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)
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!
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 think this is a great end of the year art lesson because it only takes 3 classes (maybe even 2 if your art classes are longer than 40 minutes) and it’s fun! But more importantly, it’s a nice way to review and assess students understanding on the basic elements of art; LINE (curving, wavy), SHAPE (organic vs. geometric), COLOR (primary, secondary, warm and cool as well as color mixing), as well as a review on overlapping, abstract art and composition.
Students in 3rd grade learned about the life and artwork of French artist Henri Matisse.
I
showed them a Powerpoint slideshow of his artwork throughout the years, from
his paintings to his collage work.
We
talked about how Henri Matisse used a lot of bright, bold colors, simplified shapes, and was
one of a few painters in his day who started a new style of painting
called “fauvism” -(stemming
from the word fauve, which means
“wild beast”) and how later in his career, he would paint his own personal
painted papers with many different colors that were then used for his cut paper collages.
They
also learned how Matisse would cut right into the painted papers without
drawing first, and called this technique “painting
with scissors”.
We also reviewed the word collage and students noticed how many of his cut paper shapes in his collages, resembled leaves and plant life, and learned how they were organic shapes. We talked about how organic shapes have curving, free flowing lines and can be found in nature, like in clouds, puddles, leaves, and flowers. As opposed to geometric shapes (shapes that have straight lines and are usually symmetrical).
DAY 1 – Creating the painted papers
For this Matisse inspired lesson, students created their own painted papers first, just like Matisse did!
They began by folding a 12×18″ piece of paper 3 times, in order to create (8) rectangles, folding and pressing firmly each time to make sure they have visible creases to separate the 8 sections within their papers.
After unfolding the paper, students painted each rectangular section using liquid watercolors. Students were instructed to paint the top row with specific colors (Left to Right) using only primary colors, using only secondary colors, using only warm colors, and using only cool colors. In the top row, students could use those specific colors, painting any way they wanted –BUT– without mixing colors on their papers. The bottom row students could paint each section with any colors they wanted and could mix colors. I kept this up on the board for students as they painted (see pic below).
Some students were having a hard time recalling what those specific sets of colors were, so I gave them clues to jog their memory a little. For instance, for primary colors, I said – they consist of 3 colors, and when mixed they make the secondary colors. I also said, “If you start with the first color in the rainbow, red- (that’s your 1st primary color) then skip the next color, then you’ve got what? (Yellow- that’s the 2nd primary color) then skip the next color to ? blue (that’s your 3rd primary color). With warm colors, I asked them to think about what the first 3 colors in the rainbow were, plus pink, and with cool colors I suggested think about the last 3 colors of the rainbow.
Students tested colors out on a paper towel before applying paint to their paper. Sometimes the colors of liquid watercolors can be hard to see, since they are so saturated and appear very similar to one another in color within the ice cube trays.
DAY 2 – Cutting organic shapes
On day 2, we reviewed organic shapes. Students first cut out each painted rectangle from their painted paper. Then they cut out various free-flowing, organic shapes from each section, -1 large shape per section- cutting straight into their papers, without drawing first, just like Matisse did!
In addition, students chose 5-6 pieces of colored construction paper to cut organic shapes from as well, to add to their collection of cut shapes for their collage. So all in all, students had up to 13-14 shapes total.
These shapes were then all paper clipped together and students wrote their name on the back of the last one and were saved in their class folder for the next class.
DAY 3 – Creating the collage
We
reviewed abstract art (artwork that
focuses on mainly lines, shapes and colors) and what composition meant in artwork.
Students learned that composition in art, means where things (or images)
are laid out on the paper.
Students arranged at least 8 of their cut organic shapes on a sheet of 12×18″ white 80# paper, moving them around on the paper, considering the composition first before gluing, and overlapping at least 5 shapes, before gluing into place.
I really love teaching this lesson. Not only is Matisse one of my favorite artists, but the vivid colors and arrangements of shapes turn out so beautifully and each collage ends up looking so unique!
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check back soon for my next posts on 1st Grade “Watermelon Weavings” , 2nd Grade “Springtime Bunny, Bear, or Fox!”, 4th Grade “Enlarged Flower Drawings” and 5th Grade “Grid Drawings”!
