First Grade 2022-23

Welcome to the First Grade Art page!

First grade has art class two times a week, Monday at 9:25 and Friday at 12:35. We learn to use things like lines, shapes, and colors to make artwork, and we practice using many different art materials such as paint, pencils, scissors, glue, and clay. We also see how art and artists can help us understand things about God's world, and sometimes use art to learn more about some of the things we're learning in the first grade classroom. I will be posting some pictures of first grade artwork on this page all year, so parents, please visit often to see what your children have been doing in art!

What we are doing:

First graders painted many sheets of paper with color patterns and textures, then created landscape collages with their painted paper. They also used small pieces of cardboard and black and white paint to print trunks and branches on their trees.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art.

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic visual art tools and materials.

3.a. I can describe art work using art terminology at my grade level.

First graders created hybrid animals by combining the endangered animals from their inquiry projects with one or more other animals. Here are their newly invented animals!

Endangered animals

First graders are learning about endangered animals as an inquiry project in their classroom. In art class they paintedmurals of their animals in actual size. To complete the murals they added written information about the animals in their classroom.

What we are doing:

First graders worked with the elements of form and texture to create small nests and birds from clay. After their projects were fired in the kiln the students painted them with glazes and they were fired again, becoming shiny and colorful.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art (Form and Texture).

1.d. I can use art room tools and media safely.

First grade "Loud Mouth" character collages

What we are doing:

First graders celebrated the 120th day of school in their classroom. In art class they worked in groups to create large collages made of 120 shapes.

What we are doing:

First graders looked at how American artist Alma Thomas created colorful abstract paintings by using a flat brush to make short, repeating lines. Some of her paintings reminded the students of real things in God's creation like the sun, mountains, and rainbows. They tried this technique by using a flat brush to create repeating lines around a circle in different colors.

Standards:

1.b. I can create art that explores the principles of art (rhythm/repetition).

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic art tools and materials.

3.c. I can describe the feelings a specific artwork stirs up in me.

First graders drew cities with personality, where the colors are bright and the buildings have faces.

Hearts, mixed media, and symmetry

First grade students each created two mixed media paintings by covering their paper first with oil pastel lines, then liquid watercolors, and finally tempera paint. When their paintings were dry they cut positive and negative heart shapes from a piece of colored paper by folding and cutting a symmetrical shape. They glued the hearts onto their paintings - the positive heart on one and the negative heart on the other - and finished by adding designs and words to their artwork with oil pastels.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art (shape, texture).

1.b. I can create art that explores the principles of art (balance).

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic visual art tools and materials.

What we are doing:

First graders created clay pinch pots that became bells when they were finished. They worked on creating a thin, open shape that would produce a good sound when struck. They applied glaze to their bells to make them shiny and colorful.

What we are doing:

Students collaged small pieces of tissue paper onto a white background. It was fun to see new colors appear where the pieces overlapped. They used their tissue paper to create a landscape collage.

Standards:

1.b. I can create art that explores the principles of art (rhythm/repetition).

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic art tools and materials.

What we are doing:

First graders looked at still life paintings by artists Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse. We talked about how the artists used the shapes and colors of still objects like apples and dishes to create interesting and beautiful designs. We also saw how the artists used placement and overlapping to create depth and distance in their paintings. The students created watercolor and paper collage still life paintings, using overlapping, shadows, and highlights to show depth.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art.

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic visual art tools and materials (ex. crayons, scissors, brushes).

3.a. I can describe art work using art terminology at my grade level.

Starting with a square

First graders started with squares of colored paper and cut, tore, punched, and glued them to create different shapes and designs. Inspired by the book Perfect Square by Michael Hall.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art.

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic visual art tools and materials.

What we are doing:

In first grade we did a "science experiment" in art, exploring what happens when different colors are mixed together. First the students drew beakers for their experiments, working with lines and shapes to create three-dimensional forms. Then they dripped different colors of paint onto wet paper and watched what happened when the colors bled together. They finished their pictures by cutting out the beakers and gluing them on a black background, which they decorated with oil pastels.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art.

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic visual art tools and materials.

1.e. I can create both 2- and 3-dimensional works of art.

First graders at work

First graders discussed the difference between shapes and forms, looked at beakers from the science lab, then used lines and shapes to draw beakers that look like three-dimensional forms. Next time they will do a "science experiment" with colors and water inside the beakers they drew today.

What we are doing:

First graders are learning about how to create space in artwork. They divided a sheet of paper into ground, water, and sky, and are using crayons to fill the underwater space with sea creatures. When they finished drawing and coloring they painted liquid watercolors over the crayons to create a resist design.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art.

1.c. I can demonstrate improvement in my coordination and development of skills in the use of basic visual art tools and materials.

What we are doing:

First graders learned about Spanish artist Joan Miro, and looked at how he used different kinds of lines and different ways of applying paint in his abstract artwork. They created paintings of birds by first splattering primary colors on paper using a toothbrush, then used 3 sizes of paintbrushes to paint the birds. They finished their paintings by adding more colors to some areas.

What we are doing:

The first graders learned about Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, and how he created art using only straight black lines and primary colors. The students tried their hand at creating artwork using Mondrian's "rules," working with black paper strips and red, yellow, and blue paint.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art.

3.a. I can describe art work using art terminology at my grade level.

The first graders are beginning to learn about some of the principles of design. We read the book A Pair of Socks by Stuart Murphy and Lois Ehlert, and the students worked with the principles of balance (symmetrical) and pattern to create a collage of a matching pair of socks.

What we are doing:

After looking at Starry Night and other paintings by artist Vincent Van Gogh, first graders used colored chalk to apply white tempera paint to black paper, creating their own night sky paintings.

What we are doing:

First graders worked with the elements of line and shape and the principles of pattern and rhythm to create colorful designs. We talked about examples of rhythm and pattern in music, art, and God's creation. Students started by tracing the shapes of their hands, then used lines to create rhythm by repeating the hand shapes over and over again in a color pattern.

What we are doing:

Artists often find inspiration God's creation, and some of nature's most beautiful creatures are birds, in all colors, shapes, and sizes. First graders looked at pictures of Taiwan birds and made some sketches of birds focusing on shapes. Sketches are an important planning step for artists! Then they created collages of their birds using a variety of textures--different kinds of paper, texture rubbings, stickers, and feathers.

Standards:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art.

1.d. I can use art room tools and media safely (scissors, clay, paints, etc)

3.a. I can describe artwork using art terminology at my grade level.

What we are doing:

First graders learned that one way to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on paper is by using overlapping, making objects cover parts of things that are behind them. They used shape stencils to create overlapping designs.

Standard:

1.a. I can create art that explores the elements of art (space).

What we are doing:

First graders created 3-D sculptures from flat strips of paper. They made playgrounds, video games, roller coasters, tangles, stairs, and lots of other great things!

During the first few weeks of school first graders will be learning about the elements of art. The elements of line, shape, color, etc. are a part of the created order, some of the "laws" God set in place to help us make sense of what we see in the world around us. They are also the building blocks of art creation. Their first project focused on the elements of line and color. Students used white oil pastels to make a variety of lines to frame and decorate their names, then applied watercolor washes on top to create a resist design.

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