Space, 5th Grade

My fifth graders have recently been studying space in science class, so I thought I would use this theme in my art class as well. This is an idea I found on the blog SmART Class.To begin this project, I had my students splatter paint stars. While this was drying, I taught my students to draw a rocket on a white piece of paper. Students also drew planets. Everything was then outlined with a black crayon, and painted with liquid watercolors. After this, these were cut out and glued to the black construction paper. This lesson was completed in one 75 minuted class.

Totem Poles, 5th Grade

My fifth graders have recently been studying Native American culture in history class, so I thought it was time to create Totem Poles again. Last year, I did this same project with my students. It was such a success, I decided to do them again. Each child made one piece of the totem pole. When hung, we have several large totem poles.

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.

Ten Black Dots, Kindergarten

This lesson was based off of the book Ten Black Dots, which is part of the Kindergarten math curriculum in my school system. The Kindergarten teachers asked me if I could create an art lesson to go with this book, since they were going to read this book to the kids. I began this lesson by reading Ten Black Dots. I then asked each child to choose a few dots, which I had pre-cut before class. I challenged them to turn the black dots into something. For example; The black dot could be the wheel on a car, or the eyes of an animal. They drew first in black crayon, and then added color.These turned out adorable!

Falling Through Space, 5th Grade

This is a wonderful project that I have done many times with my fifth graders. It's a great way to teach the idea of foreshortening. It's actually quite simple. We begin by tracing our hands and feet. I then demonstrate how to draw the rest of the body. Finally we color everything with oil pastel, and the background is painted with watercolor.

Every year I LOVE the results.