How adorable are these!! I love lessons that incorporate mixed-media and 3D elements!
This fun mixed-media lesson took 2- (40 min.) art classes to complete.
DAY 1
On a sheet of 9×12″ tagboard, with a pre-drawn horizontal line drawn near the middle of the paper, students colored each section using the side of an oil pastel. We used 2 different colors, one for the top section and one for the bottom section.
Then students painted over each section with liquid tempera paint.
Then we used a texture comb created from a recycled plastic gift card to scrape the paint while wet, to create various lines and texture!
We set them aside to dry, then began creating the model magic flowers.
Students started off with a small piece that they rolled into a ball, then pressed slightly to flatten it a bit. We used scissors to cut small triangular sections out all around, then pinched the ends to create the flowers petals.
The left over model magic that was cut out, was rolled into very small balls and flattened to make the flowers centers.
A green pipe cleaner was inserted into the flowers for the stems, and they were set aside to dry completely, until the following week!
DAY 2
Students painted their flowers with liquid tempera.
Then they painted a paper towel tube that had been pre- cut into smaller pieces.
The flowers and tubes were set aside to dry. Once dry, I hot glued the paper towel tubes to their painted papers, as well as their flowers and voila! A lovely project for springtime, with tons of color and texture!
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 to find out how we created these, see step-by-step pics and watch my YouTube tutorial on this lesson!
Printmaking is one of my favorite things to teach in art. I love it because it always has an element of surprise with the results each time. Getting all the “Ooooh’s” and “Ahhh’s” after printing is so fun and magical and is always fun to see!
4th Graders used their previous knowledge on printmaking from when they were in 3rd grade when creating their “Complementary Creature Prints”. 3rd grade students used markers to print… and this time, as 4th graders… used black tempera paint to print. We used liquid watercolors to create the background before printing a symmetrical radial design on top using black tempera paint.
I love how colorful they are and loved showing students a variation in printmaking. They did a fantastic job!
This lesson took 4 to 5 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
DAY 1 – PAINTING THE RADIAL RAINBOW DESIGN
On the first day of the lesson, we reviewed symmetry(images that are the same on both sides) and students were introduced to radial design(a design that can include any lines, shapes or colors that starts in the center, and radiates outwards in a circular way). I explained we’d be making a symmetrical radial rainbow painting.
After demonstrating, and reviewing the order of the rainbow, students then measured to locate the center of their paper, using a ruler and marked the 6″ spot with pencil. From the center out, they then painted a radial rainbow design on their 12×12″ tagboard with liquid watercolors.
DAY 2 – DRAWING THE RADIAL DESIGN
Students drew curving lines (with some space between each line) on a 6″ square piece of copy paper that had been folded into a triangle, in pencil.
Then drew different lines and/or shapes between each curving line. Making sure not to draw too small or too detailed. Simple is best. They could be a pattern of lines and shapes, but didn’t have to be.
Then students opened the paper up, and traced over their pencil lines with a black sharpie.
Then students flipped up the blank bottom half over the top half that had been traced in sharpie like below.
The drawing can be seen through the paper (as shown on the picture to the right above). Then students traced over their lines with a pencil like below.
TIP: Place a sheet of white paper underneath your work while tracing so the lines can be seen more clearly. OR place the paper on a window to allow light to shine through the backside to see more clearly as you trace. OR- rather than using copy paper folded into a triangle, use tracing paper.
Once ALL the lines have been traced, THEN unfold, by taking the bottom half out like below. You should be able to see the pencil part on top, and the backside of the sharpie part below. Here you can now see the entire design is continuous on both halves of the paper.
From here, take the paper and tape it to a 6″ square cut piece of styrofoam (the printing plate). Use clear tape and only tape it to the top in 2 areas so the paper can open and close like below. Don’t worry about the tape covering your drawing a bit.
Once the drawing is taped onto the printing plate, students started tracing over ALL the lines with a dull colored pencil. (The colored pencil lets you know where you have traced since it leaves a colored line). Press firmly as you trace. This step transfers your drawing onto the printing plate.
It’s a good idea to check to see if its transferring well enough, so flip up the taped down drawing to check how it’s coming along. As long as you can see the lines indentations on your printing plate well enough, you’re good!
Continue tracing with a dull colored pencil until the entire design is traced.
