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.

Winter Around the School

One of my schools has a really awesome PTA. Every December they choose a theme and decorate the entire school. This year the theme is Snow. Each teacher was given a four foot white snowman to decorate. Some teachers chose to have the students decorate the snowman, and others decorated the snowman themselves. I am sure it's hard to guess which one I made.Part of the burden of being an art teacher is that people are constantly asking you to help out with their projects. The igloo here is one of those. The PTA wanted a giant igloo to go around the door to the "Secret Santa Shop," and of course this task somehow fell of my shoulders. I griped about having to do this, but now that it is done, I am very glad I did it. It really does look cool, and the students are thrilled. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few pictures of my school's Winter Wonderland.

1st Grade, Paul Klee Project

I LOVE blogging because it is a great way to share project ideas. I found this awesome lesson on Use Your Colored Pencils. This project was based after Paul Klee's painting, The Castle and The Sun. It also just happened to fit perfectly into the curriculum right now because my students have been studying shapes in math class.
To begin this project, I gave each child two triangles. I then challenged them to figure out how to use these two triangles to make a square. Most of my students figured this out quickly. After that, I gave each child four triangles and asked them to figure out how to use all four to make a bigger square. It was fun watching them slide the triangles around until they figured it out. Once they had this figured out, I had them start building their castle out of triangles.

It's funny because this project seemed extremely simple to me, but my first graders absolutely LOVED every minute. They were extremely proud of their castle creations. Some of my students even drug their parents in after school to show off their artwork.

I love Blogging!

When I began this blog, I didn't think anyone would ever read it. The main reason I began the blog was to organize my lessons and photos. I figured if my lesson ideas were on the internet, I wouldn't loose them. Anyway, I am constantly amazed that people are actually reading it, and best of all, through this blog, I have been able to be connected with other art teachers. Being an art teacher is often a very solitary career, and blogging has become my way of staying in touch with other art teachers.I am just constantly amazed that people from all over the world take the time to read my blog. Recently, I received an email from Labbé, a german family-run publishing house who wanted to do a short interview with me, and include my blog on their website. I am incredibly flattered that anyone in Germany would care about me or my blog. Anway, here is the link to their Blog Portrait: For those like me, who don't speak German, just translate it through google. The internet is a wonderful thing!

(By the way: the pictures here have absolutely nothing to do with this post. I just hate posting without a picture.)

Lizards, 3rd Grade

A few months ago, I saw this on the Painted Pear , and I just had to try it. My students absolutely LOVED this project. Some of them have gone home and taught their brothers and sisters how to make these as well. If you want directions, they are written out on the Painted Pear.
My favorite thing about these lizards was displaying them in the hall. We have been joking around about how we have a "lizard infestation in our school, and we might need to call an exterminator." The kids are getting a kick out of it.

Fall Trees, Pre-K

The little Pre-K kids are adorable, but I sometimes struggle to come up with good developmentally appropriate lessons for these little ones. I am always praying that my lesson won't end up being a disaster. However, I think this one was perfect for them. I began by giving each child a pre-cut tree trunk. They then used a glue stick to glue it to the middle of their paper. After this, I gave each child a small green piece of paper with short lines drawn on it. I then had the students use scissors to cut the lines for grass. (Make it clear that they are not to cut the entire strip off. It is suppose to have a frayed look.) Many of my little ones have a hard time with scissors, but this was great practice for them. Since they were only cutting straight lines, most did a great job. After this, they glue the grass to their picture. Lastly, students make leaves using their finger prints. I handed out sponges with red and yellow paint on top. This was kind of like a hand made stamp pad. It kept the kids from having too much paint on their fingers.
I think these turned out great. I know that they absolutely loved putting their fingers in the paint! Days after, they were still talking about it.

The Southwest, 4th Grade

Okay, so I know I posted on this project last year, but I LOVE the results, so I thought I would post some pics again. I do this project every year when the fourth grade students study the different regions of the United States. It is just a fun way to depict the Southwest region. To begin, I have the students draw sand dunes, cacti, and an expressive sun on black paper. I do emphasize that I want everything drawn fairly large, and that things can overlap. (For instance, the cactuses can go all the way into the sky). Otherwise, they will draw tini tiny. This time, I had the students use oil pastels to color everything in. In the past, I have had them use soft pastels instead. Both work nice, just a slightly different look. Many of my students love to mix colors, which I love, but sometimes they don't think before they blend colors together. Before letting them color, I brought out the color wheel, and explained the concept of analogous colors. I told them that if they mix colors next to each other on the color wheel, they will never end up with a hideous color. I also tell them that complimentary colors look wonderful next to each other, but not as wonderful on top of each other.
The final step to this project is to outline everything with black glue. I basically just take regular glue and mix in black paint. Students have to be very careful when outlining with the glue. They should not squeeze the bottle to hard, or huge globs may come out.