Mrs. Smith's Creatvity Lab

Second Grade - Unit 1 - Faith Ringgold inspired Dreams

Second grade examined the work of artist, author and illustrator Faith Ringgold and read her famous book, Tar Beach. They discovered that Ringgold frequently added decorative borders around her work that resemble quilts and multiple patterns throughout. By looking closely at her work, they learned that many of her paintings tell a story that could be "read" just through the images. I like to stress to the students my definition of an artist...

Someone with creative ideas who communicates
those ideas through visual images.

Inspired by the book, Tar Beach, second graders imagined they could simply fly over something and make it their own. Some choose to "fly" over a special place they might go with their family while others had dreams of owning their own amusement park and toy factory.

"Now I have claimed it. All I had to do was to fly over it to be mine forever." Tar Beach - Faith Ringgold

Payton

Alex

Armon

Connor M.

Camille

Stephanie N.

Mark

Mia

Sophia R.

Ashley

Charlotte

Peter

Emma

First Grade - Unit 1 - Original Car Desigs

For our next project, the first grade students learned about different jobs artist have in our community. They happily took on the job of future car designers and create their own dream cars. They gained some inspiration from the Dream Car exhibit recently held at the High Museum of Art. They learned they could combine geometric shapes to create anything they wanted. They also learned about the very powerful Horizon Line (the line the separates the sky from the ground). This line helps their artwork have a more realistic landscape for a background. I hope to one day ride in their car designs!

Chloe S.

Christopher B.

Daniel L.

Emma J.

Gabriella F.

Habeeba

Arav

Kayley

Kendra A.

Lori S.

Ryleigh S.

First Grade - Unit 1 - Color Mixing Fish

The first graders explored the color wheel further in their 2nd project by mixing the three primary colors together to create secondary colors. With this they created a underwater scene.

Nikila

Christian

Angela K.

Anya g.

Emma

Ana B.

Matthew A.

Kaito S.

Amara R.

First Grade - Unit 1 - Mondian's Primary Colors

To begin the year first graders learned about the color wheel and gained inspiration from the artist Mondrian. They examined how he used only primary colors and geometric shapes in his work. They create their own Mondrian inspired collages using only primary colors but then added different shape line patterns.

Artist: Mondrian

Logan

Gabby

Neil L.

Lucas D.

Chloe

Brody

Kindergarten - Unit 1 - Wild Things

We read Maurice Sendack's Where the Wild Things Are and were inspired by his fantastically creative creatures. The students' discovered the creatures were made by combining geometric shapes and free form shapes together and used this information to create their own "Wild Things". It amazes me to see how different each student's creature was.