Folk Art, 2nd Grade

These beautiful paintings were inspired after the artist, Karla Gerard.  Students painted their drawings with tempera paint and then added details with oil pastels.

I just love how colorful these are!

Paper Mache Cats, 5th Grade

These paper mache cats took us almost 3 months to complete.  With almost 120 fifth graders, I felt like the cats were beginning to take over the art room.  Paper mache is always a fun project, but it takes a lot of coordination and time.

 I began by having students use wadded up newspaper and foil to created the body, head, legs, and tail.  Students then added 3 layers of paper mache to their sculpture.

 After the paper mache was dry, we used tempera paint to add details.  I found that the kids had trouble painting the eyes on, so the eyes were drawn on a piece of white paper and glued to their cat.

These are wonderful!

Falling Through Space, 5th Grade

I have done this lesson many times, but this year the results are better than ever before.  This year, we had more time to do this project, and therefore their drawings had more detail.  This lesson focuses on the concept of foreshortening.  This is a hard concept for even experienced artists, so to make it simpler, we traced our hands and feet.  The other details were drawn in after.

 I found the idea for this lesson years ago on the blog Oodles of Art.  Over the years, I have adapted this lesson, and this year the results are amazing.

 I just LOVE these!