Read below students artwork to see how we created them!
This lesson took 2 (40 minute) art classes to finish. A fun quick lesson right before the winter break! Students had so much fun creating them especially when adding flecks of white paint for the snowflakes with toothbrushes!
DAY 1
After reviewing what a landscape was, students drew 5 triangles on a sheet of 12×18″ 80# white paper with pencil. I encouraged them to draw them in various sizes. Students could use rulers if they wanted as well.
Once drawn, they went over their lines with a black colored pencil to darken their lines. This is so kids could see their lines better when cutting them out, after gluing down tissue paper on their triangles.
Then they glued colorful cut tissue pieces all over their triangles using watered down white school glue. Students overlapped tissue as they glued, making sure to cover all the white spaces within their triangles. It’s important here to apply thin layers of glue, then one tissue at a time, then add another thin layer of glue on top with their brush to make the tissue lay nice and flat.
I mentioned to students they could go beyond their triangles edges with tissue since we would be cutting them all out later on.
These were set aside to dry until the following art class.
DAY 2
Students cut out their snowy hills from white paper and glued onto a sheet of 12×18″ black paper with a glue stick.
Then cut out their triangle trees and glued onto their snowy hills with a glue stick.
Then for a final touch, dipped a toothbrush (packs of 5 at the dollar tree!) into watered down white tempera paint and using their thumb ran their thumb across the bristles (bristles pointing downward to their landscapes) flecking snowflakes all over! Messy for sure! But fun!
I can’t get over how ADORABLE these weavings are!!!! I LOVE them!!
I absolutely LOVE these fun watermelons!!! Thank you Nichole ( Mini Matisse) for sharing this wonderful lesson! My students loved creating them!
STEP 1: Creating the loom!
Students folded a sheet of 12×18″ red construction paper in half. They turned the folded paper around so the opening was at the top. Then they drew a horizontal line all the way across the top, and wrote their name above that line.
After that, they drew a short vertical line along the line where they wrote their name, starting in the center, then finding the halfway points between the center and to both the right edge and left edge of their paper. Then splitting those areas in half again and drawing 4 more vertical lines like below.
Then they drew straight vertical lines from those marks to the bottom
Then they cut along each of those lines, making sure to stop at the top horizontal line like below
STEP 2: Weaving the pink strips!
Students opened up the red paper, (the loom) horizontally, and wove 1″ x 12″ cut strips of pink paper all the way across creating a tight weave.
1st graders learned how to go over and under each horizontal cut red strip with their pink vertical strips of construction paper and noticed how it created a checkerboard pattern!
The trickiest part of this step was to be sure to reverse the pink strip every other time they wove. If the very first pink strip started on TOP of the red (like pictured above), they had to start weaving the next pink strip underneath the red, then the following pink strip started ON TOP of the red and so on so forth…. all the way across.
Art educator, Nichole Hahn’s Mini Matisse Blog had an awesome and easily explained video my students watched for this lesson. Click HERE to check it out from her blog!
Here they are watching it!
Students could choose from pink strips, magenta strips or a combo of both!
If students finished early, they became my teachers assistant and helped kids that wanted help weaving! It was so sweet and nice to see friends helping one another out!
Once all the pink strips were woven in the red loom, they glued the pink tabs along ALL the edges (both front and back) with a glue stick. This helps make sure the strips woven in won’t fall out or move out of place.
STEP 3: Adding the rind and seeds!
Students drew a GIANT letter U along a piece of 12×18″ green construction paper with pencil. Then cut out and glued to the weaving using a glue stick. Students applied glue heavily to the rind and pressed for 5 seconds to make sure it was stuck on!
Then they cut along the edge of the green rind, cutting off the extra watermelon weaving to create the watermelon shape!
For the final touch, students added watermelon seeds within each pink strip with a black sharpie!
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post!!
More artwork coming up REAaaaaaaL SOOOooooon from 2nd grade (“Springtime Bunny, Bears or Foxes”) , 4th Grade (“Enlarged Flower Drawings”) inspired by artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and 5th Grade (“Grid Drawings”) inspired by artist Chuck Close !! Check back soon!
This fun 3 day art lesson—- (3) 40 minute art classes—-is inspired by the book “The Big Orange Splot” by Daniel Pinkwater.
I absolutely LOVE this book!
It’s about a man, Mr. Plumbean, who lives on a street with his neighbors who all have the same exact house on “a neat street” as they say in the story.
Then one day, a big splot of bright orange paint falls on his roof. The neighbors all get annoyed by the random splot and ask him to get rid of it so they all “have a neat street” again.
