5th Grade Gyotaku at Skano

 I have heard of art classes that have used real fish for this fun printing

process, but we stuck with a detailed rubber replica instead!  Students completed

an abstract watercolor painting, and then printed sea creatures, much like Japanese

fishermen did in the 1800's.  The colors and patterns are beautiful!

3th Grade Skano Ocean Paintings

 To avoid repeating projects with my new Skano kids, I have been switching up some projects; this is a brand new lesson on texture, and although it has been lengthy, the results have been fantastic!  We began with a wet-on-wet watercolor background, and added salt to create some interesting texture.  The photos don't showcase the sea creatures as nicely as in person, because they are made from foil, and they too have a texture that was created by rubbing the foil on a texture plate.  Bravo, Skano kids!

Skano Pizza Bakers!

Mrs. Miller's 1st graders had a great time creating these pizza slices; besides working on cutting out geometric shapes, they determined the order of ingredients needed to create the perfect pizza.   Art + cooking = fun!

4th Grade Collages - Tesago

 Students were required to use printed leaf shapes to create an image, in collage form, that had nothing to do with leaves.  The process of working through this challenge was a very important part of the lesson. The solutions that students created were very imaginative, and sometimes very funny!  After analyzing the collages of Henri Matisse, and various other artists, students have a new appreciation for this unique art form.

2nd grade Tesago paintings

The artwork of Tom Shulten was our inspiration for this colorful, fun project, which is a new lesson for me.  Shulten creates landscapes that are very geometric and bright; students did the same, with an emphasis on holding the paint brush in different ways to create different effects.  I love these!!

Mrs. Mokay's Leaf Prints

 This is a brand new project that I discovered on Pinterest, thanks to a post from a former student;  thank you, Molly!  I collected leaves, primarily maples, and students colored on the back side, and then used a roller to print the leaf image.  So simple, but so effective!  We used colored pencils to add color to the background.  I was very impressed with the compositions that students created with their leaves!

Gyotaku at Tesago

 This challenging printing project is based on Japanese fish prints, which

date back to the 1800's.  No, we did not print with real fish!  I have some

wonderful rubber fish and sea creatures that are great replacements for the

real thing.  Students created an abstract design first, using watercolor on 

cloth, and then completed the printing process.