 

 What would we be with Alligators and Swamp People?

 The architecture is beautiful in the city. 

 My favorite moment was when my daughter and husband spent time throwing money in the fountain.  She likes to make wishes. 

 This is my other sister-in-law enjoying the art of Mardi Gras. 












Every time I go into the city I have to stop by George Rodrigue's studio to catch a glimpse of The Blue Dog.   If I could pack up all of my 3rd grades and take them to the city I would.  But for now they will have to settle with making their own Blue Dogs.

I started the lesson by showing them videos and examples from George Rodrigue's website .
Then we drew our dogs in pencil.  Next the students painted their dogs starting with the light color.  Then we added the white and black details.  Next, we add the shadow with the dark shade and finished him off with oil pastels.  This was a fun project that the kids really enjoyed.  

 

Round and Round We Go!

I don't know about everyone else, but things have been crazy at school.  Our students have been busy taking our 3rd Quarter benchmarks which means their little brains are mush by 1:00. 

So what do you do with mushy brained children for the rest of the day?

You Circle Paint!

I found this activity last year while browsing through YouTube.  I found this really cool video of this art festival and I loved how all the people at the festival contributed to this one giant piece of art.  

 

 So all my kiddos and I laid out a big roll of paper with paint and large brushes.  We all got on either side of the paper, played some Vitamin String Quartet, and got to circling.  My only rules were you could only draw dots, circles, or curved lines; and no pictures could be made like smiley faces or flowers.  We had a blast!  I think (as always) it turned out great!!  Next week we will mellow out with some Blue Dog art.    

Domo Arigato Mr.Roboto!

So its Masterpiece Monday.....on Tuesday!

As usual school keeps me busy.  This week the students worked on making robots.  First we looked the the movie, Robots with Robin Williams.  The kids got some good ideas on how different robots looked.  Then we sketched them on large construction paper and outlined with black tempera paint. 

 

Next, we mixed up some gray paint and painted the inside of our robots.  

 Lastly, we added in the white highlights and shadows.  We used oil pastels and sharpies to add colorful details.  I think they turned out really well. 

Masterpiece Mondays

Today will be my first post in my series of posts called,  "Masterpiece Mondays."

I LOVE art and I always find time in my day to teach it to my students.  Now let me preface this by saying I am not a professional artist and I don't claim to be.  I've just always had a passion for art and we teach what we love.

This week we were working on 2 and 3 dimensional solids in math.  I saw this art on Pintrest and was inspired to try it in my class. 

To start the activity off I reviewed with the kids our previous lessons on lines and angles.  They loved saying "acute little angle" in a girly voice and "obtuse angle" in a fat monster voice. 

Then I had the kids divide up their papers with the rulers.  We then sketched the 3d shapes and erased our inside lines. 

We used oil pastels and construction paper.  The kids have really enjoyed using them this year. 

Here are some of my kids hard at work. 



I forgot to take more pictures of their finished products, but I shall leave you with this lesson.....

When drawing solids, always check your students cylinders. 

 

Can you name the solids in this picture?