Dear Jasper and Kestrel,
One of the things I love doing with my fourth graders is art. I love and appreciate art, but I am not trained in it. So my students and I are on more of a level playing field. I love seeing what they can do!
Last week we played with Impressionism. We looked at paintings by Monet and Renoir, seeing how they blurred their colors and played with light. This was hard to do. Kids who are used to drawing with hard pencil lines don’t like fuzzy lines. The most successful work was from Ramon, who did a picture of his uncle’s jeeps.
This week we watched a video about Henri Matisse and his papercuts, which he called “Painting with scissors”. My students took the idea and ran with it!
We got very Matisse-like abstracts, as well as original cartoon characters, cowboys, and even an aquarium which was a collaboration between three boys. The art and the working together was beautiful to see.
Afterwards, of course, we spent quite a while putting away scissors and glue, and getting millions of tiny its of paper off the floor. But it was worth it! I wonder what kind of art we will do next week?
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 