Once that’s done, students flipped over the paper they were tracing. Here you should be able to see the drawing completely transferred onto the printing plate like below.
Next, students traced over their indentations of their design on the styrofoam printing plate with a dull colored pencil. (Tracing again pressing firmly). This step is crucial and creates a nice deep indentation which creates a clear print later on. If it’s not pressed in twice (once with paper over the styrofoam, and again a second time on just the styrofoam the overall print wouldn’t be as clear when time to print.)
From here, students then colored in *some* of their shapes they created within their design with colored pencil. Again pressing firmly! Areas where it is colored in, will reveal more rainbow from the painting created. Students could fill in as much as they wanted or as little as they wanted. This step was the final step before printing, so kids were very anxious to get printing! Teacher example on left, student example on right.
Once shapes were filled in, students flipped over the styrofoam printing plate, and drew an arrow with sharpie pointing to the corner where they started their drawing.
*Technically, to print a symmetrical radial design, the arrow could be drawn pointing in ANY one chosen corner, as long as it’s in just one corner. For a complete circle design like we created, we drew the arrow in the corner where we originally started the curving lines.
HOWEVER, no matter where you place the arrow, this arrow is necessary to know where to position the printing plate on the paper each time you print. The arrow should always point to the center of the paper each time it’s printed. Doing this creates the symmetrical radial design. (More on this below). They also wrote their name and class in sharpie on the back somewhere as well.
Then the paper that was taped on gets taken off and thrown away and students were ready to print!
DAY 3 – PRACTICE PRINTING ON 12X12″ WHITE PAPER FIRST
After a printing demonstration, students created a practice print on white paper before moving onto their final copy (on their rainbow painting).
Students shared plates of black tempera paint and brayers and rolled out their brayer onto the plate of black paint a couple times. Since the paint has a slippery texture, it’s important to THEN roll the brayer onto a sheet of scrap paper to get the paint evenly distributed onto the brayer. This also gets rid of any excess paint before rolling onto the printing plate.
Then the brayer gets rolled onto the printing plate.
Once students evenly coated their printing plate with black tempera paint, they carefully lifted it up and printed onto 12×12″ white 80# paper. It’s important to have the printing plates edges lined up with the papers edges and have the arrow pointing to the center of the paper.
Then students pressed down with the flat of their hands and then used a CLEAN brayer, and rolled over the backside of their printing plate all over to transfer the design to create the first print like below.
Then, lifted it off to repeat those steps 3 more times, rotating the printing plate so the arrow pointed towards the center of their paper each time they printed.
DAY 4 – 5 FINAL STEP! PRINTING ON THE RAINBOW PAINTING!
Students reviewed the printing process and continued to print their design onto their rainbow painting that they painted on day 1!
It was fun… but very messy!!!
This is why we drew a BIG arrow! So you can see it!
If you haven’t see it yet, Here’s my YouTube video tutorial below. I hope you like it!
5th Graders did such a fantastic job creating these op art paper cone drawings!!! I’m super proud of their hard work!!!
Students LOVED it too and couldn’t believe it could be created using just sharpies, and colored pencils!
This lesson took about 5 (40 minute) art classes to complete.
ON DAYS 1 and 2: Students were introduced to various OP Art by artists Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, and learned what Op art was (Optical Illusion Art) with a quick slideshow of work.
Six straight lines that intersect at the same spot, were drawn ahead of time on 80# 10×10″ paper for each student with a ruler; Creating 12 “slices” in total.
Students followed along with me while I demonstrated under the document camera how to draw alternating curving lines within each pie slice, starting in the center.
Then they labeled every other slice with a “B” lightly in pencil, to mark that space as black.
Students then started tracing over the smallest slices labeled “B” in the center, using an extra fine point Sharpie, then filled in.
As areas got larger, kids switched to a Fine Point Sharpie, (since it has a thicker tip), and filled in the rest.
ON DAY 3, I reviewed the element of art VALUE with students and showed them how to create subtle value changes within each pie slice with colored pencils.
Students used a white colored pencil in the black areas first to create highlights, pressing hard with the white colored pencil down the middle, creating a bright white strip. Then as they drew from the middle outward, to each side, they pressed lighter and lighter, leaving the sides black.
