Golden Egyptian Cat Statues 2nd grade project

Found the idea for this lesson on USE YOUR COLORED PENCILS art blog. Loved the idea of using up many of my saved paper tubes to make a 3 dimensional cat instead of our usual cat drawings on paper.  Mrs. N and I folded, taped and painted 170 paper tubes with gold tempera paint. We wanted the tubes to be ready to use and decided painting them ourselves and letting them dry was the best way to do the project.

 

The 2nd graders learned that Egyptians LOVED cats.  They took their pet cats bird hunting, made cat statues and even mummified their cats. Cats were useful for keeping mice out of the grain storage and for killing snakes in Egypt. Our I can statement was: "I can learn about culture through Art", and the 2nd graders were excited to make their own golden cat statue after seeing the pictures of Egyptian cat statues adorned with jewelry. I had purchased this small plastic cat statue at a museum gift shop years ago and it turned out to be a great visual for this project!

 

They drew on the tubes with a pencil first, experiencing drawing on a 3 dimensional surface rather than flat.  We demonstrated how to draw a cat face and then let them add their own details. Final step was to trace with black permanent marker and then add some areas of color on the jewelry or other small areas.

 
 We love that the kids made all their cats different and that they were able to make the little golden statue 3 dimensional with something as simple as a folded paper tube!
 

Spooky Houses! 2nd grade Project

Second graders enjoyed learning how to cut a paper house with an opening door and windows with shutters. We started with a paper folded the long way and cut off the open
corner.

Next step was to cut a doorway and up the middle of the windows, leaving the shutters there to open and close.

Next we added details to the house with construction paper crayons, things like spider webs, door knobs, siding, bricks, etc. 

Last part of the project was planning out where everything would be on the background paper and what would be hiding in the door and windows. The second graders carefully cut out things like pumpkins, ghosts, bats and moons.
In our Art class, we never do anything that is gory or gross or  too scary, so this project was just fun and spooky!

 Of course our students who do not celebrate Halloween can do an alternate project with an Autumn instead of "spooky" house/theme.    

I think the kids did a great job of making their houses and putting many neat details into their paper compositions.  

Is this Art? 3rd grade Pop Art Lesson

That is the question 3rd graders are thinking about this week as Mrs. N teaches them about POP ART and an artist named Andy Warhol.

ART CLASS IS MY FAVORITE

Love this t-shirt one of my students wore to Art class.

Art is my favorite class, too!

Apple Still Life Composition Kindergarten Lesson

Kinders looked at an apple still life and then painted three apples. We learned about Cezanne, an artist who liked to paint fruit still life pictures. He would spend a lot of time looking at the apples before he finally painted his pictures of them.

 

This lesson came from DEEP SPACE SPARKLE. 

 

After the apples dried, students cut out all three and chose a "table cloth" to go under the apples.  They had a choice of felt, foam or burlap rectangles in many different colors. We used a black marker to add shadows under the apples to make them look like they were sitting on the table.

The final touch was adding patterns or lines behind the still life with construction paper crayons.

 

 I think these little still life artists did a great job!

 

 

Patterns with a calendar picture Kindergarten Lesson

PATTERNS, PATTERNS, PATTERNS! Kinders showed how they know patterns and can use them in their art by doing this pattern simple project.
The kids used crayons and markers to create patterns going down their 12 x 18 " white drawing paper.  We were very pleased with the care and pride they took in making each pattern with shapes, lines and colors.
The last step was to choose a cat or dog from a calendar photo to glue onto their pattern paper.  There was great excitement as the kids looked through the pictures and decided which animal would be part of their art project...  So cute!
                       

Beautiful Autumn Leaves with Gold First grade lesson

This was an adaptation of a lesson on DEEP SPACE SPARKLE. Our I can statement was: "I can make Art about my world".   

 Ms. N and I collected fall leaves and placed them on the tables for the children to look at before starting their project.

They observed that the leaves were changing colors, had veins and were different shapes and sizes. Then our little artists chose colored paper and traced leaf shapes.  Using construction paper crayons they turned their leaves beautiful autumn colors.

 After cutting out each leaf, students arranged them on a black background, paying attention to positive and negative space ( the shapes of the leaves as well as the black paper between them).

They glued their leaves down and then got a special surprise... GOLD paint!  They used gold tempera on the veins of the leaves and then painted some lovely gold swirling wind to blow the leaves.

These pictures are hanging in the first grade hallway and many people have mentioned how much they like this leaf project.
                              

Outer Space Drawings with 3d shapes and shading 3rd grade

 Third graders just completed 3d shapes (forms) and shading with values in their art journals.

 

Then they used their imagination, shapes and shading in journals and a pencil to create cities in outer space.  Great Job third graders!

 

Miniature Autumn Paintings Second Grade Lesson

        

These beautiful little paintings were a lot of fun for 2nd graders who learned how to draw a realistic looking tree by using scribble lines.  We also looked at some miniature paintings and thought about how small the paintbrush would need to be to make the tiny details.
                                   

 

 

This was a crayon resist project with blue liquid watercolor paint over waxy crayon drawings.

A frame with patterns completed the wonderful Autumn Miniature paintings.

                                            

Autumn Leaves- Crayon Resist Kindergarten Lesson

               
 Kinders traced giant fall leaf shapes after discussing what was happening to the leaves on the trees outside.

 

 Next they drew veins with a black crayon and then colored hard with crayons all over the leaf.

Leaves were then painted with watercolor paint over the crayon coloring.

After leaves dried, a chenille stick stem was added for a final bright touch!