Embedded Files
First Trimester
First Trimester
These name tags were shuffled together and will be used throughout the school year to assign jobs in the Art room. Each student will have an opportunity to assume responsibility for distributing supplies and assist with cleanup at the end of Art class.
Name Tag Patterns
Name Tag Patterns
Click here or on the image above to see a gallery of student art.
Students started off the year with a simple design challenge: to decorate a strip of paper with their name on it. They were challenged to write their name, stretching the letters to fit the height of the paper. With their name written in Sharpie, students filled the negative space (the white space around their letters) with patterns.
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can change the shape of a letter to fit a given space. I can use repeating lines, shapes, and colors to create a pattern.
Engage & Persist: I can work through problems to find creative solutions.
Express: I can choose colors and patterns that reflect my interests.
Stretch & Explore: I can challenge myself to make more complex patterns.
Understand the Art World: I can share materials. I can speak kindly and encouragingly to my classmates. I can take responsibility for cleaning up my workspace at the end of class.
Students worked diligently to make detailed, interesting patterns.
Cartoon Monsters
Cartoon Monsters
Click here or on the student art at right to view a gallery of all student work.
Friendly or fierce, soft or spikey: who doesn't love a good monster?
Connecting art and literacy, second grade students practiced drawing different facial expressions and thought hard to find an interesting adjective that would capture the feeling connected to that facial expression. Students looked at Ms. Pomranky's favorite cartoon, Calvin & Hobbes, to see how Bill Watterson tells a story using Calvin's facial expressions instead of words. They practiced drawing cartoons and brainstormed adjectives that fit with the facial expression they created. Simultaneously, students also learned about texture (how something feels) and explored different adjectives that communicate texture.
We used collage techniques to build these creative creatures, so students got a lot of practice making precise cuts with scissors!
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can create different textures with paint by dragging, swishing, and tapping a paintbrush. I can control scissors with precision to cut the shapes I want.
Stretch & Explore: I can use non-traditional tools (a plastic fork) to create texture in paint.
Envision: I plan out my artwork with a drawing before I begin.
Express: I picked a unique personality for my monster and chose adjectives that best fit my monster. I chose my own texture and color combinations for my monster.
Engage & Persist: I work diligently on my artwork, using all the time I am given to make my best work.
Second Trimester
Second Trimester
Hundertwasser Landscapes
Hundertwasser Landscapes
Click here or on the student art at left to view a gallery of all student work.
Friedensreich Hundertwasser was born Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna, Austria in 1928. He was a young boy when his father died and he saw his city destroyed during World War I. During these difficult times, he found hope in nature. Hundertwasser's love for nature influenced his artwork for the rest of his life.
Hundertwasser began as a painter, but eventually designed buildings too. These buildings reflect the style of his paintings: bright colors, patterns, and wavy lines. (You won't find many perfectly straight lines in his buildings, or in his paintings! He avoided them on purpose.)
We outlined our original drawings with Sharpie, then brought them to life with watercolor and tempera paint.
We practiced drawing slowly and intentionally.
We layered yellow and blue paint over green to create new hues of green.
We used bright colors to paint vertical or horizontal stripes on our buildings.
We practiced adding water to blue watercolor paint to make it lighter.
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can paint precisely with a brush. I can control the amount of water I add to change the lightness of my watercolor paint. I can layer watercolor paint to create new hues. I can draw neatly with Sharpie.
Engage & Persist: When I encounter a problem, I can come up with creative solutions. When I make a mistake that I can't fix on my own, I ask an adult for help.
Envision: I make a sketch to work out my ideas. think about the colors and patterns I want to use before painting.
Express: I can use ideas from Hundertwasser's work to invent my own unique building.
Observe: I can identify themes of color, line, and shape in Hundertwasser's work.
Reflect: I can identify successes and areas needing improvement in my own art.
Understand the Art World: I can tell the stories of important moments in Hundertwasser's life. I work diligently without distracting others
Sandra Silberzweig Faces
Sandra Silberzweig Faces
Click here or on the student art at right to view a gallery of all student work.
The bright, patterned artwork of Canadian artist Sandra Silberzweig inspired us to make our own colorful faces!
Students drew the faces with simplified shapes, just like Sandra Silberzweig. They used black glue to trace the lines of their face. When the glue was dry, they colored in the space with chalk pastel, blending two or three colors together in each space. Since we used our fingers to blend the chalk, we made quite a mess!
This project was a great opportunity for students to dive into color theory. We learned about analogous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel that blend smoothly into each other). We also learned how to use complementary colors to create contrast.
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can blend two colors of chalk together smoothly.
Engage & Persist: When I encounter a problem or make a mistake, I work hard to find a creative solution. I spend my class time engaged in artmaking.
Envision: I use the color wheel to choose colors that harmonize (for blending )or contrast (to add patterns).
Observe: I look carefully for spots that need more color.
Stretch & Explore: I use chalk to create neat, precise patterns.
Express: I choose colors that I find appealing.
Understand the Art World: I can explain synesthesia. I can identify characteristics of Sandra Silberzweig's art.
Third Trimester
Third Trimester
Faith Ringgold Story Quilts
Faith Ringgold Story Quilts
Click here or on Quinn's art below to view a gallery of all student work.
In this unit, we explored how art can be used to tell a story. The artist Faith Ringgold created what she termed "story quilts" to tell stories of her life and the people who inspired her. Excited by the idea of telling stories that are important to us, we created our own mini story quilts with cut paper.
During the course of the unit, we explored Faith's artwork and learned about the ways she fought for equal rights for women and people of color. As we created the quilting around the edge, we practiced joining two pieces together as we might while sewing. We matched the face (patterned) sides of the paper, glued them together to create a seam, and then folded one piece back to reveal the pattern.
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Using the Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft: I can "seam" two pieces of paper together like I would seam two pieces of fabric. I can use shapes to draw the human body.
Envision: I can make a practice sketch before I start on my final drawing.
Observe: I include small details to make my artwork more interesting.
Stretch & Explore: I can burnish colored pencil by pushing hard. I can blend two colors together using the burnishing technique.
Express: I drew a story that is meaningful to me.
Understand the Art World: I can tell the story of Faith Ringgold's life. I can explain how she was involved in the Civil Rights and Equal Rights movements.
About Your Child's Artistic Development
About Your Child's Artistic Development
Second grade children are in a phase of artistic development that Art Educator Viktor Lowenfeld termed the "Schematic" stage. While second graders are interested in representing the world around them, they do so mostly through symbols or visual vocabulary that they've developed over time. You may notice your child draws people using the same formula, making slight alterations to clothing or hair to differentiate one person from another.
Your child has a well-developed sense of the relationship of things to each other in space. You may notice your child draws recognizable scenes (like her family or house), but that some objects may be drawn sideways or upside-down.
She chooses colors that match the color of the object in real life. At the same time, she may use the size of an object to show its importance (as opposed to its size in relation to other things). You may notice, for example, that she draws the family chihuahua the size of a bear.
All of this is okay! Your child is using art to make sense of the world around him. Keep encouraging him to explain his art to you. There may very well be a thoughtful, complicated story behind the drawings he makes!
Children of this age are usually highly motivated by opportunities to try new artmaking strategies. If your child is very interested in artmaking, you might consider expanding your artmaking materials beyond markers and paint with materials like FIMO clay, paper quilling tools and paper, and watercolor pencils.
Page updated
Report abuse