Last week in art class, we started exploring a brand-new material — soft pastels! I told the students that soft pastels are kind of like colorful chalk sticks — they’re super bright, soft to the touch, and can blend together beautifully. We practiced how to mix colors using our fingers or a tissue, how to layer different shades, and how to use them on different surfaces like cardstock and cardboard.
Before we got started, we talked about how pastels can get a little messy, and how important it is not to blow the dust into the air. Instead, everyone learned to gently tap off the extra dust into the trash can — and they did an awesome job keeping things neat and safe!
This week, our 2nd and 3rd graders created the cutest snowman Holiday Cards for the Superintendent Holiday Card Competition, which is due November 13th. Each student cut out a snowman shape, glued it down, and used soft pastels to make a colorful outline all around it. Then came the fun part — blending the colors with their fingers! When we removed the snowman shape, it left behind a beautiful glowing outline, almost like the snowman was shining in the snow. After that, everyone decorated the inside however they wanted. I could only choose two cards to submit from the whole school, and I’ve already sent them in. Now we’re all keeping our fingers crossed!
Our 4th and 5th graders took on a more advanced project — a Holiday Card with a window view. We used blue tape to create the shape of a window, then filled in the sky with soft pastels in lots of bright and dreamy colors. Once the colors were blended together, they peeled off the tape and revealed a beautiful “window” scene looking out into the night sky. It was a little tricky for some and a fun challenge for others, but they all worked so hard and created amazing results.
So nice Ms Ibert, thank you!
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