Carolers, 1st Grade

I have done this lesson several times in the past, but I love the results every year.  Here are my results from this year.

 This lesson took two (30 minute) classes.  The first week, I had my students create the head and the hat.  On the second week, students made the mittens, music, and snow.

These are adorable!

Snowflake Quilt, 4th Grade

 This is my second year teaching this snowflake lesson.  In this lesson, we focus on radial design, symmetry and patterns, which tie right into the fourth grade math curriculum.  These turn out beautiful every year.

Winter Houses, Kindergarten

 I found the idea for this cute art lesson on the blog, Plastiquem.  This lesson is quite simple.  Basically my students used simple shapes to create houses.  Then, we used a bit of torn paper for the snow at the bottom.  After this, we used dots of white paint for the snow in the sky.  Finally, the trees were drawn in oil pastel.

 These are very cute! Plus, It is also a great math integration on shapes.

Penguins, 2nd Grade

 These penguins were created by my second graders.  I found the idea  for this lesson on Flickr.  Overall, this lesson was simple. I taught my students how to draw a penguin.   Students then added clothes (such as coats, scarves, or hats).  Next, my students painted everything with tempera paint.  After this, students cut their penguin out and glued it to blue paper.  Lastly, students added snow in the background.

 I think these are adorable!

Carolers, 1st Grade

About a year ago, I found this really cute lesson on the blog, Plastiquem.  Now that it is finally almost winter again, I decided to try this one for myself.  Here are several examples from my first graders. 

I think these are wonderful!  I just love the way they look all together. 

Penguins, Pre-K

I came across this really cute idea on the blog Just For Fun. The idea from this blog was to create a stamp from a potato, but because I didn't have enough potatoes for 24 preschoolers, I decided to make stamps from craft foam. Basically, I just made a stamp by cutting out a piece of craft foam and then gluing a clothes pin to the top for a handle. After stamping on the body and the wings, we glued a small white oval for the belly. We then used Q-tips to add the feet, beak, and snow to our paintings. While students were working on this, I went around and helped glue a googly eye to their project. These are just too CUTE!

Birch Trees, 4th Grade

I found this great lesson on Deep Space Sparkle, however I have seen similar lessons posted on many other sites. Birch trees are great because they are simple. To begin this lesson, we drew a horizon line and painted the sky with watercolors. Then on a different piece of paper, we drew several trees. On half of the tree we painted a gray shadow. We then use black paint to draw small lines on the tree. After this, we cut the trees out, and glued it to our painting. We then used gray watercolor to paint a shadow in the snow. Lastly we added falling snow by splattering white paint.

Winter Trees, 3rd Grade

These beatiful winter trees were created by my third graders. I found this wonderful lesson idea on Elementary Artists, which is a blog I recently discovered through Pinterest.

This is a very simple lesson. I began by teaching my students to draw a "Y" tree. Students then chose three colors. These three colors were used to color the trunk and the branches. Lastly, students used a Q-tip to paint snow. I just LOVE these!

Snowflake Quilt, 3-5th Grade

This lesson focused on radial symmetry. Each student painted one snowflake. We began by folding the paper into eight lines. Each line became one point of the snowflake. Students then decorated their snowflakes with shapes and lines. The only rule was that it had to be symmetrical. After the snowflakes were painted, students created patterns around the boarder. These turned out great, but I can not take full credit for this lesson. I found the idea from an image on Flickr.

Snowmen, 1st Grade

Here are a few snowmen that my first graders created this week.
I LOVE the details.

SnowDay!

Here in Maryland, we had a Snowday today. We got about 8 inches of snow, which is a lot for Maryland. It was the really wet packable snow, so I decided to make a snowman. Even as an adult, I still love to play in the snow.

Polar Bears, 4th/5th Grade

The day before Christmas break, I had my fourth and fifth graders paint these polar bears. This was a quick filler lesson, that really could have been better. I had planned it quickly, and should have thought through the potential problems. However, the results still turned out nice anyway. Basically, I had the students draw a polar bear onto a piece of paper. They drew it first in pencil, and then outlined with oil pastels. Then, I had the students use liquid watercolors for the sky. I had the students paint the sky entirely with water before adding the watercolor. This wet on wet technique helped make the sky blend together nicely. The sky was definitely one of the best parts of this project. For the ground, I had the students use blues and purples. This was where things began to go wrong. First off, the watercolor dripped and smeared onto the polar bear. Honestly, I should have known this would happen. I should have had them draw the polar bear on a separate piece of paper. Then, they could have cut it out, and glued it to the background. Second, I had not meant for the entire snow to be blue and purple. Really, I just wanted those colors to be shadows in small spots. However, when I realized what was happening, I quickly came up with a solution. I handed out a little bit of white tempera paint, and had the students finger paint a thin layer of white over all the snow. I had them use their fingers mainly to keep the paint really thin. I wanted them to be able to see the watercolor through the white paint. I actually think this turned out pretty well. All of these problems could have been avoided had I not waited till the last second to plan. At least the lesson wasn't a total loss.

Cardinals, 2nd Grade

I LOVE snow, but we are still waiting for it here in Maryland. I figure if we paint enough snow, maybe mother nature will get the hint. Anyway, for this project I had my students paint cardinals. I began by teaching the students how to draw a cardinal. Then, I showed them how to draw branches. After this, we began painting. We painted the blue background first, and then we painted everything else. Lastly, we splatter painted the snow onto our paper. Of course the splattering was the students favorite part.These turned out very nice. It certainly makes me want to see some real snow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Snowmen Are Awesome!

A few days ago, I posted about the large snowmen being hung up around the school. Each teacher and school employee got one large snowman to decorate any way they wanted. When it first started, people thought the snowmen were cool, but now they are getting AWESOME. While there is no prize and it was never meant to be a competition, people have gotten very competitive about the snowmen. Teachers are feeling like they have to out do each other, and each snowman is getting better than the last. Here are some of the cool snowmen that have been done.
Some teachers are decorating it themselves. Some are getting parents to decorate them, and some are having their students work on the snowmen. What I really like about the snowmen is that it is getting the entire school psyched about being creative. Even teachers who have little creativity are coming out with awesome snowmen.
The one above is a snowman of the school principal, and it actually looks a lot like him.

Snowmen, Pre-K

I have done this lesson many times before. However, this is my first time doing it with the little Pre-K kids. Usually, I do this lesson with my kindergartners, but I was curious whether it would work for the littler ones. Honestly, the results are wonderful, and I am not sure what I was so worried about. It is a very simple lesson. Below are step by step instructions. Step 1: Cut out a stencil. Just fold a piece of paper in half and draw half of the snowman along the fold. Then cut it out. With Kindergarten, I have them draw the snowman themselves. But with Pre-K, I had it photocopied for them. If your Pre-K kids have a lot of trouble cutting, you may have to help them out. Step 2: Open stencil up, and put it on construction paper
Step 3: Sponge paint inside of the snowman. Have them dab with the sponge (Do not smear paint all around). Then remove stencil, and paint a little snow under the snowman.

Step 4: Use a Q-tip to paint details. I usually tell them to paint the eyes, nose, and mouth first. Then they can paint other things. These turned out awesome! I am so impressed with my Pre-K students.