Glowing Pumpkins

Our third graders have been "playing" with oil pastels and chalk pastels, added some bling (gold crayon) and created some super cool glow-in-the -dark pumpkins.

We started with a black sheet of paper, outlined the pumpkin with black oil pastel and then filled it in with yellow and orange. Students then added a bit of gold on the top to give it some shimmer.

Next they outlined the pumpkin with a white chalk pastel and gently smudged the edges.
Last they used a while oil pastel and added a while zig-zag line around the pumpkin to make GLOW>
Add some stars and maybe a moon and you have some very amazing glowing pumpkins.

GREAT job guys!!!
Some of the best glowing pumpkins Milpitas has ever seen :)

GREAT fun with the 3rd grades and another successful super spookable Art Attack on Curtner Elementary.

Credit for this amazing project belongs to the wonderful Kathy Barbro from Art Projects for Kids .

Self-Portraits - Grade 3 / Room P-4

Here is another 3rd grade version of the Slef-Portraits.
Again, just amazing art work ... well done Room P-4!

All of these masterpieces are so unique and say a lot about our aspiring artists at Curtner.
I can not wait to showcase many of these in our first Curtner Art Show at the end of this school year.

Art Attack on P-4 ... easy as can be!
Little hands - BIG ideas!!!

Self-Portraits - Grade 3 / Room P5

This session was lead by Mr. and Mrs. Patague since their son attends this class.
And just like this an art lesson turned into a family event :)
The session must have been taught by some very talented people. The results are excellent!

Just see for yourself ...

This portrait impressed quite a few volunteers when we sorted the pictures later.
Apparently it's an exact image if the little artist. A very talented young man!

We have one more class to go and then all 3rd Graders will have completed their first art session.
But they won't have time to relax.
Earth Day is here soon and everybody needs to put on their recycling artist hats, create, reuse and be resourceful.

Art Attack at Curtner is in full motion!

Self-Portraits - Grade 3 / Room P3

Here are the masterpieces of the first self portrait session we had.
The kids were so excited about this project. The results show how much fun we ALL had.

Enjoy!

Absolutely AMAZING!!!
Another successful Art Attack on our school :)

Self-Portraits - Lesson

Our 3rd graders have been busy working on their self-portraits.
We had a short lesson about van Gogh and Frieda Kahlo and discussed in which way the artists incorporated information about themselves, their emotions, their likes and dislikes into their self-portraits.

We compared earlier works of the artists with later works and tried to find differences. 

When looking at van Gogh the kids said he looked "angry", "sad", "cold" and "unhappy".

I told the kids a bit about Frieda Kahlo's story, her childhood disease that had left her with a deformed foot and the cable car accident a few years later, that left her permanently disabled.

When looking at the second portrait the kids said she looked "sad", "in pain", very stiff" and "unhappy".

I thought that all of these observations were rather fitting and "right on the spot".
Then I pulled out a little happier self-portrait of my 4 year old daughter and showed it to the kids.
I asked them if they could tell me something about this little person.

The kids said; "she looks happy", "she loves hearts", "she likes princesses" and "she loves to write".

I told the kids that they had just described my daughter perfectly, without ever having met her.
I wanted to relay to them that a self-portrait is more than just a picture of your body, it's also a window into your soul, a reflection of who you are and what you like.

Now it was their turn to be the artist and create.
We use these instructions (by Art Projects for Kids) as guidelines, double traced the self-portrait with black Sharpies and then used oil pastels to fill in the color.
After the self-portrait was completed we did a watered down Temepra wash for the background.

Wait until you see the amazing results the kids created!
They were on fire and made the most amazing portraits and all of them enjoyed their Art Attack very much :)