With remote learning well underway, I thought I’d share the artwork students have been emailing me while creating art from home!
I, along with the two AMAZING elementary art teachers in my district (Kim and Sarah YOU ROCK!), have been collaborating on creating weekly art activity suggestions for our students. One weekly art activity suggestion for grades K-2 and one weekly art activity suggestion for grades 3-5.
I’ve gotten a bunch of artwork via email from my students. Awesome work guys! Keep creating!
Some artwork below was created using one of our art activity suggestions for inspiration and some they came up with on their own.
Students below created some excellent positivity posters to hang in their windows in their homes. This was one of the 3-5 art activity suggestions “I can design: A Kindness Poster!”Create a positive motivational poster to send encouragement to others in the world around you. Then, display your poster where you live. You might even hang it in a window to send a positive message to others!”
Here are some sculptures made from nature inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy! This was one of the 3-5 art activity suggestions “I can create: A Sculpture made from nature”Go on a nature scavenger hunt and collect natural materials. Arrange them in a symmetrical design. Take a photo and show off your design!
This was one of the K-2 art activity suggestions “I can Build: A Robot Using Recycled Materials”Create a shape robot using any cardboard you are able to use. Cereal boxes and cracker packaging work well!
Below are some aliens students created. This was one of the K-2 art activity suggestions “I can Create: Draw your own alien”What shape is the body of the alien? How many eyes does your alien have? Does your alien have scales, fur, or something else? What name would you give it?
This student created a cool 3D alien from materials around the house!This student had fun creating their alien from clay and pipe cleaners!
Below are from one of the K-2 art activity suggestions “I Can Create: Draw a picture of how you would look at age 75?”
These two students used a variety of materials creatively to create themselves at 75!
Below are two students that drew along with me in my YouTube video on “How to Draw 2 Dogs on a Hill”! Nice work!!!
Here’s some more artwork students created!
I will be adding more student artwork very soon!
Students: If you would like to share anything you have created at home please send them to me! I’d love to see it and will post it here on my blog! Email me at mfilmore@naschools.net
I just finished uploading my new drawing tutorial on “How to draw 2 dogs on a hill” to my YouTube channel! I hope you like it! STUDENTS: IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE ME TO DEMONSTRATE HOW TO DRAW, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL DO MY BEST TO CREATE THAT VIDEO!! Email me or reply to this blog post. Also- To all my students; If you watch my video and draw a picture of 2 dogs on a hill, please share it by emailing me a photo of it! I’d love to see your artwork (or ANYTHING that you create at home!)
Send your photos of your art to me at mfilmore@naschools.net
I miss you all so much, and I can’t wait to be back in my art room with you! Please keep creating and share what you make!
Stay safe and be well everybody ❤️ We are all in this together 💕 Mrs. Filmore
I hope that you and your families are all staying safe and healthy and are enjoying some imaginative, fun ways to create art at home!
I, along with the other two elementary art teachers of North Attleboro are hard at work coming up with creative, fun and engaging art activities that you and your families can try at home while school is closed. Be on the lookout for these fun art activity suggestions! They will be posted on the NAPS extended learning webpage SOON.
I’m also going to be creating some fun NEW step-by-step drawing video tutorials on my YouTube channel soon! I’ll blog these videos once they are filmed and edited and add them to my YouTube channel as well.
I just added some new photos of students creating art. My “Students Creating Art” link can be found under the main menu of this blog. Check that out after reading this if you haven’t already!
If you haven’t checked out my Art Games page, you can click on that link under my menu and play free educational art games as well!
Students, Remember the “What should I draw?” jar in my art room that you could use if you finished an art lesson early?! I’ve JUST included a link to all my original “What Should I Draw?” jar drawing ideas. You can check out that same exact list of drawing ideas found in my jar, HERE! Feel free to copy and print out these for fun drawing ideas to use at home! The link is also in my menu of this website.
1st-5th grade students from both Amvet and Roosevelt North Attleboro Elementary schools- Please Feel free to Email me any photos of any art you’ve been working on while at home! I’d LOVE to hear from you and see what creative things you have been up to!! My teacher email is mfilmore@naschools.net which is also listed in my contact page of this site.
Below are some AWESOME 2nd grade Abstract Self-Portraits students finished creating at Roosevelt Elementary School before schools closed for the time being. I wish I took a photo and could share EVERYONE’S, but was only able to capture a handful. More about this lesson with students creating them below the artwork.
This fun self-portrait lesson combines art exploration
in abstract art and color theory!
This lesson took (3) 40 minute art classes to finish.
On the first day of the lesson, students learned about abstract artwork and looked at a slideshow of artwork by various abstract painters (Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Jackson Pollock and William de Cooning to name a few). We discussed how abstract art focuses mainly on lines, shapes, and colors.
ON DAY 1 After viewing the slideshow and doing a quick demo, students drew an abstract drawing using various lines, and shapes on 12×18″ medium weight tagboard. Students then went over all their lines with crayons being sure to press super hard (later on we would do a crayon wax-resist). They then filled out a short questionnaire with questions asking about their favorite things and things about themselves.
ON DAY 2 They painted their drawings using concentrated liquid watercolors creating a crayon wax-resist. Before painting we reviewed what the primary colors, secondary colors and warm and cool colors were. While kids worked, I took each students photo (which I later printed as a high-contrast black & white photo on printer paper).
ON DAY 3 Students
glued their black and white self-portrait onto their painting. Then
students cut out their pre-printed sentences into strips and added them to
their paintings using a glue stick!
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and check out other sections on this website for additional art resources and inspiration. And again, be on the lookout for some fun art activity suggestions you can try out at home that us elementary art teachers have created. These art activity suggestions will be posted on the NAPS Extended Learning district webpage soon. Awesome resources are available on that website for students/families to use already!
Stay safe and be strong!…….We will get through this!!
STEAM club started this year at Roosevelt Avenue Elementary School! If you are new to the idea of STEAM the acronym stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.
Andrea Bolton (the Librarian/ Media Specialist) and I, have started some fun projects for students who wish to participate every Tuesday in my art room. This is something new to Roosevelt and began in October 2019.
Kindergarten through 5th grade can participate, but it is not mandatory. Steam club runs for 20 minutes, once a week. Short timeframe for sure! to do activities, but we see the same students each week for 4 weeks for the younger grades, and we see the same students for 5th grade for 6 weeks, so projects can continue the following week(s) if necessary.
We have a K-2 (20 minute) steam activity block and then a 3rd-5th (20 minute) steam activity block each Tuesday.
Here’s how it works…..
Every Tuesday, during the K-2 recess, which is from 12:00-12:20pm, either just Kindergarten, just 1st grade or just 2nd grade participate in STEAM club. Andrea and I decided to work only with one grade level at a time, so currently, only 2nd graders join us during that time. 10 students total for the duration of 4 weeks.
