A little of this, a little of that

Sixth graders are finishing up their Blue Willow china patterns after learning about monochromatic color. (*Note that some of these are just works-in-progress, and I don't know why that last one rotated 90 degrees.) They are looking GORGEOUS. They actually began this project last spring, after reading The Willow Pattern Story, but I was out for 2 weeks due to minor surgery. Things moved rather slowly with the sub, and we would have had to rush to get them done before the end of the school year when I returned. I had planned for them to be on paper plates, but when I looked at their design plans, they were so good that I agreed to put the designs away and hunt down plates in yard sales all summer. (Their designs were either based on an element or elements of the story, or told their own story. They were to include a border design, and some of the plates had a raised pattern that I allowed the kids to use if they desired.) As a result of my yard sale shopping, everyone gets to paint on a "real" plate! The kids are using a variety of blue Sharpies for drawing, and painting with Nasco Bulk-krylic paint in pthalo blue, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, and white. We are then sealing with a gloss acrylic varnish. I'm so proud of these kids!

Here's some other things we've done to start the year:


Today first graders used watercolors to paint some variations of the sunflowers in my art room (from the school garden).

Second graders started the school year with a warm and cool variation of "A Bad Case of Stripes"
Fifth graders' first project of the year was a quickie symmetrical name design. I've seen similar projects posted on other blogs.