Instead of getting rid of it, he adds to the splot, and paints his home with a ton of bright, vivid colors, and pictures of fun, random things ALL over. His neighbors get really upset at him and ask him why he won’t change it back to the way it was before. He declares to all his angry neighbors “my house is me, and I am it…..my house looks like all my dreams” and doesn’t change a thing.
Soon after…. one by one… the neighbors try to have a talk with him to change it back. BUT…. after talking to Mr. Plumbean, each neighbor gets INSPIRED! and ends up changing all THEIR houses to look like their own dreams!
After reading the story, we talked about how it’s important to be yourself and to not be afraid to stand out, and talked about how boring it would be if everything looked the same. Then I showed students examples of previous 1st graders artwork, as well as a few of my own, then kids got started!
I had no rules for this art lesson except to add a pattern somewhere within their work! I wanted to let them be as creative as possible with very little instruction. Kids could draw whatever kind of house they wanted! It didn’t have to be rectangular or square like most houses—it could be any shape! It could be a diamond shaped house, a slice of cake, a puppy, a cookie, a robot, a spaceship, a boat, a unicorn, slides coming from the roof to a pool in the yard….you get the idea!
Check them out below- They came out fantastic!
(Photos of students creating them below their artwork too!)
Students drew on 12×18″ drawing paper with pencil, then outlined all lines with a black sharpie, then colored in their houses with crayons. The final step was painting the background with blue (for sky or underwater scene) or black (for space or nighttime scene) using liquid watercolors.
NEXT UP FOR FIRST GRADERS……….. “WATERMELON WEAVINGS”! STAY TUNED FOR THAT POST SOON 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! I will be posting 3rd grade self-portrait artwork inspired by artist Frida Kahlo NEXT, and 2nd grade “3D Water Lilies” inspired by Claude Monet VERY VERY SOON!
Read below student artwork to learn how students created these, what they learned about throughout the process, and see photos of students creating!
When students came into the art room and sat down, without showing them my teacher examples, I asked them, “who can remember and tell me what the primary colors are?” (They all learned about primary colors from the previous lesson when creating secondary colors from mixing primary colors)
I was happy to see everyone’s hands shooting up in the air!
***I feel like I should explain here that Kindergarteners don’t have art class in our district, that’s why I’m teaching them about primary/secondary colors, line, shapes, overlapping etc. etc. to my first grade classes***
Then I showed them my teacher examples and explained we’d be creating artwork inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian.
From there I showed them a brief PowerPoint about his life and artwork.
Students learned he was an artist from the Netherlands, who lived from 1872 to 1944 who was and still is today, a very influential and famous abstract painter. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th century abstract art.
One fact about his life was that he was an elementary school teacher before creating art full time. They also learned how he painted more realistically in the beginning, then developed a strong interest in creating more abstracted images, and eventually reduced his artwork to simple geometric elements, focusing on horizontal and vertical lines. He also paired down his color palette using mainly primary colors.
Below are some screenshots of slides taken from my powerpoint I showed students.
I asked students to show me how to draw vertical and horizontal lines with their finger in the air. Then I asked them how many vertical lines there were in his paintings, and how many horizontal lines and what shapes they created.
I asked my students “who can tell me what a shape is?” Students said rectangles, circles, squares…” I said yes those are all examples of shapes you’re right, but do you know what the definition of a shape is? What is a shape? I drew on paper a random line connected end to end that resembled a cloud, and asked “ is this a shape?” They all said yes!
I explained how any lines that connect end to end is a shape.
As I motioned my hands in the air – I asked my first grade students “what happens when 2 horizontal lines connect with 2 vertical lines?” ——they knew right away! They create rectangles and squares!
Students all loved this picture with the lady on the car!
DAY 1 (OF 2)
Students used a small
rectangular piece of Styrofoam dipped into black tempera paint, to stamp one
end and print horizontal and vertical lines onto 12x 18” paper.
I explained to focus mainly on making squares and rectangles (just like Mondrian) but they could create triangles and other shapes here and there too!
I love the experimentation! Some students played around with the thickness of their lines!
DAY 2
Students colored in their shapes with primary colors using markers.
Some students took more of a Kandinsky approach to stamping their lines. I love the sense of movement these have below!
They really got into it, and some students told me they couldn’t wait to go home and create more!
Check back later this weekend for a new blog post on 4th Grade Radial Printmaking!! And check below to see 4th graders beautiful Dandelion Puffs! Thanks for stopping by!