At Roosevelt, there are 2 classes per grade level. We ask the 2 classroom teachers of that grade, to choose 5 students each that want to participate (so totaling 10 students). Once the 4 weeks are up, the 2nd grade teachers select another 5 students from each class. Once the next 4 weeks are up, it repeats selecting a new group of 10 students total until we have seen all kids in that grade level that want to participate.
So as of now, we are on our last group of (10) 2nd graders and we will have a NEW group of (10) 1st graders beginning Tuesday February 4th. We’re working backwards from 2nd grade to Kindergarten.
So far, Andrea and I have taught steam projects that only require 20 minutes to complete for 2nd graders. Some are collaborative/team based projects, and other projects we have done, kids create individually.
Tuesday’s, during the 3rd-5th grade recess, (which is from 12:40-1pm), only just 3rd grade, just 4th grade or just 5th grade participate in STEAM club. Like I mentioned above, we decided to stick with just one grade level at a time for each block starting with the higher grades working backwards, so currently, only 5th graders join us during that time. Ten 5th graders total, (5) from each class, and their 5th grade teachers select students who want to participate as well. The only difference with 5th grade is the same 10 students see us for STEAM club for 6 weeks rather than 4 weeks. This is because we wanted to teach 5th grade about STOP-MOTION ANIMATION which takes a bit longer to create! 5th grade students stop-motion videos below!!
During those 6 weeks we saw each group of ten 5th graders, students focused on creating a stop-motion video using iPads with the stop-motion app, and LEGOS! We split them up into two teams of 5 working together to create their videos. They could create whatever they wanted and had so much fun creating their LEGO stop-motion videos! Check them out below!
Here’s some pics of kids working on their stop-motion animations!
The last group of 5th graders have started creating their LEGO creations and will finish up Tuesday February 11th, just before February break! After that, we will move onto STEAM club for 4th grade February 25th!
Here’s some STEAM projects we’ve been working on with 2nd Grade!
2ND GRADE STEAM PROJECTS:
CHATTERPIX
Andrea showed students how to use a fun app on the iPad called Chatterpix that makes any picture you take speak! Students each drew a picture, then took a photo of it with the iPad. Then using Chatterpix, drew a line across where they wanted their drawing to speak in their photo of their artwork, and recorded their voice. Their drawings came to life, playing back their recording! And if they didn’t like their recording, they could just re-record! Kids loved it!!
I wish I took videos of this, but at least there’s photos below!
TOWER OF CUPS
2nd graders were placed into 2 teams of five, to work together for this fun, yet challenging, team building project!
The goal was to work collaboratively to stack, and build a tower of 6 cups (3 on the bottom, 2 in the middle, and 1 on top!) without touching the cups with their hands or feet! HOWEVER, because it’s a bit of a challenge not to knock cups over, if a cup falls, teams could pick up the fallen cup from its side and place face down again, to be able to continue.
In order to move the cups, they used a rubber band with 5 pieces of yarn tied to it, evenly spaced apart. (pics below)
Standing in a circle, students held onto the end of their yarn and by pulling the yarn (making the rubber band expand) or releasing the yarn (making the rubber band tighten up and get smaller) the rubber band would wrap around and grasp the cup, or release the cup to stack it!
To prep ahead of time, I tied (5) 24″ yarn pieces around each rubber band (1 for each team). I placed 6 plastic cups face down randomly on the floor for each team. After demonstrating with a group how it works, they got the picture and couldn’t wait to start!!
To make it a friendly competition, whichever team could build a tower of 6 cups first….wins!
Here’s a pic of the rubber band with yarn so you get a better idea and photos of kids working together to create their tower of cups!
One student was absent that day so we were short a team member. Andrea joined that team as I took photos!
It was pretty tricky!!!
Releasing the final cup!!!!But BOTH teams did it!!! Great job 2nd graders!!!!!
Tower of Cups was a project I discovered via Pinterest from The Water Lily Way
RAINBOW PAPER
This activity goes super fast! So PERFECT for just 20 minutes to create!
I placed a large, shallow tinfoil tray (turkey roasting pan size) with water filled 1/2 way up, on the middle of a table. Students dipped a sheet of black construction paper into the tray of water, making sure it was fully submerged.
Then dropped 3-4 droplets of clear nail polish (I know! Stinky! We had the windows in the art room open for this project!! ) into the water. After a few seconds (you want to do this quick!) kids took a corner of the paper and pulled it out of the water and set to dry in the drying rack.
Here you can see the rainbow film from the clear nail polish floating on top of the water
FYI: The rainbow patterns are more visible on the paper once the paper dries, which only takes about 5 minutes.Especially if you tilt the paper next to a sunny window!
Students each took a turn dropping the nail polish in the water, and pulling their own rainbow papers. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take any other photos since the project moved so quick!
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT: The nail polish creates a thin layer of colorful film that floats on top of the water. This is called thin-film interference.
It’s a natural occurring phenomenon and also happens when oil mixes with water on the road on a rainy day, and on soap bubbles! You can read a more detailed explanation of Thin-Film Interference on Wikipedia HERE.
I discovered this fun rainbow paper project via Science Kiddo
SOLAR PRINTED SNOWFLAKES
Solar prints like these take a bit of patience to see the final results, BUT is a fun science project that demonstrates the power of the sun’s rays!
To create them, students each received a sheet of printer paper, cut out a large circle and folded in half 3 times, creating a cone shape.
(I traced the top of a large plastic container to create the circle for each student ahead of time)
They cut out small shapes from all 3 sides of their folded paper.
And then carefully opened it up, revealing their cut paper snowflake!
These snowflakes were then taped onto sheets of 12 x18″ colored construction paper (I stuck a few loops of scotch tape on the back of each one) and then taped them to the window in the art room (snowflakes facing out).
After about 2-3 weeks, I took the papers down (More like 3 weeks! We had quite a few cloudy days!!) and carefully pulled the snowflakes off the paper. The suns rays penetrated the colored construction paper and faded it everywhere except where the white paper snowflake was!
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT: This is caused by a chemical reaction. The sun’s UV (ultraviolet) rays break down the pigment (color) of the colored paper. The ultraviolet radiation from the sun’s rays discolors the paper wherever sunlight hits. The areas where the snowflake covers the colored construction paper, prevents /blocks those UV rays from discoloring the paper!
Check this link out on the snowflake activity above along with other ones HERE!
For quicker results, try this out with Solar printing paper! To learn more about Solar Printing paper , I found a great link HERE!
PENNY SPINNERS
PENNY SPINNER IN ACTION!
To create these in 20 minutes, I did a little prep ahead of time for students. I cut out the center circles from 2 white paper plates and hot glued them together. Make sure you only add hot glue around the edges, not the center.
I tried using just one plate, but it ended up being too flimsy to spin right, after drawing with markers on it. Two plates glued together worked!
So after gluing the plates together, I pre-cut a small slice using an X-acto blade in the center for all of them. (1 spinner for each student, so I used 20 plates).
Students could color their circles (spinners) any way they wanted with markers.
Once colored, we gave each student a penny to put in the center slice of their spinners. It’s important to have the penny come out halfway on the top, and halfway on the bottom.
