Kindergarten, Flowers

Spring is now here! The weather is warmer and flowers are beginning to bloom, so I thought this was the perfect time to create flowers. These were created by my Kindergartners. To create these flowers, I had the students tear a piece of paper into four pieces. Each piece becomes a petal. Then I have students twist and scrunch the bottoms of each piece to form the petal. Students then glue the petals to the paper. (It is important to emphasize that each flower has 4 petals, and the petals should be close together). In the middle of the petals, students put a tissue paper ball. Each student put 3-4 flowers on their paper. The stems and leaves were drawn in with oil pastels.

These are so beautiful! I got this idea from Oodles of Art. If you haven't checked out this blog yet, you should, it's full of great ideas.

Colonial America, 4th Grade

The fourth graders have recently been learning about Colonial America. To tie our artwork into this theme, we created our own colonial landscapes. We began this project by looking at examples of American Folk art. We noticed how folk art is made very simply with little perspective. Houses are flat and animals drawn simply. This really appeals to the students because it's not threatening.

We then began our own paintings. I began by having the students draw a few hills on their paper. We then used a light watercolor wash to paint the sky and ground. Lastly, we used tempera paint to paint the houses, trees, sheep, and other objects in the pictures.

Monet, 2nd Grade

This project was in honor of Monet and his water lilies. In this project, we drew a lake with water lilies. The water lilies were drawn with oil pastels. We then used watercolors to paint everything. I showed students how to use multiple colors and small brush strokes to make the water look more like Monet. For the water, we used blue, purple, and green.

Space, 2nd Grade

I had my second graders draw space last week. We began by painting white stars on black paper. Then, I had the students draw planets, rockets, stars, and even aliens on small pieces of scrap white paper. We colored all of these things with oil pastels. Finally, we cut all of these things out and glued it onto our black paper.

These turned out so awesome! Second Graders are always so creative.

Jazz, 5th Grade

Last week, I did this project with my fifth graders. We listened to Jazz music and talked about how it has rhythm and movement. I showed students that art can also have visual rhythm and movement. The idea was to get the feeling of the Jazz in our art. We drew a large instrument on our page. Then, we added music notes and designs to our pictures to give it rhythm and movement. Everything was painted with tempera paints (I only gave the students primary colors). We quickly reviewed the color wheel and mixing colors. I encouraged students to mix colors right on the paper, and seeing brush strokes was completely fine.





I just LOVE these! I can almost hear the music now.

Kandinsky Circles, Kindergarten

I had my little kindergartens work with paint this week. I found this lesson on Deep Space Sparkle, and just had to do it. It is always tricky trying to use tempera paint when you are "Art on a Cart," but somehow I have just learn to deal with it. While it is messy, and hauling all the paint into the classroom is a pain, it is totally worth it! Anyway, we began by looking at the artwork of Kandinsky. The little kindergartners think his art is so cool! We then divided the paper into 6 spaces. For this project to work, you really need to do this project step by step.

Here is what I did:
1. Have students dip the brush into yellow. Then tell them to paint a circle in one square. After this, have them paint a 2nd yellow circle in a different space.

2. Have them clean their brush. Dip into the red and draw two red circles.

3. Have them clean their brush. Dip into the blue and have them draw two blue circles. Once they have done this, all 6 spaces should have a circle in it.

4. Then have them color the inside of the circles using a different color from what they have already used. (For example: if the circle is yellow then they can use either blue or red for the inside).

5. Once they have painted the insides, then they paint the space around the circle using the color that has NOT been used yet. (some of them will have trouble figuring out which color they haven't used).

I absolutely LOVE the results!

Giraffes, 2nd Grade

Second graders created these really fun giraffes this week. We began by looking at the artwork of Betsey Fowler, a really cool artist who paints many African animals. I found this lesson on the 2 Soul Sister's Blog.

I showed students step by step how to draw the giraffe. Then, students outlined everything with a black crayon. Lastly, we used watercolors to paint our giraffes. Students loved choosing wild crazy colors for the giraffe.

Cherry Blossoms, 5th Grade

Once again, I have stolen a lesson from another blog. I just don't know what I would do if there wasn't such an awesome community of art bloggers. Anyway, this has been posted on several sites, but I saw it origianlly from Oodles of Art . I began this lesson by showing students examples of Chinese art. Many had trees very similar to this.

We began by doing a light watercolor background on our paper. When that was dry, we were ready to start the branches. I began by having the students put piles of paint on the sides of their paper. (I used a mixture of tempra and liquid watercolors for the paint). We then used straws to blow the paint out. The paint will then move out in many different directions creating these trees. Students will have to periodically add more paint to make this work. Finally, we used a Q-tip to add flowers to the Cherry Blossom Trees.

These just turned out GREAT!

Chinese Dragons- 4th Grade

This was my Chinese New Years lesson. Originally, I was going to do this lesson a while ago, but we had a snow day on the real Chinese New Years. Better Late than never though!
This was such a fun exciting project to do with the students, and the kids LOVE it! Basically, we drew a head on one piece of paper and a tail on another. I did give students basic instruction on how to draw this. We then cut both the head and the tail out. After that, we used long strips of paper and did an accordion fold for the middle. I found this lesson on The Incredible Art Department, which is an awesome website by the way. If you need detailed instructions, please visit that website. The link above will take you directly to this lesson. It does a nice job explaining everything step by step.

I can't even express how much I LOVE these! They look even cooler in person.

1st Grade, Rainforest

The first graders have recently been learning about rainforests, so when I came across this lesson on Mr. E's Blog, I just had to do it with my students. First, I taught the students how to draw trees. Then we filled the tree with lots of cool designs and patterns. After that, I had the students outline everything in black. Finally, we colored everything with oil pastels.

I just think these are the coolest!