Then, using a black colored pencil in just the white areas, they drew darkest along the sides and gradually pressed lighter and lighter towards the center—leaving the center strip white.
This lesson ties in nicely (and is a great precursor) to the grid drawing lesson that occurs later on in the year!
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out the page “STUDENTS CREATING ART” —NEW PICS HAVE BEEN ADDED : )
AND BE SURE TO CHECK BACK THIS WEEKEND FOR 4TH GRADERS VICTORIAN HOUSES!!!
LOVE, LOVE LOVE THESE!! This is a new lesson I introduced this year for 5th grade and it’s definitely a keeper!! Thank you Painted Paper Art for this wonderful lesson idea!
These are created by 5Y, 1 (of my 5) 5th grade classes! (Other classes are going on day 2 of the lesson later on in the week). It’s a 3 day art lesson (40 minutes each) and incorporates ALL the Elements of Art (value, shape, line, color, form, space, and texture!)
HERE ARE A FEW CLOSE-UPS OF INDIVIDUAL NESTS!
DAY 1:
Students created the nest using oil pastels on a 6×6″ sheet of manila tagboard. They drew a large circle with pencil, then chose whatever color blue they wanted, to fill in the background.
They then drew a small black circle in the center, a loop of dark brown around the black circle, then looped various shades of brown oil pastel within the remaining part of the nest, layering as they went around. After that they drew short, curved lines extending outside the nest with brown, to create little pieces of hay or sticks sticking out from the nest.
Students then used various shades of yellow and golds to overlap the brown, until the manila paper was completely covered with oil pastels. As a final step with oil pastels, students used black to lightly draw circles close together extending outward from the center, to create the illusion of space and the nest going inward in the center.
For the last step on day 1, students glued on strips of pre-cut, painted papers all around the nest, to add texture!
DAY 2:
On the second day of the lesson, students shaped and created 3 eggs out of model magic air dry clay and glued them on in the center of their nests with tacky glue. Then they glued down 8-10 small twigs using tacky glue to add even more texture to their nests! (BTW- Twigs were collected while walking my dog in the park on a previous day. With only 7 more art classes remaining before summer break, (although it might have been fun), I didn’t want students to spend an art class searching around the school for them!!)
I love the various shades of blue in this one!
I have to say, I REALLY LOVE tacky glue!! I’ve used it for so many art lessons recently and it’s WAAAAAY better than regular old white school glue! It adheres quickly (which is super important for this lesson) and best of all—dries clear!
These were all set aside to completely dry in Mason paper box tops until the following week!
DAY 3:
Students painted their eggs using liquid tempera (students could choose from a variety of blue/ blue-green paints).
They had the option to then add spots of white and brown speckles using the end of a paintbrush handle.
Students did a wonderful job creating their beautiful bird nests and eggs, I couldn’t WAIT to hang them all up!!!!
I hot glued twigs to create their sign and added some colorful cupcake liners for flowers! More nests to come SOON to fill in the empty spaces on this bulletin board!!!
Thanks for checking out my blog!! Be sure to check back tomorrow (Tuesday) night for another new post on some NEW artwork!!! To view other 5th grade artwork -click on 5th Grade Art Lessons under the drop down menu!
If you are looking for my YouTube channel, click HERE to go directly to it!
-OR- You can go to my Art Instruction Videos page on this website by clicking on “Art Instruction Videos” under the menu!!
ALSO– I am planning on creating some “how-to-draw /step by step” drawing YouTube videos, and want to hear back from YOU with ideas on what you would like me to show you!! What kinds of things would you like me to show you how to draw? I’d LOOOVE to get some ideas from my students!!!
To share your ideas, click on the words “continue reading” below at the end of this post, and then type inside the comment box under where it says “Leave a reply”! Ask your parents to help you and send the reply using their email (emails will not show on my blog to others).
Thanks!! I can’t wait to hear some of your ideas!!
Students learned about the artist Claude Monet and watched a video on his life and artwork.
On day 1, Students layered tissue paper pieces with watered down white glue on 9×12” tagboard, to create the water and tree background.
On day 2, they glued on their photo, then a pre-cut bridge to go over their lily pond, drew lily pads with green oil pastel, and added white and pink dots with their fingers dipped in tempera paint to create lily flowers!
