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MIXED MEDIA BIRD NESTS- 5TH GRADE!

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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! 

 

 

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1st Grade– “MIXED MEDIA ALPHABET SOUP!”

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SOUPS ON!!! 

I was so excited to try this lesson out with my first graders this year–I absolutely LOVE them!! Especially the mixed media/ 3D aspect of them!!! A big shout out and thanks to Lauralee Chambers for the wonderful lesson idea!!

Read below to view process pics and read how we created them!!

(the photos of artwork above and below are by first graders in Mrs. Uthoff’s class)

 

 

The focus of this lesson combines letter formation/identification with an understanding of mixed media (we used oil pastels, liquid watercolor paint, markers and charcoal), and three-dimensional elements within artwork. 

This lesson took 3 (40 minute) art classes to complete.

DAY 1: 

After showing students my teacher examples, and reviewing what mixed media is (using multiple art mediums in a piece of artwork), and what 3-D means (artwork that isn’t flat and sticks out–soup spoon and plastic letters), students each received a piece of 9×12″ 80# drawing paper with a circle traced on it (for the soup). The alphabet was projected onto the white board for students to review if needed.

Students drew the alphabet using oil pastels inside the circle to create their alphabet soup. They were encouraged to draw their letters large, pressing hard (so the oil pastel later on would resist the paint!) as well as draw some upside down, and backwards and going in different directions with multiple colors.

Once drawn and the letters almost filled up their bowl, they drew small orange squares (for carrots) and green circles (for peas).

Then students painted over their letters with a yellow-orange liquid watercolor (creating the broth), creating an oil pastel resist!

These soups were then set aside to dry until the next art class!

 

DAY 2: 

Students each received a 12×18″ piece of 80# drawing paper with another (larger) circle pre-traced with black sharpie. This circle was drawn off to the side of their paper, so there would be room for the napkin later on.

After reviewing vertical and horizontal lines, students drew a plaid tablecloth (or placemat) using 2 chosen colored markers. Then kids painted over their lines with water to create a “painterly” look. Students thought it was so fun that the marker could turn into “paint”!

I had students place a paper plate over their “bowl” while painting with water, to avoid water getting inside their traced bowls.

These were then set aside to dry until the following art class.

 

DAY 3: 

Students cut out their soups carefully and then glued down in the center of the larger traced circle bowl, using a glue stick.

Then they glued down a pre-cut “napkin” (heavyweight tagboard cut to about 4 1/2″ x 9 1/2″) next to their bowls of soup using a glue stick. They then used a piece of charcoal to outline one side of their napkin (I told them to create the letter “L” with their charcoal, as well as half the side of their soup bowl (I told them to create a “C” with their charcoal). I explained this would create a shadow effect, and make it all look more realistic and 3-D. Then students smudged the lines of charcoal with their finger!

This is a first time for first graders using charcoal, and they loved this step!

For the final steps, I glued down a plastic spoon (metal imitation soup spoons found on Amazon) and 2 colored plastic letters (plastic letter beads from Roylco) using a hot glue gun!

They look SO real don’t they??!!

Like I said, I absolutely LOVE this lesson, and I hope you do too!!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Please check back again SOON for more student artwork!!

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4th Grade Enlarged Flowers and 5th Grade Falling For Foreshortening

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4th Grade- Enlarged Flower Drawings inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe!

Students learned about the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and viewed examples of her flower paintings. We talked about the scale (size) of her work and that her flower paintings were so large because she thought flowers were incredibly beautiful and wanted people to notice them! She loved to create close-up paintings of flowers. Looking at her flower paintings is like looking at a flower with a magnifying glass!

We also reviewed what abstract artwork is (artwork that focuses on mainly lines, shapes and colors), which is how Georgia O’Keeffe depicted a lot of her flowers in her work. She focused on just small sections of a flower –instead of the entire flower in a lot of her work, therefore abstracting the image. Not all of her flower paintings are abstract, but many are.

DAY 1: 

I showed students multiple examples of her flower paintings through a power point presentation and discussed her work and background.

After demonstrating how to focus in on one area of a flower and block out the rest (students could choose their own printed flower image to observe) by using a viewfinder, (using a black square piece of construction paper with a small (about 2×2″ square) cut out in the middle). Students had to select an area of their flower so it’s petals touched or ran off at least 3 sides of their viewfinder (see pics below).

Students then practiced drawing and enlarging small sections of their chosen flowers, in their sketchbooks. They did this 3 times, each flower drawing on a different page in their sketchbook. They had a choice of choosing 3 different flower images OR drawing from 1 flower image but focusing in on different areas of the flower each time.

