Water Safety Poster Contest

All my elementary and middle school students are participating this year in California's annual Water Safety Poster contest (see details here). After a lesson on some important things to know about water safety, here are the results! I hope at least one of my students gets their artwork in the annual calendar.

Middle School:

Kandinsky Watercolors Sing!

After studying Kandinsky's life and artistic process the elementary students got to work! I played Vivaldi's Four Seasons while they closed their eyes and tried to see colors and shapes in the music. They started by drawing what they saw. I gave them shapes to trace or they could draw freehand and then went over their pencil lines with Sharpies. In the next session I played the same music and they painted in their pictures with watercolors. The results are beautiful!

O'Keeffe Inspired Watercolors

I can't tell you how impressed I was with the way the elementary students put their hearts into painting their watercolors in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers. First I read to them from two children's books that are wonderful biographies of her life and work: