Jazz, 3rd Grade

This was my absolute favorite lesson of last year and of course plan on doing it with my third graders again this year. My students are still talking about this project. They just loved it!

Several of them have asked if we could do it again!!!

We began this lesson by listening to Jazz music (the New Orleans kind). I asked students to close their eyes and try to visualize the music. We discussed the concept of showing visual rhythm by using colors and shapes. I told students that the idea behind this lesson was to try to describe jazz music to someone who is deaf.

These were collaged with construction paper. I even let them cut up real music sheets (which I found online). They had to have one large instrument, but the rest was up to them. The last few minutes of class I gave them oil pastels.

Covered Wagons, 5th Grade

Last year, I needed to come up with a lesson about pioneers. This is what I came up with.


This is a little on the crafty side, but I did let the students use their creativity to add decorations to these wagons.












These were made out of milk cartons. We cut the milk carton in half and painted them brown. The wagon cover was just a piece of paper sliped in. Wheels were cut out of poster board.

I am aware that these are not historically accurate, since pioneer wagons were not this colorful. However, I figured it was okay since pioneer wagons were also not made of milk cartons. :)



I really do think these turned out cool.

Van Gogh, 5th Grade

This is a lesson I taught last year, but I just absolutely loved the results and thought I would post it anyway. I taught my fifth graders all about Van Gogh, which is a topic they love. They especially love the whole ear incident. Well, in this project students drew expressive trees and they either drew a "Starry Night" or a "Sunny Day." Everything was first drawn in oil pastel. Then the background painted with watercolor.



The results were wonderful.

Odd Creatures, 2nd Grade

Students have been reading a theme called "Odd Stories." To tie my art into this, we created "Odd Creatures." We looked at the artwork of Joan Miro and I showed students how simple shapes can be used to make a creature. For example, the body could be a triangle and the head could be a star. These creatures were colored with oil pastels and a watercolor wash was used for the background.

Second graders are always so creative.

Kokopelli, 5th Grade

The fifth graders were learning about Native Americans, and I needed to come up with a lesson with this theme. I know that normally this is a common theme for art projects, but I just could not find anything I liked.

After much googling, I had an idea. I kept seeing this image of a man playing an instrument on the Internet. I looked into it, and found that his name is Kokopelli and it is a Southwestern Native American legend dating back to over 3,000 years ago. According to the legend, Kokopelli plays his instrument to change the seasons. Kokopelli usually is slightly hunch backed and generally has wild hair. I just loved this image and decided to dedicate a project after him.

Students used oil pastel and liquid watercolors for the background. For the image of Kokopelli, students drew and cut it out of black paper. (I showed students basically how to draw him, but details like his hair were up to the students) This was then glued on top the painted paper.

I just love how these turned out. This lesson is definitely a keeper. :)

Leaf Prints, Kindergarten

Just wanted to share these wonderful Kindergarten prints. These prints were done with real leaves. I can not take complete credit for this lesson because I found it on Deep Space Sparkle and adapted it to my kindergartners.

Directions:

1. white paint is brushed on the back of the leaf

2. Flip leaf over onto the black paper. Place a scrap piece of paper over it and rub.

3. The students are amazed when they lift the leaf up and see the print. They think it's magic. :)

4. The space around the leaf was stamped with a sponge. (make sure to tell them Not to paint on top of the leaf)

I just love this project. Kindergartners are awesome!