Topiaries, 1st Grade

 I found this really cute topiary idea on the blog, Painted Paper.  Check out her blog for more detailed directions.  I had simplify her lesson a bit, in order to finish it in one 60 minute art lesson.

I think these are very cute! I love how my students attempted to put the shadow on the vase at the bottom.

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. 

Flowers, 2nd Grade

I've done this lesson several times in the past, but I love it every time. This is a very simple lesson that looks great.
I begin by having the students cut a vase out of paper. After this, we begin making the pedals. I have the students cut through four pieces of paper at once, in order to create four symmetrical petals. We then bent the petals and glued them to the paper. The petals should stick up off the page. Lastly, students used oil pastels to add stems and other details. These remind me of Spring.

Blue and White Vases, 3rd Grade

I found this wonderful idea on Deep Space Sparkle. I began this lesson by showing students many examples of Blue and White Chinese Vases. The vase was cut out of white paper, and then we used blue paint to paint the designs. After this, I demonstrated different ways to paint a flower. I told my students that each painting had to have at least ten flowers. The flowers were limited to blue, yellow, and white. These turned out beautiful! I am so proud of my students.

Flowers, Pre-K

This week, my Pre-K students painted flowers. A few weeks ago I did a similar lesson with kindergarten. I liked the results so much that I decided to try it with Pre-K also.
This is a fairly simple lesson. I gave each child stamps to create the petals. Instead of a stamp pad, I had sponges filled with paint. This helps keep them from using too much paint. The grass and stems were done with green paint and a Q-tip.

Sunflowers, 1st grade

Sunflowers are my favorite flower, so I just LOVE this lesson. If you haven't guessed already, this lesson was inspired from the many sunflowers painted by Vincent Van Gogh. I found this really cool lesson idea on the blog How Beautiful You Are


To begin this project, I gave each child a piece of brown construction paper. With a black crayon, I had my students draw their sunflower. Next, I had my students use their finger to paint the dots in the middle of the flower. (It's not often I let my students put their fingers in the paint, so they really enjoyed this). The flower pedals were done with a paint brush. For this part, they used two colors at once. They first put their paint brush in yellow, and then dipped it staight into the red. My students marveled when it turned orange on their paper. To finish, my students painted the stem green, and the sky blue. Some students chose to put a little white on top of the blue to lighten it up.

These paintings make me think of summer!

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.

Vases and Flowers, 2nd Grade

I am in the mood for spring, and I am tired of all my winter lessons. So this week, I decided to have my second graders do these flower still lives. This is a fun lesson to teach symmetry. To make the vase, we fold a piece of paper in half and draw half of the vase along the fold. We then cut it out. The petals themselves are also symmetrical. To make these, I had the students cut four pieces of paper at once. (That way, they ended up with four symmetrical petals). We then bent the petals, and glued them so that they stuck up off the paper. I just love these flowers. I hung these in the hallway, and it certainly brightens things up.

Van Gogh Flowers, 3rd Grade

For this project, I had my students look at flowers painted by Van Gogh. My 3rd graders always complain about their drawings not being "perfect", so I like to point out that Van Gogh flowers are not perfect either. Many of the flowers in his paintings are wilting and loosing its petals. I really think this helps them not worry about "perfect" in their drawings.
This project was finished in a quick one hour class period. It's always tricky for me to do projects with tempera paint because all of my art lessons have to be finished in one lesson. This gives no time to let paint dry between steps. However, this one worked out fairly well. I had the students start drawing with black crayon because I didn't want them to get picky and spend too much time erasing. We drew a vase with at least three flowers in it. Then I had the students use tempera paint to paint the vase, flowers and table. For this project, I did not let my students mix many colors. The only thing I allowed was tinting the colors with white. They could add white to red to make pink, or add white to blue to make a lighter blue. The background was painted with short paint strokes. This was suppose to simulate the kind of strokes Van Gogh would have used in his own paintings. However, it ended up looking more like confetti in the background. Still cool, but am not sure if the students got the point.I really like how these painting have so much movement. One of my students told me that the flowers look like they are dancing, and I totally agree with her.