 

DAYS 2-3:

Students selected 1 photo of a flower for their final drawing. They enlarged a section of their flower on 12×12” paper, making sure that their drawing of their chosen flower ran off or touched at least 3 of the 4 sides of their paper, while considering the composition (how and where things are placed on the page).

Once drawn, students colored in using oil pastels. Students had a choice of coloring in their flower any colors they wanted!!  In previous years I had students color in their flowers trying to best match their flowers colors in the photo. The only rule with color I had was, was to switch to a different color when their was a transition of color in their flower photo.  Also, If their was a bit of background showing in their composition, (some students selected areas of their flower that only showed the flower– without any background) they needed to color it in with any one chosen color for contrast.

DAY 4: 

For a final step, students created a bit of depth within their flower by adding shadows around the edges of their flowers petals with black oil pastel, then blending with their finger. Adding black for shading with oil pastels is a pretty tricky step, and can be a bit challenging, but I think students did a wonderful job adding that element to their artwork!!

 

5th Grade- “Falling for Foreshortening” Drawings! 

 

 

For this art lesson, students learned about a type of perspective called foreshortening.

(Scroll down further to view more photos of students working on this lesson!) 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. They did this 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, being sure to add details and texture to make it look like the bottom of their shoes. 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!), show movement in the hair, and add details to the palms of the hands.

Once the person was drawn, 5th graders outlined in black sharpie, then drew a background depicting what their person was falling into, and colored in everything using colored pencils.

 

Thanks for visiting my blog! Check back soon for NEW artwork by 1st Grade!! (Mixed Media Alphabet Soup!!)

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2nd Grade- BIRCH TREE LANDSCAPES!

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Students at Roosevelt finished these beauties up on Tuesday!  Amvet students just started today, and will finish on 4/12! 

This is a 3-4 day art lesson (40 minute art classes).

The objective of this lesson is to create a LANDSCAPE painting, while students are introduced to, and gain an understanding of, FOREGROUND, MIDDLE GROUND, and BACKGROUND within artwork, as well as learn about the size/space relationship within those areas. Second graders looked at the artwork of Bev Doolittle for inspiration.

Students learned that objects in the FOREGROUND in artwork, are the things closest to us as viewers. Objects in the foreground should be drawn larger and lower on the page to show this.

Objects in the MIDDLE GROUND within artwork, are a little bit further away. Things in the middle ground should be drawn in the middle of the page and drawn smaller.

Objects in the background within artwork, are the furthest things away. These need to be drawn even smaller and higher up on the page.

DAY 1: After demonstrating, on a sheet of 12×18″ tagboard students drew one large tree in the foreground, then a line for a hill in the middle ground with two medium sized trees, then another hill line higher up on the page with three small trees for the background.

***Making any more trees than this amount on 12×18″ paper can make the landscape look too crowded, and would also be a lot more challenging to paint in the sky later on. 

Students then used the side of a piece of corrugated cardboard dipped into a little bit of black liquid tempera paint, to create the black lines within their birch trees (shown below). 

***Here, it’s important to take any excess paint off the cardboard after dipping, by tapping the length of the cardboard on the paper plate. Students simply scraped the cardboard from one edge of their tree to the other, and then repeated that step working their way up the tree. 1-2 branches were then added per tree by scraping thin, diagonal lines.

Paintings were then left to dry until the next week. Students could draw in their sketchbooks or read an art book for the remainder of DAY #1.

 

DAY 2:  Students drew grass blades and flowers using crayon in just the foreground (pressing hard!). We reviewed how things in the foreground are closest, and that our eyes can’t make out details of objects that are very far away.

Students then painted the land and sky with liquid watercolors, creating a crayon wax-resist! 

 

DAY 3:  Students drew 1-3 animals to add to their painting.

They each got a step-by-step, “how to draw” animals packet that I made to refer to (with multiple woodland animals to choose from–Fox, bunny, deer, squirrel, owl, skunk, racoon, horse etc.) and drew them on separate small pieces of 80# drawing paper.  Students could also choose not to draw from the packet and draw an animal of their choosing!

***I used to give students only packets of photocopied PHOTOS of animals to use as reference, but after teaching this lesson for a few years, Ive found that it’s more successful for kids to understand how to draw animals in this step-by-step way for this age group, and they enjoy doing it as well! 

Once drawn they colored their animals in with colored pencils, carefully cut them out and glued them onto their finished paintings with a glue stick to inhabit their wonderful birch tree landscapes!

 

Look at that cute itty bitty skunk!!! 

 

Students could also create their own animal!

The results are beautiful and I think students did such an incredible job!