Then spin!!
Kids loved it!!
After a few times spinning fast, the penny can sometimes dislodge so we added a touch of hot glue to the penny where it meets the center of their spinner on both sides to keep in place.
In the blue and yellow spinner photo above, I was showing kids how adding two primary colors (blue and yellow for instance) could appear as a secondary color (green in this case) if spun fast enough! They thought it was such a cool illusion!!!
THESCIENCE BEHIND IT: Our eyes can’t focus on just one section of color when spinning so fast, so the two colors mix (or appear to mix!) creating another color!
Pretty much my LEAST favorite material to work with in art. BUT… since we had it fairly contained to a cart top, and only 10 students were working with it to create their glitter jars, I survived.
Plus, I must admit, they were quite enjoyable and calming to watch afterwards!
I prepped the jars and glitter before students arrived. Clear glue was poured about 1/2 way up each jar. The caps were screwed back on and various glitter was poured into separate bowls with plastic spoons for scooping.
When students arrived, we showed them example glitter jars that were made ahead of time. Turning them upside down, seeing all that glitter sparkle, and knowing that they could take them home, students of course were THRILLED and couldn’t wait to make one!!
Each student could scoop 5 spoonfuls of glitter into their jars. We had 5 kids at a time come up to the cart to add their glitter. After glitter was added, Andrea helped kids add water from the art room sink, while I helped the other 5 students with their jars. Water was added so it almost went to the top, with a little wiggle room in the bottle for water/glue/glitter to move around. I put a ring of hot glue around the inside of each cap and screwed back on tightly, just to make sure it was leak proof before students took them home.
2nd graders LOVED them! And what kid doesn’t like a bit of sparkle?!?
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT: The reason the glitter moves slowly is due to the clear glue in the bottle that’s mixed with water. Glue has a thick consistency and slows down the glitter as it moves!
Interesting note about glitter: After doing a little research online about glitter, and why we are attracted to it, I found an interesting article that mentioned a theory.
To quote the article I came across, “our attraction to sparkle is derived from an innate need to seek out fresh water.”
Makes sense to me! Water sparkles in the sunlight, and we need to drink water in order to live.
If you’d like to check out that article click HERE
Also- I’ve read on a couple sites that if you add a squirt of baby oil to your jar, it can give a slower moving “galaxy” kind of effect! If you’re reading this and haven’t made one with the addition of baby oil yet, try it out and let me know how it worked!
COLOR HUNT
Students were grouped into 2 teams of 5 students. The goal for this project was for each team to find things in my art room that were either COOL colors, or WARM colors, and take photos of the objects/images with an iPad. One team had warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows, pinks) and one team had cool colors (blues, purples, greens). The team that found and took the most photos of their color scheme won! They had about 15 minutes to take photos after directions were given, and off they went! Both teams took A TON of photos!!
There were just about 10 or so more photos that one team captured than the other, so it was a CLOSE CALL! BUT, we emphasized that it was more about helping each other out / working collaboratively, and having FUN rather than winning! They had a great time doing it AND I think the activity helped with “locking away” what the warm and cool colors were because it was so engaging!
PAPER TOWERS
This was a fun team building project that I’ve done with 5th graders before on the very first day of art class and I wanted to re-create it but with a few changes.
We had 2nd graders get into 2 teams (5 each team) at a table in the art room. A stack of construction paper that was, lets just say “less likely to use/old and discolored” was placed in the center of their tables. The goal was to create the tallest tower (or somehow structure) of paper only using their bare hands. No tape. No scissors. No nothin! Just their hands and some ingenuity!
Teams had about 10 minutes to construct and create the tallest paper tower!
Students created volume by crumpling up the paper at first and piling the crumpled papers on top of each other. Soon enough the crumpled papers tumbled and wouldn’t stay because they discovered a lack of support and balance. BUT they knew in order to create volume, they needed to manipulate and crumple up the papers! They were definitely onto something!!
Papers were feverishly crumpled and some were cast aside, falling on the floor, as time was ticking away! It was getting close to the final minutes! Both team’s crumpled up/ bent pieces of paper were tumbling and towers were losing height! But they both persevered and picked them back up and tried again!
The two teams worked on balancing crumpled, and layers of flat papers that were in the shape of a pyramid (ish) to achieve the weight balance ratio, and soon enough……. time was UP! THEY DID IT!!
Both teams had quite a good height on their paper towers, and after measuring them there was one tower that was just a few inches taller!
2nd graders had so much fun during this fast paced team activity! I wish I had photos of this too, or a video, but might have to do this one again with another group down the road!
MAKING CLAY!
Kiddos in 2nd grade all had their hands in creating their very own homemade air dry clay! It was a sticky mess at first! But then became a soft smooth white clay they took home and could make whatever they wanted with it!
I found almost all the ingredients needed (besides cornstarch) at the DollarTree.
We doubled the recipe ingredients so it would make more, so the run down of ingredients and directions looked like this
Students took a piece of folded paper from the bowl which had 1 ingredient written on it, then measured and added to the bowl. Each student had a chance to stir all the ingredients together and after separating into smaller sections, each student kneaded their clay on the table with additional cornstarch until soft and smooth!
It was a VERY sticky mess at first!!! All that glue!!!ADDING MORE CORNSTARCH ON THE TABLE WHILE KNEADING MADE IT MUCH SOFTER AND MUCH LESS STICKY!!
Kids had so much fun making it, and each took about a “lime” size chunk home in a ziplock baggie!
JUUUsst enough time for a 20 minute STEAM project!
I’ll be posting MORE STEAM projects that we create very soon! Some other ideas we might do for STEAM club are making shaving cream marbled paper, creating structures with clay and toothpicks, growing plants/ or from seeds, sound: making simple musical instruments, and making crystals!! Plus others! ….. If you have any ideas please share!! I’m always looking for fun, creative, engaging projects for steam club! You can either send me an email (contact page) or click on the comment box on my “Contact” page.
AND FINALLY.…… if you haven’t followed this amazing YouTuber Mark Rober yet (Former NASA engineer. Current YouTuber and friend of science.) You should check him out!! He has a ton of amazing videos!! Highly recommend.
Thanks so much for visiting my website! Check back soon for more artwork and amazingness by my students!
This lesson took 3 art classes to complete (40 minutes each). 2nd graders followed along with me as I did a guided drawing for their bear on 12×12″ 80# white drawing paper in pencil. They added a ton of texture for the fur with sharpie, then they used some of their math skills to create their patterns in the sweaters!
Read more on all of this below students artwork, to see my step-by-step photos on how we created our bears!
I love all the different expressions!
Here’s how I demonstrated to students on how to draw the bear!
When kids were ready, I gave students dice and a pattern sheet that I created where each pattern was labeled by a number.
I posted this up on the board for kids to see when they rolled their dice for their patterns in their sweaters. Where it says “your choice of a pattern” they could select one from the sheet to draw, or create their own.
