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!!
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!
✨✨✨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!!
STUDENTS!! —- If you are looking for my Art Video Tutorials you can touch or click HERE to take you to my art instruction videos page on this website. OR, just click on “ART INSTRUCTION VIDEOS “ under the drop down menu!
Mondrian inspired artwork -1st Grade
This fun art lesson also connects to math! While revisiting what the primary colors are, first graders also learn about the life and artwork of Piet Mondrian, continue to learn about various lines (horizontal and vertical) and learn about geometric shapes while creating their artwork.
After reviewing the artwork and life of Piet Mondrian, students created their own Mondrian inspired creations!
On day 1- Students first stamped black lines on 12×18″ white paper using a cut piece of cardboard that had been dipped into black tempera paint. We reviewed horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. We discussed how the stamped lines had to connect and touch each other in order to create a shape- rectangles, squares, triangles etc.
On day 2- Students then carefully colored in a chosen selection of shapes with primary colors, (using markers), leaving some shapes white.
Learning Goals:
-Learn about the artist Piet Mondrian and his artwork
-Be able to identify primary colors, and use them in their art
-Be able to identify and create horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines within artwork
-Be able to Identify and create shapes within artwork
-Understand that shapes are lines that connect
WINTER SHEEP BY MY SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASSES
On day 1- Students painted snow and snowflakes with white tempera paint on construction paper, then sponged on grey clouds. They then painted some bubble wrap with white acrylic paint.
On day 2- Students glued on strips of black construction paper for the sheep’s legs, brown strips for the fence, glued on the cut out sheep, then added google eyes!
These turned out so adorable! Thank you blps_art (via Instagram)!
Students in 3rd grade will be creating these fun 3D winter mugs soon!
I plan on showing this video to my students, before and during the creating process during art class. The video discusses the Elements of Art focusing on: Line, Shape, Color, Form and Texture. I also discuss perspective and the principle of art Variety, and share some tips when using oil pastels.
Parents, and art educators…..I would LOVE to hear some feedback! Email me at mfilmore@naschools.net
This is my 3rd art video tutorial I’ve made. To view other art video tutorials either select “Art Instruction Videos” under the menu list OR click here!
Thanks for checking out my blog!! Lesson inspired from Melanie LaBonte
Students did such a fantastic job creating these beauties I can’t help but post a ton!!
Day 1 (of 2)
Step 1: Draw a wavy line in the middle of a piece of 12×18” black construction paper using pencil. Then go over your line with colored OIL PASTEL (can be 1 color/or a line of a combination of colors!)
Step 2: On a separate piece of black construction paper (cut to 6”x18”) Trace 6 bulbs using a bulb tracer with pencil. (I created these bulb tracers ahead of time from thin cardboard sheets found from the back of printmaking foam board packages-great way to recycle and it’s free!)
Step 3: Outline each bulb first, using oil pastel, then fill in -pressing hard- so the color is more vibrant. Leave the rectangular base (bulb socket) black. (***I have small scrap pieces of black paper for students to test out colors first- to see if they like the way it looks on black paper -before using on final bulbs)
Then add a small white curved line near the top to make it look like it’s shiny and reflecting light, a “cursive L shape” for the filament near the base, and 4 white straight lines in the bulbs base using a white oil pastel.
Step 4: Finish the remaining 5 bulbs the same way, using different colors. (If you want- they can be all the same color or a mix with some the same color)
Day 2:
Step 1: Trace 6 bulbs along wire line where you want them with pencil using the bulb tracer.
Step 2: For each bulb tracing on the wire line-using a white CHALK pastel, draw a thick white line just inside the pencil line a bit, on each of the bulb tracings. Do this with ALL 6 bulbs.
Then, smudge with your finger going outward (going away from the bulb and smudging in one direction) to create a glow effect!
Step 3: Then using the same color CHALK PASTEL as each of your OIL PASTEL bulbs—go over the same white line with colored CHALK pastel thickly. Smudge outward again with your finger. Do all 6 bulbs with the chalk on the black paper.
(To avoid blending colors, use a different finger for each color when smudging).
Step 4: Cut out each colored OIL PASTEL bulb from the 6”x18” strip of black paper.
Each time you cut one out, glue the back of it using a glue stick, and glue down in place over the traced bulb with chalk smudges- (glue down matching each bulbs color with chalk pastel smudges). I have students glue them down immediately after cutting so cut bulbs wouldn’t get mixed up with other students bulbs.
And there you have it!! So easy and so Fun!!
TO SEE MORE 5TH GRADE ART LESSONS, CLICK ON “5TH GRADE ART LESSONS” UNDER THE MAIN MENU!! FOLLOW ME FOR UPDATES! THANKS FOR CHECKING OUT MY BLOG!
This was a fun, quick lesson (it actually only took about 15-20 minutes to make!), and a great way to wrap up the week before the holiday break!!!
Students used a tree tracer from cardboard to trace a tree on a sheet of 9×12″ 80# drawing paper.
They could design their trees anyway they wanted with markers.
Then on a separate sheet of 9×12″ black construction paper, they traced the tree again using pencil. White chalk pastel was then used to draw a thick line along the inside of their tree line.
Kids then smudged the white chalk going away from the tree, in one direction, with their finger to make a glowing effect.
Students then cut out their trees, glued the back of it with a glue stick, and glued down within their glowing lines on their black paper.
Kids had a lot of fun with this mini-lesson, and wanted to make more!
Gotta give a shout out to mrsallainart and 2art.chambers (Two awesome art teachers on Instagram) who had the idea first! Thanks for the idea!
