SECOND GRADE HOME PAGE
Overview and Lesson Descriptions

ART CLASSES IN SECOND GRADE - An Overview

Second Grade Artists are encouraged to express imagination while focusing on their development of the art elements of Line, Shape, Color, Space, Texture, and Form. Students at this age have an increasing awareness of detail, while continuing to express a genuine sense of make-believe. As a result, many students demonstrate the art principles, such as Pattern and Movement, somewhat intuitively in their compositions. Artists work with a variety of tools and medium for 2-D artworks including tempera, watercolor, oil and chalk pastel; new techniques are introduced in painting and mixed media. Pottery and 3-D pieces encourage greater detail with more complex attachments and glazing techniques.

November 2010

TURKEY BOWLS - Glazed Terracotta Clay Turkeys

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Artists worked with clay for the first time this school year to construct these clay turkey bowls.  We first formed the clay into a sphere the size of a baseball.  Then, by pushing down our thumb into the center, students constructed a basic pinch pot.  Care was taken to form a bowl that was even in thickness throughout.  Next, artists attached various clay coils to form the neck, head, feathers, wings.  Some artists scratched texture details into the clay to enhance the turkey feathers.  After the first bisque firing, students brushed glazes onto their turkeys and awaited the always surprising results from the second glaze firing. Ask your young artist how hot the kiln gets, and how long it takes to "cook" one of these special turkeys?  Click to view Galleries.
The Donoval Gallery
The Maines Gallery
The Thoune Gallery

October 2010

HARVEST PUMPKIN PATCH - Mixed Media Painting in Tempera and Chalk Pastels

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Artists focused on the art elements of Color, Shape, and Space in completing these mixed media paintings. After creating a balanced composition of four to six pumpkin shapes that overlap and fill the space, young artists developed their color mixing skills by painting a variety of orange-hued pumpkins. These included orange, yellow-orange, red-orange, and an dorange tint. To help show the roundness of the shape, students were encouraged to make their "brushstrokes go the way the pumpkins grow." To complete their piece, artists blended chalk pastels to add details, to enhance their painted sky and ground, and to express their personal style. Click to view Galleries.
The Donoval Gallery
The Maines Gallery
The Thoune Gallery

September 2010

COLLAGE - Texture and Line Study in Mixed Media 

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Young artists collected various crayon rubbings while exploring the art element of Texture throughout Sheridan School. In a followup lesson, students studied the art elements of Shape and Space while deconstructing their rubbings and reconstructing them to create a collage. The design principle of Pattern was added with oil pastel to unify the shapes in a mixed-media collage.  Click to view Galleries.
The Donoval Gallery 
The Maines Gallery
The Thoune Gallery