These are my 3 teacher examples above
Here’s some photos of students creating their awesome bears!
Lesson inspiration from Britt Curley and @2art.chambers (instagram account)
How adorable are these bears?! We used liquid watercolors and salt for the background, then a guided drawing of the polar bear and black oil pastel for shading! Read below students artwork to see how we created them with step-by-step pics!
DAY 1
On the first day of this 2 day lesson, students painted their background sky for the polar bear.
I put out bowls of turquoise and magenta liquid watercolors and bowls of kosher salt. 3rd graders watched me do a quick painting demo under the doc camera first, reviewing the wet-on-wet painting technique. First applying only water to the top half of their 12×18″ 80# white drawing paper, then adding whichever color paint they want first to the wet areas on their paper. Kids always love seeing how the paint spreads and feathers outward when doing wet-on-wet!
I encouraged students to paint randomly, and let the two colors merge here and there. If they created somewhat of a stripey effect with the two colors, I showed them how to brush on only water between the two stripes to help blend them together and blur the lines a bit more.
They loved watching the variety of lavender and purple hues develop when the turquoise and magenta paint mixed!
Once half the paper was painted and while still wet, students sprinkled salt over that area creating a salt resist technique! 3rd graders remembered this technique when they created the 3D Water lily last year in 2nd grade. Once dry, the salt crystals leave behind white areas that resemble snowflakes in the sky. For our 3D waterlilies project, the salted areas resembled light reflecting off the water background for the waterlily.
Once half of the paper was painted and salted, they wet the other half with just water and repeated painting and adding salt to the remaining half. Working on half the paper first, ensures the area is still wet enough for the salt. If the paper is too dry (the paint has dried up and the paper isn’t wet enough) the salt has nothing to absorb to create the snowflake effect.
Paintings were set aside to dry until the following art class.
Once dry, I brushed off all of the salt on students paintings and flattened them under a pile of heavy books. Here’s a few students painting’s that have been brushed off and flattened and are ready for the polar bear!
They ALL turned out beautiful, but I LOVE the way the salt created those interesting marks at the top in this one!!
DAY 2
3rd graders followed along with me while I did a guided drawing of the polar bear on 12×18″ 80# paper. Here are step-by-step photos that show how I drew the bear with my students.
STEP 1: DRAW 2 RAINBOW LINES FOR THE BEARS FEETSTEP 2: DRAW 3 LINES WITHIN EACH PAW
STEP 3: DRAW ANOTHER SMALLER RAINBOW LINE IN BETWEEN THE TWO PAWSSTEP 4: DRAW A LARGE RAINBOW LINE FROM PAW TO PAW STEP 5: DRAW THE BEARS HEAD STEP 6: DRAW TWO CURVED LINES FOR THE EARS STEP 7: DRAW TWO SMALLER CURVING LINES INSIDE THE EARS STEP 8: DRAW A LARGE EGG SHAPE INSIDE THE HEADSTEP 9: DRAW 2 SMALL CIRCLES FOR THE EYESSTEP 10: DRAW AN UPSIDE DOWN TRIANGULAR SHAPE FOR THE NOSESTEP 11: DRAW THE LETTER “W” FOR THE MOUTH. DRAW A TINY CIRCLE IN THE RIGHT PART OF THE EYES. DRAW A LONG OVAL SHAPE ALONG THE TOP OF THE NOSE.
Once drawn in pencil, I showed students how to add the black oil pastel. First we traced over all our lines with the black oil pastel. Then colored in the eyes and nose except for the small shiny reflective parts, where it remained white, like below.
STEP 12: TRACE OVER ALL LINES THICKLY WITH BLACK OIL PASTEL. COLOR IN THE NOSE, EXCEPT FOR THE OVAL. COLOR IN THE EYES, EXCEPT FOR THE TINY CIRCLES.
Then using one finger, smudge the oil pastel, following the direction of the lines drawn for each area, creating shadows within the polar bears fur. The only areas you don’t smudge are in the polar bears eyes, nose and mouth.
Where the curve of the belly is, we drew a few curving lines with oil pastel and smudged a U shape to give him MORE chubby cuteness!
Then draw a straight horizontal line where the curve of the belly is on either side of the polar bear with pencil. This creates the snow the polar bear is standing on.
Once finished smudging, students cut out their bears. Cut following the horizontal line, then cut following the curve of the body of the bear and to the other horizontal line. Now the bear and the snowy ground are cut out as one piece.
Then glue the back with a glue stick, (especially around the edges), then glue onto the painting, lining up both papers edges!
Voila! I LOVE these polar bears so much!
This wonderful lesson idea is from @2art.chambers (with a few changes). Thanks LauraLee!
More 3rd grade polar bears will be added after winter break! Also STAY TUNED for new 2nd grade artwork– Coming very soon!!
To find out more about this lesson, and view photos of students creating their own Victorian homes, read below students finished artwork!
This lesson took about (6) 40 minute art
classes to complete. I think absolutely worth every class though! Students took
their time to carefully craft their unique house!
4th Graders learned what architecture is, learned about some of the common characteristics found within the Victorian architectural style (Gables, bay windows, fish-scale shingles, turrets, towers, front porches, gingerbread details, multiple chimneys to name a few), and then created a drawing of their own Victorian style house that included some of those elements!
We also reviewed the Elements of Art and how students would be utilizing 6 out of the 7 elements of art to draw their homes; Line, Shape, Color, Space, Texture, and Value.
Students also made the connection between art and math since we talked about acute and obtuse angles for the gables, as well as using rulers to draw any straight lines.
DAY 1
On the first day, I showed students a PowerPoint with photos of various Victorian homes, which pointed out these particular common elements.
Here are some of the slides I show my students from my Powerpoint.
Then I ask students to raise their hand and share what similarities they see that these two Victorian houses have.
Then I showed students a variety of Victorian house drawings students created from previous years, as well as my own examples. We also talked about how many of us noticed Victorian houses in the North Attleboro area, and how some students live in one or have relatives that do!
I asked students if they had any architects in their family, or if they knew of anyone who was one. Many students did, and it was great to hear so many fun stories about the connections they already have with architecture!
After that I demonstrated under the doc camera how to draw some of the Victorian elements. I showed them how to draw a bay window, fish scale shingles, turrets and towers, 3-D steps that lead to the front door, gables, and bricks (for chimneys or on the house).
Students then practiced drawing these elements on a double-sided worksheet. Students each received a “step-by-step” how to draw Victorian elements packet that I created to help them if needed.
DAY 2
First, I showed them what they needed to include in their drawing, and went over each item.
Then I showed them my Victorian handouts (with the descriptors) that they could use while drawing (as a reference)
and that they could use the same step-by-step how to draw sheets that they used when they did the practice sheets. I explained to not “copy” but to look at the various images for inspiration to create their own unique Victorian house and to be creative!