I couldn’t resist posting these adorable and amazing drawings my first graders did before adding the balloon for their bubble gum! (I will be adding the balloons to them next week to display in the hallways!)
This was a really fun lesson where first-graders learned the difference between a self-portrait and a portrait! This lesson took (3) 40 minute art classes to finish.
Students not only learn how to draw the face and facial details, but we also talk about color matching and trying to best match our own unique skin colors, eye colors and hair colors using crayons. We focus on the Elements of Art (Line, Shape, Color, and Form), as well as use (Principle of Art) Pattern in the background!
DAY 1
First, students viewed a variety of self-portraits from first graders from previous years in my Powerpoint, as well as my own example drawings hanging on the board.
Students then watched while I demonstrated under the document camera how to draw the head by drawing an upside down egg shape. Then how to draw two curving lines for the neck and shoulders with the arms going off the page at the bottom.
I discussed how the drawing would be close up and not show the entire body, (like in their school photo that gets taken in the beginning of the year which I think helped them understand better).
They learned how to draw facial features in correct proportion and learned that eyes are drawn like the shape of almonds/footballs or lemons. I talked about how everyone’s eyes are different, but in general, that’s the basic shape of the eye. I also discussed how we have the iris (colored part, and the pupil, the black circle that allows us to see). And that the pupil is ALWAYS in the center of the iris, no matter what direction we are looking in! As I demonstrated how to draw eyelashes I talked about how we ALL have them, to help keep dust and dirt out of our eyes and to help protect them from direct sunlight, and showed them how they are more of a slight curving line rather than straight lines.
I demonstrated a few different ways to draw the nose, which students could choose what they felt they liked best for their drawing (as long as they tried drawing the more “realistic” looking nose (explaining as I demonstrated to to draw “a c shape, curving line up, a “u” shape, then a backwards c shape, as one continuous line), as well as how to draw a more realistic looking mouth, simple “c” shapes for the ears and curving lines for the eyebrows through a demonstration under the document camera.
Kids had a tricky time drawing the nose and lips the most, but they did a fantastic job!!
Once they finished their self-portrait in pencil, students added a pattern of circles in the background, by tracing a circular jar lid, then traced over all their lines with a thick black sharpie to make their lines stand out more.
DAYS 2-3
On the second day of the lesson students began coloring in with crayons.
I explained to look for a crayon or two that would best match their own unique skin color. We discussed how people’s skin have a variety of colors in the world, and that they are ALL beautiful!!
I talked to them about how it’s important to appreciate each others differences and how boring the world would be if we were all the same skin color! Students agreed it would definitely be a boring world if we all looked the same!
Students then found a crayon that best matched their own unique skin color, eye color and hair color and colored in their self-portraits. I demonstrated that they could combine and layercolors to create the colors they needed if need be. I encouraged students to press hard when coloring and to try to color in completely so no white paper showed through.
For a final step, I will poke holes in their papers using a pencil and a pre-tied balloon will be attached to their self-portrait using masking tape on the back! Like in these photos below from last year!
1st Grade Bubblegum Blowing Self-portrait
Students did a fantastic job creating their self-portraits! Balloons will be added soon and displayed in the school’s hallways!
Another blog post tomorrow! Check back sometime then to see! Thanks for stopping by!
LOVE IS IN THE AIR Mixed media art lesson by 1st grade
This fun 3 day lesson incorporates the elements of art; Shape, Color, Line, Form, and Texture! We also review overlapping, and crayon wax resist painting throughout the lesson.
Kids finished them up JUST in time for Valentine’s Day!
DAY 1: CREATE WARM TISSUE BACKGROUND
Students glued pre-cut warm colored tissue paper onto a sheet of 12×18″ tagboard using watered down glue. They glued an area of the paper first, then tissue, one piece at a time, then applied another thin layer of glue on top of each piece. This ensured the tissue laid flat and stuck to the paper.
Students were encouraged to overlap as they glued pieces, and to fill up the entire paper.
Day 1- gluing tissue for the sky background — Let me tell you… creating art with tissue paper and glue are probably my LEAST favorite art materials to work with! So flippin MESSY, and seems to get EVERYWHERE!!! BUT… in the end, I think the beautiful artwork created was well worth the mess and clean up
DAY 2 – CONTINUE GLUING TISSUE / CREATE PLANE
Students continued gluing tissue until their paper was filled in entirely. Then they each received a sheet of 8.5 x 11″ medium weight tagboard with a pre-printed outline of a plane. (I drew the plane ahead of time and photocopied them)
Students drew a variety of lines and/or shapes using crayon, pressing hard inside their plane, leaving a bit of white background showing.
