Mexican Bark Paintings, 3rd Grade

I've seen this lesson posted on many blogs in the past. Most recently I found it on MaryMaking. These paintings were done on crumpled up brown paper, to mimic the look of Mexican bark paintings.  Traditional bark paintings were painted on bark which had been boiled in water and beaten until smooth.

 Students drew their drawings in crayon first.  Then, we crumpled the paper to give it the look of bark.  Lastly, I gave my students tempera cakes to paint their paper.  This lesson was done in quick one hour class.

Winter Houses, Kindergarten

 I found the idea for this cute art lesson on the blog, Plastiquem.  This lesson is quite simple.  Basically my students used simple shapes to create houses.  Then, we used a bit of torn paper for the snow at the bottom.  After this, we used dots of white paint for the snow in the sky.  Finally, the trees were drawn in oil pastel.

 These are very cute! Plus, It is also a great math integration on shapes.

Penguins, 2nd Grade

 These penguins were created by my second graders.  I found the idea  for this lesson on Flickr.  Overall, this lesson was simple. I taught my students how to draw a penguin.   Students then added clothes (such as coats, scarves, or hats).  Next, my students painted everything with tempera paint.  After this, students cut their penguin out and glued it to blue paper.  Lastly, students added snow in the background.

 I think these are adorable!

Starry Night on the Moon, 3rd Grade

 The third grade teachers asked me if I could create an art lesson about space, since they are studying space in science class.  Throughout the years, I have done many outer-space lessons with my students and I was somewhat tired of the typical space lesson.  So after a little bit of thinking, I decided I wanted to do Starry Night space lesson.

 For this lesson, I showed my students Van Gogh's Starry Night.  I then asked them how Starry Night might be different if Van Gogh was standing on the moon.  They told me that on the moon they would be able to see other planets, space ships, and maybe even aliens.  I then asked them to draw these things.  My students colored their drawings with oil pastels and then painted the sky with watercolors.

I just love the creativity in these.

Carolers, 1st Grade

About a year ago, I found this really cute lesson on the blog, Plastiquem.  Now that it is finally almost winter again, I decided to try this one for myself.  Here are several examples from my first graders. 

I think these are wonderful!  I just love the way they look all together. 

Starry Night, 2nd Grade

 I have done many lessons on Starry Night by Van Gogh.  Here is our most recent interpretation of this painting. 

The stars, wind, and moon were drawn with oil pastels.  Then, we used liquid watercolors to paint the sky.  Lastly, students drew a city on black paper and glued it to the bottom of their painting. 

Bulletin Boards

 I am a little late in posting this, but here are my Halloween bulletin boards that I had up in my classroom. 

Constellations, 4th Grade

 Recently, the fourth grade teachers asked me if I could do a lesson on constellations with the fourth graders.  They had been studying space in science, and they thought it would be wonderful to tie it into art as well.  I had taught space lessons many times, but had never done a lesson that included constellations.  This is the lesson that I came up with.  

We began by splattering white paint onto a black piece of paper for stars.  Next, I asked my students to look at the stars and create a constellation.  Students used gold brads which was pushed into the paper to create their constellation.  Then, students used a piece of white string to "connect the dots" and finish the constellation.  At the end of class, students gave their constellation a name.  After this, students used oil pastels to draw planets, comets, astroids, space ship, and other space objects.

I am quite proud of these!  They turned out wonderful.

City Prints/Reflections, 5th Grade

 I stole this lesson idea from the blog, Laugh Paint Create.  My students have recently been studying reflections in math class, so I thought this was a perfect integration.

 To begin this lesson, I had my students use watercolors to paint their paper.  Next, we did a basic Styrofoam print.  Students drew a city on a piece of Styrofoam and then printed it onto the top half of their paper.  To get the reflection, I had my students fold their paper in half while the ink was still wet.   

I think these turned out well. 

Fish, Kindergarten

 These adorable fish were made by my kindergartners.  They drew and colored the fish with oil pastels and then painted the background with blue watercolors. 

Pumpkin Still Life, 3rd Grade

 This was a simple still life lesson.  I had my students draw apples, pumpkins, and corn on a piece of white paper.  Everything was then colored with oil pastels.  I encouraged my students to experiment with mixing and blending analogous colors.  Next, we cut all of these vegetables out and glued them to construction paper. 

Overall, I think these turned out really nice. 

Folk Art, 4th Grade

 These beautiful paintings were created by my fourth graders.  I based this lesson off of the artwork of Karla Gerard.  Her paintings are wonderfully colorful.  Click on the link to see her art. 

 For this lesson, my students focused on drawing farm land.  We drew hills, trees, fences, etc. with oil pastels.  After this, I asked my students to add patterns to their drawing.  Next, we used liquid watercolors to paint our drawings. 

These are wonderfully colorful!  I just love them!

Recycled Flowers, 4th Grade

 I had several boxes of old magazines sitting around my house, so I decided to finally put them to good use.  This project is fairly straight forward.  My students cut out circles to create the flower, and rolled the magazines to create a center.  The stems and the grass was simply cut out and glued down. 

 For the most part, the flowers all look the same.  If I were to do this project again, I think I would encourage my students to experiment with different sizes and shapes for the flower petals. 

Symmetrical Butterflies, 2nd Grade

These very cute butterflies were made by my second graders.  We began by folding a piece of paper in half and drawing half of the butterfly in black pastel.  Next, we refolded our paper so that the design was on the inside.  We then rubbed the paper so that the pastel design transferred to the other side.  After the butterfly was complete, we used liquid watercolors to paint. 

 I think these turned out beautiful!  I love the colors. 

Space, 5th Grade

 My fifth graders have recently been studying space in science class.  To tie my art lesson into this, we created these really cool space paintings.  I began by having my students splatter paint stars onto a black piece of paper.  After this, I had my students draw a rocket ship, planets, or aliens on white paper.  These were then painted with watercolors.  Next, everything was cut out and glued to the black paper. 

 I think these turned out wonderful!

Bulletin Boards

 I teach at three schools, but only have an art room in one of them.  One of the things I love most about having an art room, is creating bulletin boards.  Here are a few bulletin boards that I created at the beginning of the school year. 

Masks, 5th Grade

 I have done this lesson almost every year, and my students always love it.  I begin by showing my students how to fold a paper mask.  After this, they use paper scraps to create, eyes, nose, mouth, and other details. 

 These seem to get better every year. 

Chagall, 2nd Grade

 This lesson is based on one of my favorite artists, Marc Chagall.  I just love his fanciful Surreal paintings, and my students always enjoy pointing out the "odd" things in his work.  I found the idea for this lesson on Mary Making.  I did have to change the lesson a bit to fit my time constraints, so my results were not as wonderful as hers.  However, I think these turned out nice, and my students definitely enjoyed this lesson. 

To begin this lesson, I had my students sponge paint a simple blue, white or pink background.  While this was drying, I had my students draw three things on a separate piece of paper.  Each student drew themselves, an animal, and a plant.  These things were then cut out and set aside.  Next, I had my students paint buildings with black paint onto their simple sponge painted background.  Lastly, my students glued their drawings to their paintings.  Since this is surreal art, they could glue these drawing anywhere.  They could even make themselves fly, if they chose too.