Then I did a demonstration drawing a Victorian house under the doc camera. I explained they could hold their paper vertically (explaining their house would be taller and less wide if they did), or horizontally (their house would be wider and less tall). I explained their house needed to be almost as large as their paper but leaving room around the edges and especially near the bottom to include the 3-D steps that would lead to their front door. I suggested to start drawing the gables first, drawing the rooflines working their way down.
I posted the goals for the drawing on the board again, and students passed out handouts, rulers and 9×12″ 80# paper and began drawing their own unique homes!
DAYS 3 – 6
Once students finished drawing their houses,
they carefully colored them in using colored pencils with any colors they
wanted.
I demonstrated how to color in the chimney’s
bricks (or other brick details within the house) using a variety of reds,
browns, white, tans, and pinks and suggested to stagger the same color just
like in real chimneys. And to color any stones with neutral colors; browns,
black, greys, tans and white.
CLICK Here to a link to download my FREEPRINTABLE step-by-step Victorian details drawing handouts on my Teachers Pay Teachers page as well as my own Victorian Architecture PowerPoint (which can also be printed out for students to use for reference in your classroom).
To view additional Victorian house drawings by 4th grade from previous years, click on “4th Grade Art Lessons” and scroll down.
Thank you so much for stopping by! I will be blogging about NEW art lessons later this week and next! Be sure to pop on by again real soon to check it out!
Do you remember that show “Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego” … that educational / detective game show on PBS for kids from the 90’s?
When I was trying to think of a good title for
this blog entry, the jingle for that show popped in my head, so I couldn’t
resist mentioning it.
Anyhoo…..YIKES?! Has it REALLY been since June that I last posted?! Where does the time go?! Well, from now on, until the end of the school year, I’ll be posting regularly (at least once a month).
I’ve got a lot to catch up with! Here’s what all my students have been working on since the start of the school year!
I’ll start with 5th grade artwork and work backwards to 1st grade.
ALSO… There are some NEW art lessons that
I’m starting with my students for ALL grades!
Here is a collection of my teacher examples for all the NEW art lessons students will be starting in the next week or two! More details on these lessons under each grade level discussed below.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT- 1ST GRADE WINTER LANDSCAPE, 5TH GRADE PAINTBRUSHES, 3RD GRADE POLAR BEAR, 2ND GRADE BEARS WITH SWEATERS, 4TH GRADE POSITIVE/NEGATIVE TREES
5TH GRADE
SUPERHERO
SKETCHBOOK COVERS
This lesson took about (6) 40 minute art
classes to finish
In the beginning of every year I have all grades create their own sketchbook that will be used periodically throughout the year in art class.
Each grade level has a different drawing lesson to create the cover for their sketchbooks.
Sketchbooks are used during class to: practice drawing before creating a final version, free draw in if finished with a lesson early, to write down information that they’ve learned from a particular lesson, and to experiment with various art materials.
On the first day of the lesson I showed them my PowerPoint
slideshow of various famous comic book covers from the 1950’s onward, as well
as previous 5th grade student artwork before drawing. They LOVED it
and it got them excited to come up with their own ideas!
Students then filled out a worksheet to plan their drawing (what
was their name going to be? Were they human? An animal? A mystical creature? An
inanimate object? Food? Where did they fight crime?, What were their superpowers?,
Did they have a sidekick? etc.) to help with final decisions. Then on the back
of the worksheet students sketched ideas for their superhero and outfit.
On day 2, students drew the title, then started drawing their own
unique superheroes (something that hasn’t existed before, creating their own!) demonstrating
their superpowers. Students had a packet of various superhero poses and
superheroes in action to use a reference when drawing.
They had a choice of creating sidekicks, whether they wanted to
include a villain and needed to create a background scene.
Drawings were then outlined in black sharpie and colored in with
a choice of marker or colored pencil or both.
I love this drawing lesson because it allows so much creativity! Each one is so unique!
FALLING FOR FORESHORTENING – 5TH GRADE
This art lesson takes about 4 to 5 (40 minute) art classes
For this art lesson, students learn about a type of perspective called foreshortening, and continue to expand their knowledge on ways to create something that appears to have depth and a sense of space on a flat piece of paper.
Foreshortening is a drawing technique used to create the illusion where parts of something or someone appear to come out at the viewer strongly, making those areas seem closest to the viewer, and some parts appearing to recede strongly, making those areas seem the furthest away from the viewer.
Students used this technique by drawing a person that appears to
be falling backwards into something, with their arms and legs outstretched, by
tracing their hands along the top of the paper, and their feet along the bottom
of the paper, leaving space in the middle. They then drew the head, neck, arms,
and legs of a person smaller, to create the illusion that the body was further
away than the feet and hands.
Students were instructed to pay special attention to the soles
of their shoes, and hands, being sure to add details and texture.
Students also had to draw the person’s facial expression to match whatever it was they were falling into (something scary, or something soft and fun), and to show movement in the hair.
Once the person was drawn, they outlined in black sharpie, then drew a background depicting what their person was falling into, and colored in everything using colored pencils.
Students are currently working on this lesson and haven’t finished yet. Here are a few drawings in the works!
The ones below are finished drawings by my previous 5th graders just to show some final versions!
I’ll be posting CURRENT 5th grade students finished Falling For Foreshortening artwork soon!
Students and Parents- My Monday 5th grade class (5Y) have only had 7 art classes so far since September due to holiday’s and ½ day PD days so they are a bit behind. Because of this, I’ve decided to have them start HOLIDAY LIGHTS first, since it’s a short 2 day lesson and THEN move on to the “falling for foreshortening” lesson.
HOLIDAY LIGHTS! – 5TH GRADE
This art lesson takes just 2 (40 minute) art
classes to finish!
We use oil pastels, chalk pastels, glue
sticks, scissors and Sax black Art paper for this lesson. Students review VALUE
and learn how adding white to colors create TINTS.
I got this wonderful lesson idea by the AMAZING art teacher artwithmrsnguyen
Go check out her awesome website if you haven’t already!
Students will be working on this lesson soon– if they haven’t already! So, no photos to share of this year’s 5th graders final creations yet! But, I will be sure to post their finished artwork as well as photos of students creating them shortly!
Just so you can see what they look like–These are some photos of my 5th grade student’s “Holiday Lights” drawings from previous years!
Jim Dine Inspired PAINTBRUSHES – 5TH GRADE
I got this amazing art lesson idea from art teacher, Lauralee Chambers (her Insta account is @2art.chambers )
My Teacher example below- I had so much fun creating thisand I know my 5th graders will too!
I am SOOO EXCITED about this lesson guys! I cannot wait!!
5th graders will start this one
after “Falling for Foreshortening” and “Holiday Lights”!
We will use sharpies, black oil pastel, and watercolors to create them.
More details coming soon….
4th
GRADE
SKETCHBOOK
COVER DRAWINGS
So, for this particular sketchbook cover drawing lesson, fourth
graders created a personalized drawing using their initials.
