4th Grade Figure/Ground Reversal Art

My 4th grade students are learning about negative and positive space. We did this picture with cut paper. The students started with a 6" x 6" white paper, and a 3" x 3" black paper, and used every scrap; if they cut a circle from the left side, they glued it on the right. I really like the results, and I think that the students grasped the concept of negative and positive space since we talked about how it switches halfway through. One side has black negative space; the other side has white negative space.

This is my bulletin board. I love how they all look together! The contrast of the black and white is so strong.

We looked at this woodcut by M.C. Escher for art history. In it, the top of the picture has white negative space, and the bottom of it has black negative space. The students enjoyed the metamorphosis. One student pointed out that if you start with the simplest goose or fish, and work your way to the more complete ones, it's like a drawing "how-to". I thought that was an interesting observation!

If You Give a Kindergartner a Pair of Scissors....

....sometimes they cut their hair. Oops! Some of the kindergartners are not used to having scissors (some of the classroom teachers keep them hidden, and only bring them out for well-supervised projects), and when they get them, they don't know where to stop cutting!

This little girl had beautiful long hair, and now....well....she has uneven layers. This is what was on my floor when her class left:

Starry Night with 3rd Grade

Third Grade recently made their own versions of Van Gogh's Starry Night. We used dotted lines to make the stars look like shooting stars or to make them look like they're shining brightly to emulate Van Gogh's painterly style. The following week, the students cut buildings, trees, and other things out of black paper and glued them on for the town. Many of the students tried to make the town look like where they live (some of them live out in the country and have cornfields instead of a town!) after I told them that Van Gogh painted the town he lived in (when he was at the insane asylum at Saint-Remy; I didn't tell the kids that part).

A tornado under the stars? Hmmm....

A car wreck under the stars? I think this student was sitting too close to the tornado kid:

I love the person dancing under the stars!

This is a combine cutting down the corn: