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First Grade: Homophones

First Grade: “When I’m 100 Years Old” Self Portraits

In celebration of our upcoming 100th day of school, first graders created these portraits of a 100-year-old imagined self. We were inspired by the bittersweet photographic collection by Tom Hussey titled, Reflections. The photographs portray elderly individuals looking at a reflection of their younger self in a mirror. If you haven’t seen these photographs, you really need to check them out! My students responded to each image with excitement, sensitivity, empathy and endless curiosity, given the use of photoshopping techniques.

Here are some comments from the first grade artists in response to the question, “How will you have changed by the time you are 100 years old?”:

-“I’ll know everything!”

-“I’ll have grandkids…Wait…I’ll have kids AND grandkids! Oh my God!!!”

-“I’ll have so many wrinkles I’ll probably look like my dog!”

-“I’ll have glasses”

-“My head will be shiny because I’ll probably be bald”

-“I’ll know all about the world”

Thanks for stopping by Dryden Art City! Come back soon!

First Grade: Soul/Sole Necklaces

First graders created these beautiful homophone necklaces. Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and carry different meanings, like “soul” and “sole.” We started with a sphere of clay, into which we poured all of our frustration, joy, sadness, fear and energy from our soul. Then we used the sole of our shoe to capture all of our emotions, creating beautiful and unexpected textures.

I love that you can see their pride through these photographs:

First Grade: Fresh Blooms

First Grade: Channeling Georgia O’Keeffe (part 2)

We began here…

 

And it led us here…

Roxy

Hailey

Addison

Sabina

Chloe

Amber

Alex

Ella

Lauren H

Gavin

Amika

Jazzmin

First Grade: Channelling Georgia O’Keeffe

First Graders: Honoring Maurice Sendak

Please don’t go…

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We love you so.

First Grade Reconstructed Houses

Credit for the idea for this lesson goes to Shannah from newcityarts.blogspot.com!

First graders discovered the work of Beverly Buchanan, a wonderful artist who collects debris from neighborhoods struck by natural disaster, and “rebuilds” miniature houses out of the found material. How amazing is that?! We were inspired by Buchanan to create out own houses out of recycled wood scraps.

I love how colorful and bold these turned out!

Along the way, we had some very heartfelt discussions in class about the concept of “home,” and how we all have such different ideas of what the word “home” means. One of my students asked me if my home was the art room. My immediate reaction was to respond with, “No,” but truth be told, I spend enough time there to call it home! 🙂