First, students created a tracer (template) of their
initials by drawing them in block
letter style on a small piece of manila tagboard and then
carefully cut them out as one piece. I explained to
students that the letters had to touch somewhere, but not overlap in order for
this to work. Students could draw their letters backwards, stack them on top of
each other or have them side-by-side. To cut out smaller areas (like the
triangles in the letter “A”, or openings in the letter “O”) they used a hole
puncher or scissors to open it up before cutting.
Once cut out as one piece, students were then challenged to create an interesting design by tracing their initials template at least 8 times without overlapping on a piece of 8×11 80# paper. Students had the choice of drawing some initials coming off the page, and could trace them turned in any direction they wanted.
Once outlined with black sharpie, students then created an interesting background design using lines and/or shapes with pencil then colored in with an analogous color palette using colored pencils. The letters were left white to pop and stand out against the background. Students overlapped colors together where needed to achieve the necessary analogous color. Pieces of scrap paper were used to test out color combinations before coloring on their final drawing.
VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE – 4th GRADE
This lesson takes (6) 40 minute art classes to complete. I think absolutely worth every class though! Students are taking their time carefully crafting their unique houses!
4th Graders learned what architecture is, learned about some of the common characteristics found within the Victorian architectural style (Gables, bay windows, fish-scale shingles, turrets, towers, front porches, gingerbread details, multiple chimneys to name a few), and then created a drawing of their own Victorian style house that included some of those elements!
On the first day, I showed students a PowerPoint of various Victorian homes, which pointed out these particular elements. I also showed students a variety of Victorian house drawings students created from previous years, as well as my own examples. We talked about how many of us noticed Victorian houses in the area as well, and how some students live in one or have relatives that do.
We also reviewed the Elements of Art and how students would be utilizing 6 out of the 7 elements of art to draw their homes; Line, Shape, Color, Space, Texture, and Value.
After I did a demonstration on how to draw some of the Victorian elements, students practiced drawing them on a worksheet.
Each student received a “step-by-step” how to draw Victorian elements packet that I created if they needed, as well as handouts of various Victorian style homes to use as reference while drawing.
I explained to not “copy” but to look at the various images for inspiration to create their own unique Victorian house.
Students certainly did! Check out the beautiful drawings in progress below!
I asked students if they had any architects in their family, or if they knew of anyone who was one. Many students did and it was great to hear so many fun stories about the connections they already have with architecture!
Once students finished drawing their houses, they carefully colored them in using colored pencils with any colors they wanted.
I demonstrated how to color in the chimney’s bricks (or other
brick details within the house) using a variety of reds, browns, white, tans,
and pinks and suggested to stagger the same color just like in real chimneys.
And to color any stones with browns, black, greys, tans and white.
Most students are still creating their houses, but here are some finished ones as well as ones in process!!
Students are doing a fabulous job! I LOVE how unique each one is!
I’LL BE SURE TO POST MORE FINISHED VICTORIAN HOUSES ONCE ADDITIONAL CLASSES COMPLETE VERY SOON!
CLICK Here to a link to download my FREE PRINTABLE step-by-step Victorian detail drawing handouts on my Teachers Pay Teachers page as well as my own Victorian Architecture PowerPoint (which can also be printed out for students to use for reference in your classroom).
POSITIVE / NEGATIVE TREES– 4th GRADE
This is one of the new art lessons that 4th graders will start very soon!
It’s a 1 day (40 minute) art lesson and uses construction paper, scissors and glue sticks to create.
This lesson is from LauraLee Chambers (@2art.chambers )
4th Graders will review complementary colors, positive/negative space, and symmetry while creating a cut out tree design on 1 sheet of 9×12” and 1 sheet of 9×6” colored construction paper.
BELOW ARE SOME OF MY TEACHER EXAMPLES TO SHOW STUDENTS
I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING WHAT MY 4TH GRADERS CREATE! I KNOW THEY ARE GOING TO LOOK AMAZING!
3RD
GRADE
SKETCHBOOK
COVERS
3rd graders were allowed to draw whatever they wanted for the cover of their sketchbooks this year. I encouraged students to draw large and clear, and to use bright bold colors when coloring in. Students could use markers or colored pencils to color with after outlining their drawing in sharpie.
They were very creative with their drawings!
DAY OF THE DEAD SKULLS– 3RD GRADE
This lesson took about 4 (40 minute) art classes to finish.
On day 1 -3rd graders learned about the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the dead) and looked at a slideshow of images of the celebrations and festivals with people in costume celebrating the holiday as well as students skull artwork from previous years.
Students chose a black and white skull image that had been lightened in the photocopier. They taped their selected skull image to a 9×12″ sheet of tagboard that was wrapped in tinfoil (taped at the top only) with masking tape. Then students traced over all the lines of the skull image with a dull pencil to transfer the image onto the tinfoil.
Students could alter their image by drawing additional designs
while tracing.
The traced print out image is then removed, revealing their
transferred image on the foil.
On days 2-4, they colored in the designs of their skull on the
tinfoil with colored sharpies.
Although a very simple art project, students love it. It also introduces them to various transferring methods which they will further explore this year when they start printmaking with Styrofoam.
SELF-PORTRAITS WITH PERSONAL SYMBOLS -3rd GRADE
This lesson takes about 4 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
This lesson was inspired by the artist Frida Kahlo, who is well known for
her self-portrait paintings
and often incorporating symbols into
her artwork.
DAY 1:
Students were introduced to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and learned about her interesting life and beautiful artwork!
We looked at a variety of her self-portrait paintings and some photos as well showing her with her many unique pets! (Students loved seeing her with her pet spider monkey, 4 parrots, a deer, a hawk and other interesting creatures! She loved animals and had a lot of unique pets throughout her life!
Students also learned how she originally wanted to be a doctor
and studied medicine, but then was in a terrible trolley accident which left
her bedridden in the hospital for a very long time. Her mother gave her paints
and drawing supplies to help her pass the time in the hospital and set up a
mirror above her bed, which led her to her love of painting, becoming an artist
and creating her many self-portraits!
After discussing her use of symbolism in some of her self-portraits, and discussing what a symbol was, students looked at a variety of student examples as well as my teacher examples.
For the lesson, I explained they needed to draw themselves large on the paper vertically, only including their head, neck and shoulders, (like in their school photos!) then to draw 6 – 7 symbols around them that reflect their interests and personality. The symbols should be drawn large and at least as big as their closed fist (making sure the objects are clearly identifiable and easy to outline and color in later on).
Then, I reviewed with students how to draw the shape of the head
and facial details as well as facial detail placement on the head, under the
doc camera on 12 x18″ 80# paper. I had facial detail handouts to use and refer
to as they drew with a variety of eyes, noses, and mouth images if they wanted
to use them, but didn’t have to.
Students then started drawing soon after with pencil, drawing
lightly in case they needed to erase.
DAYS
2-4:
Students continued drawing and once all details were added and 6-7
symbols were drawn around them, they outlined all lines with a black sharpie.
Students used crayons (pressing firmly, so the colors would be vibrant) to color in. I explained to find a crayon or two, (overlapping and blending the two colors if needed) that best matched their unique skin color, hair color and eye color.
As a final step, students chose one color to color in the
background, to make their self-portrait and symbols stand out, filling in the
entire paper so no white paper was showing.
Students are currently still working on these. Here are some photos of them creating their self-portraits! I will post finished artwork once complete soon!
Thank you Kaitlyn (Art with Mrs E) for this helpful facial expressions sheet! My students loved it! You can get a copy in her TpT account. Her insta account is (@artwithmrs.e)
POLAR BEARS – 3RD GRADE
This is another NEW art lesson that 3rd graders will begin very soon!
These adorable polar bears will take about 2 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
This lesson idea came from art teacher Lauralee Chambers (insta account is @2art.chambers)
We will create them using liquid watercolors,
salt, and black oil pastel on 80# 12×18” paper. More details to come!….
Here is a photo of my teacher example
2ND
GRADE
WARM/COOL
HAND WITH PATTERNS SKETCHBOOK COVERS
This lesson takes about 3-4 (40 minute) art classes.
So for this particular sketchbook cover drawing lesson, second grade students created a hand drawing using warm and cool colorswithpatterns.
Students first traced their hand and drew a pattern inside their hand. Then they drew a different pattern in the background filling in the entire page.
After outlining with a black sharpie, they colored inside their hand using only warm colors, and colored in their background using only cool colors with markers.
Although unfinished, this design is quite impressive for 2nd grade!
MONSTERS – 2ND GRADE
Second graders had a blast creating these super adorable silly
monsters!
On day one (of two) for this lesson, students drew a simple monster head shape with two pointy parts for ears, on their chosen 9×12″ colored construction paper background with pencil. They then dipped the edge of a 2″x4″ piece of thin cardboard into black paint and “stamped” short black lines along the edge and within their monster to create texture for fur. These were left to dry until the next class.
On the second day of the lesson, students then cut out their
monsters, leaving a little color around the edge and glued onto a 12×12″ piece
of black construction paper.
They added big eyes with punched out white paper circles and smaller punch-outs from black paper for the pupils, then cut their own mouth and fangs!
I LOVE all the different expressions! Thank you @mrsallainart (via Instagram) for the inspiration!
POSITIVE/ NEGATIVE HANDS -2ND GRADE
For this lesson, students learned about positive and negative space in artwork and
used their previous knowledge (from their sketchbook cover lesson) on warm and
cool colors to create this colorful vibrant painting.
First, students painted a 9×12″ paper using either onlywarm colors, only cool colors, using liquid watercolors.
On the second day of the lesson, they traced their hand on the
back of their painting using pencil, then using scissors, cut a line going up
to their palm and carefully cut out their hand as one piece and set it aside.
They took the remaining paper with the hand cut out, and glued
down to the left side of a sheet of 12×18″ black construction paper, being sure
to line up the edges.
Students then folded the positive cut out of their hand in half and drew a half circle (or any other half shape) in the middle, cut out and glued to the center.
The remaining hand with the shape cut from its center was then
glued to the right side of the black paper.
This lesson will take about 3 to 4 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
This is also a NEW art lesson this year! This lesson was inspired by art teachers Art Room Britt and Lauralee Chambers (insta account is @2art.chambers)
2nd graders have already started these adorable bears with loads and loads of texture for fur and can’t wait to share their finished results!! They are doing an amazing job creating them so far!
We will incorporate some math in the mix when creating our patterned sweaters using dice as well!
Here are my teacher examples below
Here are some photos of my 2nd grade students creating their bears!
I’ll post finished bears with further details on how we created them once students complete them very soon!
1ST
GRADE
LINES
THAT WIGGLE SKETCHBOOK COVERS
So for this particular sketchbook cover drawing lesson, first graders drew overlapping, loopy lines to create an abstract drawing.
Students drew 8 loopy lines from one side of their paper to another in pencil. I encouraged them to draw large loops so it wouldn’t be too time consuming when it was time to color. Lines could overlap one another and I pointed out while demonstrating, that when a line connects it creates a shape! Plenty of shapes were created once the 8 loopy, overlapping lines were drawn. Students then went over all their lines with a thick black sharpie, then colored in each shape carefully with different colored markers. I demonstrated how to use larger markers for larger areas to fill in and thin tipped markers for smaller areas. Students were encouraged to fill in all the white spaces on their paper. 1st graders learned that artist’s use sketchbooks to plan out ideas for paintings or other artwork, to jot down ideas and other information, to experiment before making final decisions and to practice their drawing.
When students finished their covers, they practiced drawing other types of lines that we talked about inside their sketchbook
PUMPKINS STARRY NIGHT – 1ST GRADE
This
lesson takes 3 (40 minute) art classes to finish
On day 1 of the lesson, students looked at a slideshow
of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings and
learned about his life and artwork. We took a close look at his painting “The Starry Night” and noticed that he
used lots and lots of short lines painted
close together in certain directions, to create a sense of movement!
Then students got to work creating their own Van Gogh inspired
masterpieces with a pumpkin!
Students followed along with me for the first steps, as I
demonstrated under a document camera.
They traced a pumpkin using a cardboard cut-out along the bottom
of their 12×18” paper. Students held their paper vertically rather than horizontally, so they would have more
room on their paper to create the starry sky.
Students then drew a line for the ground, a crescent or full moon
and small circles for stars with pencil. They then drew lines
in the pumpkins stem, and curved
lines inside the pumpkin. Students could then add a face
for their pumpkin if they wanted to.
Students then took both a yellow and a green crayon in one hand
and drew lines using both colors at the same time, all along the bottom for the
grass texture making sure to press
really hard as they drew.
They colored in the moon and stars with yellow, and outlined all
the lines within their pumpkin and stem with whatever colors they wanted,
making sure to continue pressing hard.
For a final step with the crayons, just like Van Gogh did with
his brush, students drew lots of short dashed lines with yellow, circling
all around each star. Then with blue crayon drew more dashed lines all throughout the
sky curving around their stars to create a sense of movement!
On day 2, students continued adding dashed yellow lines around the stars and dashed blue lines in the sky with crayons.
On day 3, students learned the crayon wax resist painting technique! They painted their pumpkin, grass and sky any color they wanted but each a different color, using liquid watercolor paint and learned how the waxy crayon resists the watercolors. 1st graders also learned how to properly clean their brush before selecting a different color and to not mix colors within the paint trays.
NOT SO SCARY SCARECROW COLLAGE – 1ST GRADE
This lesson takes about 3 (40 minute) art
classes
For this lesson, students
learned what a landscape is, and looked at various
landscape paintings by the artists Vincent Van Gogh, David Hockney, and
Grant Wood.
They then created their own landscapes by drawing rolling hills with different types of lines within each hill, a few clouds and a sun either setting, or up in the sky, with crayons.
On day two, they painted over their hills and sky, creating a crayon wax-resist technique using watercolors.
On day three, students created a scarecrow using little cardboard shirts, pants, and skirt tracers (that I made previously) onto different cut patterned papers, raffia for arms, buttons and glued them onto their landscapes.
