Cultural Landscapes, 4th Grade

This was an art integrated lesson that was co-taught with the librarian at my school.  In library, the students researched a country of their choosing.  They also wrote about their country.  Then in art, the students drew a landscape of that country.  I borrowed a few Chromebooks and library books, so students could research the features of their country's landscape. 

Using observational skills, students drew landscapes using photos as reference. Students drew in pencil, outlined in marker, and painted with watercolors.

Each one turned out different, and the students are so proud of them!  This is one of my favorite assignments from this school year!  We will be displaying these at International Night at my school.  

Winter Paintings, 3rd Grade

 Right before Christmas break, I had my third graders create winter landscapes.  The goal of this assignment was to teach color mixing.  I showed students how to create tints with their paint.  This is how we created the sky.

 The landscape was painted with black and white to create a silhouette.  I allowed students to paint anything as long as it was a winter scene.  Of course, I ended up with a lot of Christmas themed ones, since we did these in December.

Silhouette Houses, 3rd Grade

 Every year, around this time, I do a Silhouette House lesson with my students.  This year, I did it with third graders.  Many of my students choose to make their silhouette house scary, but students have the option to make any type of house.

The background is created with liquid watercolors, and the foreground painted with black tempera paint.

Folk Art Landscapes, 2nd Grade

 This lesson was inspired from the artwork of Karla Gerard.  Her artwork is bright, colorful folk art, and really resonates with young students.  My students focused on drawing landscapes with patterns.  These were painted with tempera paint. 

 I think these turned out great!  My students are very proud of them. 

Reflections, 3rd Grade

I have done this lesson many times, and my students always LOVE it.  From an art standpoint this lesson can teach about landscapes, reflections, and basic printing.  From a math standpoint this lesson incorporates the concept of flips which is also referred to as reflections.  I love when art lessons cross into other subjects!  

This is very simple to complete.  All you need to do is have students draw and color a landscape on the top half of their paper with washable markers (You can also use liquid watercolor paint if you want).  Then just spray the bottom half of the paper with water, fold, and rub.   I think the results were wonderful! 

Dream Home Paintings, 5th Grade

This was a fun lesson that had wonderful results. Students drew their dream home for this lesson.  To begin, I gave my students pictures of a variety of houses to use as references.  I then showed students how houses can be drawn using simple lines and shapes.  Students drew their houses with black sharpie markers, and painted with liquid watercolors.  

I think these turned out wonderful!  and I love how each one is unique.  

Silhouette Houses, 4th Grade

It has been a long time since I have posted new lessons.  This is because I have recently started a Master's Degree, and it has taken most of my extra time.  I will try to do better though, and post more often. 

Here are a few silhouette houses my fourth graders created a few weeks ago.  To begin this lesson, we discussed what a silhouette was, and looked at photos of silhouette houses.  Students also created a few sketches of houses for practice.

After that, students created the background with liquid watercolors, and then painted the house with black tempera paint.

 I just love that each house looks different.

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!

Banyan Tree Project, 4th Grade

I found this cute Banyan Tree project on the blog Art. Paper. Scissors. Glue.  To begin this project, students used black paint to draw a tree.  After the paint was dry, students began using oil pastels to color the background. I encouraged the students to blend several colors together and blend with their finger.   

These turned out beautiful!

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.

Annapolis Harbor Paintings, 4th Grade

My fourth graders learn about Maryland history every year.  For this painting, I have my students draw the Annapolis Harbor, which is Maryland's state capital.  These paintings are done with watercolors. If you look closely, you can see the state house in the background.   

Monet, 1st Grade

 These beautiful Monet Paintings were made by my first graders.  I found the idea for this lesson on Art Sonia.

 This lesson was very simple, we used sponges to paint the grass.  Next, we painted simple circles for flowers, and finally we used oil pastels to draw the bridge.

These turned out beautiful!

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!

Annapolis Harbor, 4th Grade

 My fourth graders recently took a field trip to Annapolis, so I thought it would be fun to paint the Annapolis Harbor. I asked my students to include at least one boat, several buildings, and the Annapolis State House in the background.  To help my students with this, I gave them several photos of Annapolis to use as reference. 

 To create these, students used oil pastels and watercolors. 

Folk Art Landscapes, 1st Grade

This project was based after the artwork of Karla Gerard. Karla Gerard is a folk artist, who uses bright colors and patterns in her work.
For this project, I had my students draw hills, houses, and trees with a black crayon. After this, students added patterns with oil pastels. Lastly, students used watercolors to paint their drawing.
I think these are wonderfully colorful!

Folk Art Neighborhoods, 1st Grade

This art project was inspired after the artwork of Karla Gerard. She is an artist who sells most of her art on eBay. I just love her folk art style, and thought it was great inspiration for an art project.
I began this project by giving every child a black crayon. Erasing was not an option for this project. Students drew a ground, trees, and houses. I encouraged students to draw patterns on the ground. After the drawing was done, I gave my students oil pastels. These were used to color the small things in the picture. I told the students they had to color the tree trunks, houses, and all other small objects with the pastels. The rest of the picture was then painted with liquid watercolors.
I must say that these turned out wonderful. My students just keep surprising me with their talent.

Lighthouse in winter, 4th Grade

I LOVE winter and I LOVE lighthouses. For this project, I thought I would combine the two. We began by drawing out a simple round shape for the ground, and a simple horizon line. We painted the sky, water and the land with tempera paint. Lastly, we cut out a lighthouse from construction paper and glued it to the painting. I think these turned out very nice. I like how some of my students added boats and whales in the ocean. I didn't tell them to do this, they just did it on their own. I Love when my students come up with good ideas. I just wish I could have had more time on this project. We really had to rush to get it done in 75 minutes.
The basic idea for this lesson came from Deep Space Sparkle. I changed it to a winter scene, but it's basically the same idea.

The Southwest, 4th Grade

Okay, so I know I posted on this project last year, but I LOVE the results, so I thought I would post some pics again. I do this project every year when the fourth grade students study the different regions of the United States. It is just a fun way to depict the Southwest region. To begin, I have the students draw sand dunes, cacti, and an expressive sun on black paper. I do emphasize that I want everything drawn fairly large, and that things can overlap. (For instance, the cactuses can go all the way into the sky). Otherwise, they will draw tini tiny. This time, I had the students use oil pastels to color everything in. In the past, I have had them use soft pastels instead. Both work nice, just a slightly different look. Many of my students love to mix colors, which I love, but sometimes they don't think before they blend colors together. Before letting them color, I brought out the color wheel, and explained the concept of analogous colors. I told them that if they mix colors next to each other on the color wheel, they will never end up with a hideous color. I also tell them that complimentary colors look wonderful next to each other, but not as wonderful on top of each other.
The final step to this project is to outline everything with black glue. I basically just take regular glue and mix in black paint. Students have to be very careful when outlining with the glue. They should not squeeze the bottle to hard, or huge globs may come out.