This year in 2nd grade

My second graders have a lot of energy and curiosity. They seem to get really engrossed in details. Some of them already have a serious interest in drawing certain styles or genres of things, and they love to share their independent artwork with me. But it's also an age when I start to see a lack of confidence in artistic ability, so we have a lot of conversations about how important it is to try your best, and that practice makes you grow, and that you need to experiment and try new things. The first half of the year we work on elements and principles of art and genre, and the second half we focus on art around the world.

Here's what we learned in second grade this year:

We learned how to turn lines into shapes and use patterns:

somebody really liked stripes!

 We learned how to use a compass and ruler to draw geometric shapes,and our imaginations to make organic shapes. We learned how to blend oil pastels to mix colors and create tints and shades:

Kandinsky-inspired non-objective art project

 We learned how to draw forms like cylinders and prisms. We learned how to shade in colored pencil. We tried to make a realistic still-life by looking at the light and shadows of our objects:

 We learned how to make values in paint. We learned about background and foreground to create space in a landscape:

poor little lost bunny in the big city

 We learned about illustrations and how pictures help us understand a story. We also made a self-portrait that showed what we like to read:

 We learned about folk-art traditions in Mexico.We learned how forms can be combined to make a sculpture and how to make it strong and stable:

 We learned about fiber art traditions in Central America. We learned about concentric lines and shapes, contrast and repetition:

 We learned about art and animals in Mali, Africa. We learned how to make a stamp and how to print a pattern. We learned about prey and predator animals and how to blend oil pastels:

 We learned about architecture from around the world, and drew dream buildings inspired by famous works of architecture.

I hope my second graders keep their creative spirit and open minds as they enter third grade!