For a final touch, students added additional details with sharpies and crayons, like hats, hair, facial details, and crows.
WINTER LANDSCAPES – 1ST GRADE
This is a
NEW art lesson for my 1st graders this year! I’m in love with the
colorful trees and think my students will love them too.
We will
begin this lesson after finishing up the “Not So Scary Scarecrows” very soon!
We will use colorful tissue paper cut into small sections, watered down white school glue, 12×18” 80# white drawing paper, rulers to draw the triangles for trees, black colored pencils, black construction paper, and toothbrushes dipped into watered down white tempera paint for creating snowflakes!
Here is my teacher example below
I’ll post more details with student artwork once they finish the Winter Landscape lesson very soon!
SPECIAL EDUCATION
THE DOT
Students watched an animated video of the book “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds. After the video they dipped their finger into various colored tempera paints on plates and printed their finger either all around a pre-drawn circle or within it. We created these on 12×12” 80# paper.
MARKER PRINTS – SPECIAL ED
Students each
received a small piece of Styrofoam printing sheet and drew straight
overlapping lines using a colored pencil. Then colored in each shape with
different colored markers.
On a separate 9×12” 80# piece of paper, I sprayed water and wiped gently with a damp sponge. The colored Styrofoam was placed (colored side down) onto the wet paper and students pressed with their hands to transfer the image. Students loved seeing this cool process!
TISSUE PAPER PUMPKINS – SPECIAL ED
Students created these gorgeous pumpkin collages using liquid watercolor, tissue paper, watered-down white school glue, pre-cut leaves from sponges and liquid tempera paint!
On day 1 of the lesson, students traced a pumpkin using a cardboard
tracer onto 9×12″ paper. They then glued on orange, red, yellow and pink
squares of pre-cut tissue paper using a paintbrush and watered down glue. They
brushed on a second layer of glue once a piece of tissue was placed on. They
used a brown piece for the pumpkin’s stem.
On a second sheet of 12×18″ paper, students painted a turquoise
sky with liquid watercolor paint. (Very vibrant!)
On day 2 of the lesson, students cut out their pumpkins and
glued onto the sky painting. They then glued on cut strips of various green and
yellow tissue paper for the grass using watered down school glue and a
paintbrush.
For the final step, they sponged on leaves in the sky by lightly
dipping a pre-cut sponge in the shape of a leaf into a plate of drizzled red,
yellow and orange liquid tempera paint, then gently pressed onto the sky to
create falling leaves!
Students then used a small balloon to dip into paint to create the caterpillars body on a sheet of 12×18” 80# paper.
We left that to dry and worked on creating
the apple. Students each received a 9×12” 80# sheet with a pre-drawn apple.
They glued on layers of red and pink tissue paper with watered down white school
glue within the apple shape, then a small rectangle of brown tissue for the
apple’s stem. We left these to dry as well until the following week.
Day 2- Students cut out the caterpillar’s
body and glued down with a glue stick onto a piece of 12×18” blue construction
paper. Then, they glued on green and yellow strips of tissue paper all along
the bottom overlapping the caterpillar a bit for the grass using a glue stick.
Lastly, students added cut white circles for
the eyes and added legs and antennae with black sharpie.
BATS – SPECIAL ED
For these fun fingerprint bats, I taped down 3 bat shapes with a few loops of scotch tape on the back onto a sheet of 12×18″ black construction paper.
Students printed their fingerprints that were dipped into yellow, orange and white paint all around the bats edges. Once dry, the white paper bats that were taped down were taken off, revealing the 3 bat silhouettes.
SNOWY OWL COLLAGE – SPECIAL ED
This lesson took 2 (40 minute) art classes to
finish
Students were each given a piece of 12×18″ black construction
paper, that had a pre-drawn white outline image of a snowy owl landing on a
branch.
Students added the bark by tearing small pieces of brown
construction paper then glued each piece filling the entire tree branch. They
then tore white paper into small sections for the feathers in the body of the
owl. Then added cut yellow circles for the eyes and a black cut triangle for
the beak.
As a final step, students added details with crayons to the tree
branches and sky.
I love the texture the torn white paper gives the owls!
CHECK BACK SOON FOR NEW
POSTS ON ALL THE NEW ART LESSONS UNDERWAY!
This lesson took (2) art classes to finish (and I had JUST enough time to squeeze in one more lesson before the end of the year)! It’s a simple one —but packs in a bunch! It incorporates the Elements of Art- Line, Shape, Color, Value and Texture! We also used overlapping, contrast and pattern in our work! Students could choose between creating a bunny, bear cub or fox.
Read below the photos of student’s artwork to see how they were created and how to get FREE bunny and bear templates!
The fox template was clearly the most adored by my 2nd graders!
DAY 1 – Creating the field of flowers background!
Students drew flowers all over their 9×12″ 80# drawing paper using markers and crayons. They were encouraged to draw the flower heads LARGE and draw LOTS!! Especially along the top and sides, since later on the animal would be placed over their painting in the center.
I
demonstrated a bunch of different ways to create the flowers first, but
students could draw them any way they wanted! I also encouraged them to use
bright colors.
Once their paper was filled, they drew green stems from each flower head going all the way to the bottom, using a green crayon as well as a green marker for each one.
Once
all the flowers and stems were drawn, using just water on a paintbrush, they went over each
flower with water. This turns the marker into almost a watercolor consistency.
I showed them how to just do one flower at a time then rinse their brush before
moving onto the next so the colors wouldn’t get muddy.
Then students went over all their stems with water. The crayon part of the stems would remain a solid line since crayons resist water. We talked about the Element of Art “Value” and how the colors of the flowers would get softer and lighter in value once water was applied.
DAY 2 – Adding the animal!
Students chose a bunny, bear OR fox template to start drawing lines with sharpie to add TEXTURE!
I downloaded and photocopied the free bunny template from a website called Teachstarter found HERE . I created the bear one myself and made copies for kids, which you can get for free on my Teachers Pay Teachers page HERE. The fox template was created by an art teacher (Mrs. Bohn from McLeansville Elementary Art, via Instagram) who shared her fox drawing template with me!
I demonstrated how to draw straight and diagonal lines close
together in between each section using sharpie. Students could leave the eye
area as it was, or go over the bunny lashes and create longer lines. We
discussed how the lines created fur- like TEXTURE.
We also discussed how the black & white vs. the colorful flower background
would create CONTRAST.
Once all the lines were drawn, students carefully cut out their animals and glued onto their flower background with a glue stick!
I just LOVE how simple yet beautiful this lesson is! Plus, kids continue to understand how they are applying the elements of art while creating!
Thank you for stopping by! To view other grade level artwork, click on the drop down menu on the main page, and select a grade to view more student art!
I will be posting again next week on 5th Grade “Grid Drawings” inspired by artist Chuck Close, and 4th Grade “Enlarged Flower drawings” inspired by artist Georgia O’Keeffe!
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!
