Folk Art, 3rd Grade

 I have done this lesson many times, with many different grades, and every year it turns out wonderful.  This project is based on the artwork of Karla Gerard.  Her artwork is colorful and fun, and my students seem to generate a lot of good ideas from looking at her art.  For this project, I had my students use a black crayon to draw hills, trees, suns, wind, etc.  Then students used pastels to add patterns to the hills.  Lastly, students used watercolors to paint their drawing.

Pre-K, Polka Dot Owls

Pre-K students are adorable, but I have always found it difficult to come up with art lessons for these little ones.  Thank goodness for sites like Pinterest, where 90 percent of my Pre-K art ideas come from.  I found this project on pinterest, unfortunately I do not know what blog or website it was pinned from, because it does not seem to lead back to the original site.

This lesson requires quite a few pre-cut shapes, and the art teacher in me almost cringes just saying pre-cut shapes.  As a general rule, I do not like pre-cutting anything for my students because I prefer my students to create their own work.  However, after several years of teaching Pre-K students, I have come to the conclusion that pre-cut shapes are a necessity at the beginning of the school year.  For most of these students, holding scissors is a brand new concept, and it will take a good portion of the year before they are proficient with them.

Owls, 5th Grade

These beautiful owls were made by my fifth graders.  This project took three, 30 minute, classes.  To begin this project, students drew an owl that had interesting lines or patterns onto black paper.  Next, students painted a different piece of paper with with two analogous colors.  After the background had dried, students cut their owl out and glued it to their painted background.

 I think these are just beautiful!