Today we practiced creating symmetry inspired by the newly emerged butterflies in our class. We used a transfer technique and oil pastels to trace, fold, rub, and create the beautiful lines and colours for each butterfly.

oil pastel

We have been learning about Coast Salish artists and our school has been lucky to have the Salish Weave Collection from the school district. This beautiful art has been up around the school and we've been exploring the art through stories and shapes. We've learned about shapes used in Indigenous art such as trigon, crescent, extended crescent, u-shape, circle and oval. After studying many art pieces and reading Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox by Danielle Daniel, we chose an animal we connect to and created it using Coast Salish shapes. I was so impressed with the kids imaginations! 

construction paper, watercolour

As we begin our focus on community, we took a look at animal communities, and the fun, collective nouns used to describe them.  You may have heard of a swarm of bees before, but what about a flamboyance of flamingos, or a caravan of camels? We had a lot of fun with this art activity, using animal figurines to guide us in our drawings, and painting them with watercolours. 

Sharpie, watercolour paint

This week's art activity was inspired by our wild, Westcoast weather. After reading 'Worm Weather,' by Jean Taft, we talked about our favourite things to do during a rainstorm. We then learned about wax and oil resist, creating raindrops, puddles, and rainbows with oil pastel. A wash of stormy black and blue watercolour and this art and science activity revealed all of our raindrops once again! What is your favourite thing to do on a rainy day?

crayon and oil pastel, watercolour paint

This week in art, students created paintings inspired by Katy Hudson's book, 'Too Many Carrots!' For this project, we began by drawing  simple bunnies using shapes and lines, then adding details such as long ears, whiskers, and expressive faces to bring our bunnies to life. Next, students were challenged to draw as many carrots as they could, just like in the story when the bunny is so eager to collect carrots that he finds himself without any space in his home to live in! We practiced drawing carrots of all different sizes, using the whole space, and trying to have our shapes close but not overlapping. Finally, we added our bunny back into the picture, surrounded by one of his favourite things. It turns out, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing!

sharpie, watercolour paint, tempera paint

Over the past week, the students in Grade 1 have been engaging enthusiastically in the design process while creating model rocket ships using cardboard, recycled materials, and a variety of art supplies. For this ADST project (Applied, Design, Skills, and Technologies), students participated in generating creative ideas, planning their designs, and collecting materials with a clear purpose in mind. During construction, we practiced using different materials and tools safely and assembling materials to make their rockets stable and detailed. Our big buddies helped with discussing plans and assisting with the construction process.

cardboard, recycled materials, art supplies

This month we have been working on recognizing and creating shape, number, and colour patterns. Can you find them all in our wintery toques?

sharpie, crayons, pompoms

Our winter branches were inspired by all of the evergreens and berries that we have been seeing outside our classroom and during outdoor learning time. This week we learned about the different types of trees, and how some trees are evergreen and hold on to their leaves. To create this art we used cardboard to print branches and needles. We then added berries with cotton swaps and snow using a splatter technique with icy white paint.

cardboard, tempera paint

This week we read the story, How to Make Friends with a Ghost, by Rebecca Green. In this sweet little tale, the reader learns the best ways to make and take care of friendly ghosts. 

Our art project involved a collage of painted leaf prints and line-drawings of webs, spiders, worms, and more. To add depth to our pictures, white and black chalk pastel were used to create shadows and sunlit webs. Finally, our drawing and scissors skills were put to use creating our friendly ghosts.

Tempera paint, sharpie, chalk pastel

This week's art activity was all about what one might see in a pumpkin patch at night under the full moon and twinkling stars. This fall-inspired project continued to develop our art skills as we practiced colour mixing, composition, collage, and playing with light and shadows. To do our colour mixing, the artists had fun using only primary colours to make variations of orange and green with red, yellow, and blue paint. 

Tempera paint, oil pastel, chalk pastel