Hoops for Hearts Homage to Jim Dine

To promote the Hoops for Heart program in physical education, we looked at American Pop Artist Jim Dine's very approachable art to inspire the 4th graders. Dine used the heart motif repeatedly in his art. The students first used oil pastels and watercolors on watercolor paper and then chalk pastels on black paper to make their own heart compositions.

Paper Weavings

The 4th graders painted an 18x24" paper abstractly. In the next class they cut their paintings into strips for weaving. We looked at Native American looms and learned weaving terms like "warp" and "weft." They had the option of trading strips or using some provided solid or patterned strips. They weaved the strips fastening with glue and then were able to collage art materials on top of their weavings.

3rd grade Starry Nights

The kids loved looking at Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. Inspired by that iconic landscape, they chose a dark background paper and used craypas to create their own dramatic night skies. The next step was to create a foreground village collaging solid and pattern paper shapes onto a skinny paper strip. The foreground strip was folded and then glued down to the background paper.