Viking Ships, 3rd Grade

This week I have had my third graders create these really fun Viking Ships. Students first drew in pencil and then outlined everything with black crayon. I then had my students use liquid watercolors to paint their drawings. I even handed out gold and copper watercolor paint for my students to use.
Overall, I think these boats turned out wonderful. This was the first time I have ever used the metalic watercolor paints, and I really love them. I am sure I will find many uses for this paint in the future.

Hamburgers, 1st Grade

I have done this lesson in the past, and every year my students LOVE it. This project is a lot of fun, and is also a wonderful way to get rid of some of the "junk" we as art teachers hang on too. It is also a great lesson to teach about reusing and recycling. Quite a long time ago, I found this lesson on Kids Artists, I enjoy this lesson every time I do it.

For this project we used; old pieces of cardboard for the bun, scraps of yarn and felt, old noodles (that have been the the cabinet for years), and leftover Easter grass. I also let my students use my scrap paper box to cut out any shapes they wished to add to their sandwich.
The results are wonderful! It makes me hungry just looking at them.

Flowers, Kindergarten

My Kindergartners have recently been learning about symmetry in their math class, so I thought this was a perfect time for a symmetrical vase art lesson. To begin this lesson, I give each child a piece of construction paper folded in half. I then walked my students through drawing the vase. The trickiest part is getting the students to draw along the fold. Inevitably, there are always a couple students who will need help. After drawing the vase, my students cut the vase out. I always emphasize the importance of keeping the paper folded, and cutting through both sides of the paper.
After the vase is finished, I have my students start on the flowers. For the middle of the flower, I have my students use a Q-tip to paint a circle. Then, I hand out flower stamps. (I made my own stamps out of craft foam). Instead of a stamp pad, I give my students a sponge covered in paint. I then demonstrate how to stamp the pedals. I always tell them to put the stamp on the paper, and then lift it straight up. I emphasize the importance of not smearing the stamp around.
I really think these turned out well. It is always fun watching the kindergartners grow throughout the year. These students did such a wonderful job, I can tell they are almost ready for first grade.

Giraffes, Kindergarten

Recently the kindergartners went to the zoo, so I thought this would be a good time to do a giraffe project. Since my kindergartners have been in school for almost a year now, I thought it was time to really get into the skills of painting. As a lot of you know, when kinders paint, they will often paint sloppy putting all the colors on top of each other, until it is a muddy brown color. At the beginning of the year, I do not make a fuss about this, but by the end, I try to get them to slow down and think about their color choices.I based this project on the artwork of Betsy Fowler. She is known for painting animals in very bright vibrant colors. Click on the link to see her artwork, I think you will LOVE it.
To begin this project, I had my students use a stencil to trace the head of the giraffe. This was the only part that was traced. The eyes, ears, nose, horns, spots, and neck were all drawn by the student, with a little direction from me of course. After drawing in pencil, I gave everyone a black crayon to outline with. Next, we began painting with liquid watercolors. I started by having each student choose one color to paint the spots with. (All the spots had to be that one color). After painting the spots, I had my students use a paper towel to dab off any puddles. (This will help keep the spots from running into their next color). Then, I had my students choose a different color to paint the rest of the giraffe (The only rule was that it had to be a different color than the spots). Lastly, I handed out purple paint for the background.
These turned out great. This was the first time that I have allowed my kindergartners to use liquid watercolors, but it really turned out well.

Clay Pots, 4th and 5th Grade

I just finished my ceramics lesson with 4th and 5th grade. There are 11 fourth and fifth grade classes, so this was quite an undertaking. Just getting the stuff in and out of the kiln was time consuming. Originally, I was planning to have them glaze these, but I have changed my mind after discovering that firing over 300 pots takes an inordinate amount of time. I also thought about having them paint these with tempera paint, but then the beautiful red clay is not visible. In the end, I decided that I liked the pots just the way they were.For this project, we used the coil pot method. Some students chose to make the coils visible, but others decided to smooth the coils out. After this, my students decorated their pots. It is important to make sure student's score and slip when adding pieces. Otherwise those pieces will fall right off. Some students added faces to their pots, while other just did decorations.
I think these turned out WONDERFUL! I just love the creativity in these pots.

Chinese Gold Fish, 5th grade

I did this project several months ago, but I forgot to post on it. I did this lesson with my fifth graders because I wanted them to learn to loosen up when they paint. Often, I find that they are so worried about making a mistake, that they don't know how to paint freely and loosely. For this lesson, we focused on Chinese Gold Fish Paintings. If you search in google images, you can find lots of examples of these. Chinese goldfish paintings tend to be very loose, and the artist does not usually sketch the fish out ahead of time.
For this lesson, my students could NOT draw with pencil. Everything had to be sketched with paint. We used liquid watercolors, but you could also use India Ink or regular watercolors. My students painted the fish first, and the seaweed second. All mistakes had to be fixed with paint. An accidental drip of paint could become a bubble, or even extended into seaweed. I told my students that, "Our goal is to make our mistakes look like they were done on purpose." I really like the loose free brush strokes in these paintings.

Pigs, Pre-K

These really cute pig paintings were painted by my little Pre-K students. I found this really cute lesson on Deep Space Sparkle. There are so many wonderful lessons on her blog, and I am constantly searching her site for great ideas. This one was perfect for my little Pre-K students, especially since they have recently been learning about farms.
For this lesson, I taught my students how to draw a pig. With Pre-K I usually have them draw with crayon rather than pencil because they will draw bigger. Plus, most of these little ones don't need or want to erase things anyway. After drawing, I gave my students liquid watercolors to paint with. I gave them only one color at a time. We began with pink for the pig. When they were done with the pink paint, I took it away and gave them green for the grass. After this, I took the green paint away and gave them purple for the sky. This just helps keep the students from getting too excited about all the color choices, and also keeps them from mixing all the colors together.
I just love the simple inhibited way Pre-K kids draw.