More Painted Ponies



"USA Day"



Here are a few more pictures of finished painted ponies.

Students and parents seem to really enjoy looking at these horses as they walk through our building this week!




"Peace Pony"



















On display in the Media Center



"Rainbow Flash" Horse







Colorful Paper Composition Parrots Kindergarten

While we make these parrots we have many photos of parrots hanging up for visuals. ( One of my favorite sources of visuals are old calendars that are donated!)

We begin by choosing one 9 " x 12" piece of construction paper for the body.  We draw a large letter U shape from top to bottom of paper and cut it out.
I find old faded 12" x 18" paper to use as our base and we glue the body on it with gluestick.
Next the Kinders pick out a different color of 6" x 6" paper and we draw another letter U with a wiggle across the top to make our parrot's head.  This is glued in place.  Then everyone gets a 4 "x 4" piece of black construction paper and we draw a large parrot beak with a white crayon.  We talk about the parrot's beak shape being just right for what it eats.

 

Beaks are cut out and glued in place.

Eyes with a few fancy lines of different colors are drawn in crayon, and feathers are drawn all over the body with crayons. 
Next the kids choose another small square for their wing color, and we draw another letter U with bumps for the wing. Feathers are added to the wing, and the entire parrot is cut out carefully from the background. 

Last, kids choose 3 tissue paper strips for long tail feather and I staple them in place. These parrots are large, colorful and really wonderful!

Paper Stand Up Zebra 1st grade

This lesson is from DEEP SPACE SPARKLE.  The changes I made were: 1) to use tagboard for our zebra drawings  2) instead of adding a background, we glued light green cut paper grass in the space between front and back legs. 
 The first graders carefully cut around outside of zebra, leaving the grass and legs in one large section at bottom of zebra. 

 I folded a small square of cardboard and stapled it on back of grassy area so the zebras stand up all by themselves.

Paper Composition Horse Portrait 2nd grade

 
I found this project on Geocities (theartkids) years ago, the site does not seem to be available anymore. We started with a 9" x 12" piece of horse colored construction paper.  I give them a tracer for the head shape and the kids use their scraps to cut out two ears.

Next the second graders cut out two eyes out of dark brown paper, or light brown if their horse is dark colored.  We use crayons to make the two peanut shaped nostrils.

             

Students have the option of adding a white blaze or "star" to their horse and then I demonstrated how to make beautiful paper hair for the mane and forelock.  Scraps of paper with triangle cuts up from the bottom looks great, especially when crayon lines are added.
Finally, the second graders thought hard about what to name their horses and wrote the name across the top in their best handwriting. 

Many of the teachers hang these in the hall as they are a favorite.  Beautiful horse herds adorn our second grade wing!

Painted Ponies Are Finished!

 

The beautiful "Flaming Grace" horse

This week some groups of 5th graders finished their collaborative painted ponies project.  The 36 horses will be displayed throughout the Later Elementary building at Spring conferences for everyone to enjoy.




"Symphony of Swirls"

                                                                                         

This pony is called "Beach"

"United Horse" is ready for display

 Parents are encouraged to bring cameras to take photos of their student with the pony they painted.

The lovely "Flower Garden"



This one is called the "Diamond Horse"

The "Summer Time" pony

 



We love how every horse has a different theme, they are so unique and fun to look at. Great job fifth graders!

Catch a Snowflake Mittens Kindergarten

I cannot remember where I found this project but it is a great winter lesson for Kindergarten.
The original lesson was a mono print with paint but we chose to do it as an oil pastel resist with watercolor instead.
First we traced around one hand of each student with a pencil on 1/2 a 9 x 12" white paper in a mitten shape, not hand shape.
Then the kids went over the pencil mitten with a dark colored oil pastel making sure their lines were thick.
We folded the paper closed and had the kids rub it HARD with the top of a closed glue stick.

When they opened the paper there were TWO matching mittens. Magic in the art room!
Then they colored designs with oil pastels, making sure the mittens were a matching pair, both the same. 
Next they painted with watercolors over the oil pastel designs.  
2nd art period we cut out the mittens, made snowflakes all over a background paper with crayon and glued our mittens on top of "wrists". 
Last touch was a glitter snowflake sticker to catch!

Oil Pastel Guitars 5th grade

This project is available on the  smART class website.  She gives detailed drawing instructions for the guitar which were very helpful.  
We worked large, 15 x 24" white drawing paper. After we drew the guitars we added a pattern in the background and traced everything with sharpie marker.
Oil pastels were used to color the guitar but markers were used in the background by most students so the guitars would "pop".

These looked really great displayed together on my largest bulletin board ...and  what kid
 doesn't like guitars as the subject of a piece of artwork?!

Optical Illusion/Optical Art project 4th grade

We start this project with a square in the middle of our paper.  We then do a simple line illusion in the center with step by step instructions. This square with a line design in it was found in an old art project book from the 1970s, but any simple illusion found on the internet would work as well.

A sphere illusion in the middle looks great too!

Next we divide our paper into 4 sections and look at pictures of op art and optical illusions. I give the students ideas of how they could use markers, crayons, colored pencils or drawing pencil to make 4 different pieces of optical art/illusions to complete the composition.
This is  a favorite project of my 4th graders, they love to "trick people's eyes!"

This is amazing work!

     

Where we do ART!

I have been teaching Art for 21 years.  I am blessed to work in a district that supports the arts even in tough financial times.   We have well equipped art rooms at the K-2 and 3 - 5 elementary schools where the children can learn and create. 

Early Elementary Art Room

Later Elementary Art Room

With the sudden popularity of art class web sites there is a world of new projects and ways for Art educators to share that were never available before.  This has helped add excitement to my own teaching as we try new lessons and new ideas I have found on the internet. Thank you to all the teachers out there who are willing to share, I hope you find something new here to add to your own program.