4th Grade- Circle Designs!

This was a quick and easy 2-day project that gave fourth grade practice with patterns. I had previously cut out different sizes of circles to be used as a stencil. The students started by tracing around the circles, starting with the largest and ending with the smallest one in the center. The next step was to decorate each section with a different pattern and color it in. I made sure that they understood that a pattern had to repeat over and over again. They cut them out to finish them. They were very successful!

2nd Grade- Matisse Vases!

We practiced pattern by looking at Matisse's work and making flowers and vases inspired by his. The first step was to draw a shape for the vase. The students then used markers to add patterns to the vases. The next day they added flowers by tearing peices of tissue paper and gluing a dot in the middle and glueing them down. They then glued them down and scrunched them up to be 3D. I love you colorful and unique every one of them are!

They also looked very great in the hallway for Spring! 

3rd Grade- Aboriginal Art!

I chose to do a project on aboriginal art with the students as a way to practice pattern. We began the lesson by looking at images of aboriginal art and discussing the use of patterns and dots. Then I had the students think of an animal that best represented their personalities. They drew the animal with black and white colored pencils and filled it in with patterns.

The next day, students used q-tips and paint to add patterns of dots around their animals just like the Aborigines did! They turned out great!

2nd Grade- Shapes and Patterns!

2nd grade finally got to start their next project after spending such a long time on their line weavings! I got this project idea from a mentor teacher from my internship: Adventures in Elementary Art . We began the lesson by learning about geomentric shapes and drawing them on the board. I had the students choose 5 shapes to use for their project. They had to draw all 5 shapes overlapping each other. I pointed out that when the shapes overlapped, a new shape was made. They had to make sure the shapes were big enough to draw in later.

Then, we talked about patterns. The students told me about different types of patterns and examples of where they see patterns in real life. I told the students to fill in each shape (even the new ones created by overlapping) with the coolest and most creative patterns they could come up with. They used colored pencils and had to make it as colorful as possible and fill in all the white space.

The last step was to cut the entire shape out and glue it on a piece of colored construction paper. I was impressed with the amount of detail and color in the patterns!