Flowers in a Vase, 2nd Grade

Since spring has sprung here in Maryland, we created these flowers in a vase. We began this lesson by creating a symmetrical vase. We achieved this by folding construction paper in half, and drawing the vase along the fold. Then this vase was glued onto black paper.

To create the flowers, I had the students put four pieces of construction paper together. Then students drew a petal and cut through all four pieces at once. This way, all four pieces would be symmetrical. Instead of gluing the petals flat, I had the students glue the petals so they stick up. This was done by putting a dot of glue on each end of the petal, and holding them in an arch shape for at least 15 seconds. Lastly, students drew in stems and other decorations with oil pastels.

These are wonderful. I got the idea for the flowers from Art with Mr. E, but added a few of my own touches to it as well. Thank goodness for the awesome blogs out there that inspire me!

Kindergarten, Flowers

Spring is now here! The weather is warmer and flowers are beginning to bloom, so I thought this was the perfect time to create flowers. These were created by my Kindergartners. To create these flowers, I had the students tear a piece of paper into four pieces. Each piece becomes a petal. Then I have students twist and scrunch the bottoms of each piece to form the petal. Students then glue the petals to the paper. (It is important to emphasize that each flower has 4 petals, and the petals should be close together). In the middle of the petals, students put a tissue paper ball. Each student put 3-4 flowers on their paper. The stems and leaves were drawn in with oil pastels.

These are so beautiful! I got this idea from Oodles of Art. If you haven't checked out this blog yet, you should, it's full of great ideas.

Monet, 2nd Grade

This project was in honor of Monet and his water lilies. In this project, we drew a lake with water lilies. The water lilies were drawn with oil pastels. We then used watercolors to paint everything. I showed students how to use multiple colors and small brush strokes to make the water look more like Monet. For the water, we used blue, purple, and green.

Cherry Blossoms, 5th Grade

Once again, I have stolen a lesson from another blog. I just don't know what I would do if there wasn't such an awesome community of art bloggers. Anyway, this has been posted on several sites, but I saw it origianlly from Oodles of Art . I began this lesson by showing students examples of Chinese art. Many had trees very similar to this.

We began by doing a light watercolor background on our paper. When that was dry, we were ready to start the branches. I began by having the students put piles of paint on the sides of their paper. (I used a mixture of tempra and liquid watercolors for the paint). We then used straws to blow the paint out. The paint will then move out in many different directions creating these trees. Students will have to periodically add more paint to make this work. Finally, we used a Q-tip to add flowers to the Cherry Blossom Trees.

These just turned out GREAT!

Sunflowers, 3rd and 4th Grade

This is a wonderful time of year for sunflowers. If you can bring real sunflowers into the classroom, that is even better. Many of my students haven't ever seen a real sunflower, since I teach in the suburb of D.C. I taught the students basically how to draw the sunflower and then had students color with oil pastels. I encouraged students to use analogous colors and blend them together with their fingers. (They always love doing this). If they do it right, it looks almost like paint. The backgrounds were painted in watercolor.

Flower Stained Glass, 3rd grade

I did these near the beginning of the school year with my 3rd graders. The idea was to create a stained glass window with a wilted flower motif. I can not take complete credit for this project. I found it on one of my favorite websites, http://www.mrsbrownart.com/4th.htm. It is inspired after the wilted flower and stained glass windows in Beauty and the Beast.

Here are the basic directions:

1. Show students how to draw a wilted flower (I chose to show them a sunflower)

2. color it in with oil pastels (you could also have them paint it)

3. Use a ruler and a black crayon (or marker) to draw straight lines behind the flower

4. Paint the rest of the picture with watercolors

I think these are wonderful!!!