What do YOU think? I’d LOVE to hear from you! Comments, questions, suggestions are all welcome! 

BE SURE TO CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR MY NEXT POST!! 4TH GRADE AND 5TH GRADE ARTWORK! 

Thanks for stopping by!

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MORE Mixed Media Bridges inspired by Monet!!

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*****Students!*****

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!

I LOVE how they turned out!!

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❤️LOVE MONSTERS❤️ —2nd grade!

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2nd graders had so much fun with this quick art lesson — (2) 40 minute art classes—that included TEXTURE and SYMMETRY! 

JUST IN TIME FOR VALENTINE’S DAY TOO!! Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!!❤

I read them the cute story, “Love Monster” by Rachel Bright for inspiration!

 

Currently on display at Roosevelt now! My students at Amvet will begin this lesson Thursday!

I taught this same lesson last year, but didn’t have students add hearts because they did it towards the end of the year, and called them “silly monster selfies”!

DAY 1:

After reading the story “Love Monster”, Students dipped a small piece of cardboard into black tempera paint that was on a paper plate, and printed lines on a colored piece of construction paper cut to 9×12” -creating the outer edges of their monsters. They then stamped more black lines inside to create the furry TEXTURE in the monsters head. This was then left aside to dry until the next art class.

DAY 2:

Students cut out their monsters leaving a little color around the edges of their monsters, and glued onto a sheet of 12×12” black construction paper using a glue stick. They then glued on large white pre-hole punched eyes, and black pupils. They took a small piece of black construction paper and folded it in half, and drew half of a mouth (any shape they wanted) and cut along the folded edge, revealing a SYMMETRICAL mouth.

After gluing the mouth, they cut teeth out, glued them on, and then created symmetrical hearts by folding red and pink construction paper and cutting along the folded side, and glued into their collage! Voila!

Thank you art teachers on Instagram (@mrsplouffsartclass, @mrsallainart, @artolazzi, and @paintedpaperart) for the lesson inspiration!!

To view students “silly monster selfies” from last year, click on “2nd grade art lessons” under the menu, and then scroll down until you see that lesson!

✨✨✨STUDENTS ✨✨✨——if you are looking for my YouTube art video tutorials, click on “ART INSTRUCTION VIDEOS” located under my menu. OR- click HERE to take you to my YOUTUBE channel!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Be sure to check back soon to view more new artwork! Sign up to follow my blog and get email updates as soon as I create a new blog post!

Best,

Mollie

 

 

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3D WINTER MUGS—3RD GRADE!

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✨✨✨STUDENTS!! ✨✨✨  If you are looking for my YouTube art video tutorials, click HERE!! ( I have a video on this lesson! )

You can also click on “ART INSTRUCTION VIDEOS” in the drop down menu listed above at the top of my page.😀 That will take you to my videos page on this website!

Two out of five of my 3rd grade classes finished up their winter mugs today in art!! —(3B and 3S at Amvet) 

This lesson incorporates 5 of the 7 Elements of Art- (line, shape, color, texture, and form), as well as perspective, and one of the Principles of Art “variety”! 

Read below for more info. on how we created these beauties!!

 

AWESOME JOB EVERYONE!!! 😀 They will ALL be going up on the wall SOON!!

 

This was a 4 day art lesson. Day 1 Students drew 2 different patterns on 9×12” heavy weight tagboard in pencil. A line was created to divide the patterns and create a wall and a table.

They then either traced over their lines or colored in shapes with oil pastels.

On a smaller sheet (9” x 4.5” ) of heavy weight tagboard, they created patterns and designs for their mug and traced with oil pastels.

Day 2- students finished coloring with oil pastels

Day 3- students painted their 2 papers with watercolors, creating an oil pastel resist. They also painted a small piece of tag (3” x 4.5”) for their mug’s handle.

Day 4- Students assembled their pieces together! They first flipped the mug paper over and folded back the ends, creating 2 flaps. Then they glued the flaps down to their background papers as they curved their mug paper creating a three-dimensional mug. They drew the handles by drawing the letter C on the back of the painted 3” x 4.5” papers, cut the C shape out and glued into place. The final touch was adding a small amount of polyester batting to the mug for steam!!

More pics below of students creating their wonderful mugs!

TO VIEW MY YOUTUBE ART VIDEO TUTORIAL ON THIS LESSON, CLICK ON “ ART INSTRUCTION VIDEOS” LISTED UNDER MY DROP DOWN MENU AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE!

Thanks for checking out my blog! Be sure to check back soon for more pics from other classes that will start this lesson soon!!

Best,

Mollie

 

 

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