Once colored to their liking, they painted over the entire plane using watercolors, creating a crayon-wax resist. Students could paint with whatever colors they wanted. Planes were set aside to dry along with their tissue backgrounds until the next class.
DAY 2: CREATING THE PLANE WITH CRAYON WAX-RESIST
DAY 3: ADD PLANE AND HEART!
Students cut out their planes, and glued using a glue stick to their tissue paper backgrounds. Then glued on the cotton batting for the planes smoke in the shape of a heart!
I demonstrated how to take SMALL chunks from the bag, and pull with their fingers creating a thinner line of “smoke” before gluing into place. This was the trickiest step! Kiddos did great!!
DAY 3: ATTACH PLANE AND COTTON BATTING FOR THE HEART! ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICS OF THE PROCESS!!!KIDS LOOOOOVED FEELING THE TEXTURE OF THE COTTON!
This was a really fun lesson where first-graders learned the difference between a self-portrait and a portrait! This lesson took (3) 40 minute art classes to finish.
I just love this artist’s winking self-portrait! So cute!
DAY 1
Students looked at different self-portraits by famous artists and then learned how to draw the head by drawing an upside down egg shape. They learned how to draw facial features in correct proportion and learned that eyes are drawn like the shape of almonds/footballs or lemons and ways to draw the nose, mouth, ears and eyebrows through a demonstration under the document camera.
Once they finished their self-portrait, students added a pattern of circles in the background, then traced over all their lines with a thick black sharpie.
DAYS 2-3
On the second day of the lesson I read them a story called The Colors of Us, by Karen Katz. I absolutely LOVE this story because it talks about appreciating each others differences and to notice the variety of skin colors we all have and that they are ALL beautiful!! We talked about how weird and boring the world would be if we were all the same skin color!
Students then found a crayon that best matched their own unique skin color, eye color and hair color and colored in their self-portraits. I demonstrated that they could combine and layer colors to create the colors they needed. I encouraged students to press hard when coloring and to try to color in completely so no white paper showed through.
For a final step, I poked holes in their papers using a pencil and a pre-tied balloon was attached to their self-portrait using tape on the back!
Students did a fantastic job creating their self-portraits! (*Some students are still finishing coloring and I will be adding more photos later on!)
Now a beautiful and colorful hallway!! 🙂
Thanks so much for dropping by!! Read below to check out yesterday’s post on 2nd grade artwork!
If interested– sign up for new blog post updates via email, (to the right, or scroll all the way down on a cell phone) 🙂
I will be blogging again tomorrow night on NEW 4th grade artwork (Neon Pop-Out Self-portraits!) Stay tuned!…
Here’s what students are currently working on in Art class!
1st Grade: HOT AIR BALLOON COLLAGES
Students are using the Elements Of Art LINE and SHAPE to create these fun collages! These photos of student art are from last year. To learn how we are creating them and what the learning goals are click HERE.
2nd Grade: BIRCH TREE LANDSCAPES
2nd Graders are learning about foreground, middle ground and background and how to create a sense of space in art for this lesson. The photos above are of student artwork from last year. Some students are finishing up their Love Monsters this Thursday and will begin this lesson after. To learn more about this lesson and how students will create this, click HERE and scroll down!
*****I will be creating a YouTube video tutorial on the Birch Tree Landscape lesson soon, as well as a few “How to draw animals” videos for the lesson! Stay tuned!!!*****
3rd Grade: COMPLEMENTARY CREATURE PRINTS
3rd graders will start this lesson soon once the 3D Winter Mugs are finished. To learn more on how these prints were created and what the learning goals are for the lesson, click HERE and scroll down!
I have a YouTube tutorial on this lesson as well! Click under the main menu on “YouTube Tutorials” and view my video there!
4th Grade: ENLARGED FLOWER DRAWINGS
4th graders are currently working on this lesson inspired by the artist Georgia O’Keeffe! Photos above are by 4th graders from last year. Students enlarge a section of a flower while observing photos, using oil pastels. I LOVE this lesson and how we abstract the flower by zooming in and cropping just a section of a flower!
To learn more about this lesson and learn how students will create these beauties, click HERE and scroll down!
5th Grade: FALLING FOR FORESHORTENING
5th Graders are currently working on these fun perspective drawings! These photos above are by 5th graders from last year and previous years. They learn about the type of perspective “foreshortening”, and draw the person’s expression to match what they are falling into, add details to the hands and feet and create a background using colored pencils. To learn more on this lesson, and view additional drawings click HERE and scroll down!
SPECIAL EDUCATION: MIXED MEDIA FLOWER AND BUGS
Students created these adorable flowers and bugs using cut paper and cupcake liners! Kids glued green construction paper for the grass and flowers stem and leaves, then painted ovals and/or circles on separate paper with tempera paint to create the bugs. Then they painted a cut paper plate for the large flower head with liquid tempera paint.
On day 2, they glued on their paper plate flower head, then a cupcake liner for the center. They then drew legs for their bugs with marker, cut out the bugs and added them to their flower picture with google eyes!
Once finished, I showed them how to draw flowers in grass and they colored in crayon!
Be sure to check out the previous post on “PULLED STRING ART” my special education classes created below!! They came out so beautiful!!
To view additional artwork by my special education classes, click HERE!
STUDENTS!! —- If you are looking for my Art Video Tutorials you can touch or click HERE to take you to my art instruction videos page on this website. OR, just click on “ART INSTRUCTION VIDEOS “ under the drop down menu!
Mondrian inspired artwork -1st Grade
This fun art lesson also connects to math! While revisiting what the primary colors are, first graders also learn about the life and artwork of Piet Mondrian, continue to learn about various lines (horizontal and vertical) and learn about geometric shapes while creating their artwork.
After reviewing the artwork and life of Piet Mondrian, students created their own Mondrian inspired creations!
On day 1- Students first stamped black lines on 12×18″ white paper using a cut piece of cardboard that had been dipped into black tempera paint. We reviewed horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. We discussed how the stamped lines had to connect and touch each other in order to create a shape- rectangles, squares, triangles etc.
On day 2- Students then carefully colored in a chosen selection of shapes with primary colors, (using markers), leaving some shapes white.
Learning Goals:
-Learn about the artist Piet Mondrian and his artwork
-Be able to identify primary colors, and use them in their art
-Be able to identify and create horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines within artwork
-Be able to Identify and create shapes within artwork
-Understand that shapes are lines that connect
WINTER SHEEP BY MY SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASSES
On day 1- Students painted snow and snowflakes with white tempera paint on construction paper, then sponged on grey clouds. They then painted some bubble wrap with white acrylic paint.
On day 2- Students glued on strips of black construction paper for the sheep’s legs, brown strips for the fence, glued on the cut out sheep, then added google eyes!
These turned out so adorable! Thank you blps_art (via Instagram)!
To give you a sneak peek into what kids will be creating in art, after returning from winter break, here it is! …
Everyone at ROOSEVELT Elementary will finish up their previous lesson before the break, (if needed), then start the Square 1 Art fundraiser drawings!
Then will continue onto the following lessons as AMVET (read below).
BTW–I have only received the Square 1 Art box for Roosevelt so far. Amvet Elementary will start on them once they arrive!
For students at AMVET ELEMENTARY….
1st Grade:
Mixing Primary colors to create Secondary colors
This is a 1 day lesson. Then in the following class, students will be creating “Mondrian Collages” using primary colors.
2nd Grade:
Finish Monet Inspired 3-D Water Lilies (2M and 2D)
If finished- “Catching Snowflakes” portraits are up next!
3rd Grade:
Finish “Self-Portraits with Personal Symbols” oil pastel drawings
THEN….. Create a “3-D Winter Mug”!!
(**PHOTO CREDIT OF 3-D WINTER MUGS ABOVE AND BELOW FROM MELANIE LABONTE-POIRER —VIA PINTEREST**)
This will be a new art lesson I’m trying out this year! I don’t have a teacher example of my own or students art to post yet– I’m super excited to try it though, and can’t wait to show my 3rd graders!!!! So fun!
Donuts Inspired by the amazingly talented Mrs. Cassie Stephens! Thanks Cassie!
Did I mention the sprinkles are created using three-dimensional puffy paint!?! This is one of my favorite lessons!!
5th Grade:
5th Graders will finish their “3-D OP Art Cone Drawings” if needed
Then….
Will start “Falling For Foreshortening” drawings!
Special Education will start a fun “Mixed-Media Sheep collage”
(photo above by “blps_art” via Instagram)
*This will be a new lesson I’m incorporating, and do not have a teacher example or students examples yet– Can’t wait to try it out!! How adorable are these bubble wrap sheep!!
To view more art lessons by grade level, click on the grade level under the drop down menu!
