Bright Eyes and the Buffalo Hunt 1st grade project

First graders were excited to learn that this book was written and illustrated by an 8 year old girl! My intern made an audio recording of this book so the children could listen as they made a picture about the story.
The idea for this project came from DEEP SPACE SPARKLE where I saw a neat sponge painted buffalo composition.

Last week the kids traced two buffalo shapes with white crayon on black paper and then used brown paint on sponges to make the fuzzy part of the buffalo.   This week we listened to the story as the first graders traced and decorated 3 tepees with Native American symbols they liked from the symbols handouts we put on the tables.
After everything was cut out, tepees and buffalo, students arranged everything on a blue background with a grassy hill where the story took place.

Birch Tree Landscape Watercolor Paintings 5th grade

These paintings seem especially beautiful this year.  The 5th graders used a technique called "mask out" to protect the white watercolor paper in the shape of birch trees.

 After making 3 trees out of masking tape, students drew a landscape behind the trees

 then traced the picture (but NOT the
trees) with small tipped permanent marker.
 
The next art class was spent learning about
color mixing. The 5th graders really
enjoyed making the tertiary colors from
a primary and secondary color.
 

After we learned how to make colors, we added them to our landscapes. The rule for this project is that every color on the painting must be a mixed color, even browns and blacks cannot come directly from the paint set.  Students painted right over the tape.

 
The paint had to dry completely so we waited until the next art class to remove our tape.  We looked at real birch tree bark and then used a tiny paintbrush to make the bark on our trees look real. A light gray value was added to one side of the trees to make them look round.
 
 
Finally, if the season was spring, summer or autumn we added leaves to the birch trees with a larger brush. Artists were asked to think of a title for their landscape and pictures were framed.  

I think the colors the kids used and the way they made the birch trees look so three dimensional is really amazing.  My art intern says this is one of her favorite projects, she could not believe how beautiful the finished paintings were. We are very proud of the great effort by our 5th graders.

   

Adorable Owls Kindergarten Project

The Kinders enjoyed making owls this week using paper and construction paper crayons.
We started out with a simple traced shape and added yellow paper circles for eyes and a beak. 

 

Next the students used natural colors of construction paper crayons to make circular feathers around the eyes and then added feathers and wings to the body.

 
 

A real craft feather on each top point of the head added a final touch. These owls turned out really well and our little artists were very proud of them.

 

"Owl Moon" Tempera Paintings by 2nd graders

This is a great project found on DEEP SPACE SPARKLE.  She includes detailed directions on how to draw an owl that makes it easy for 2nd graders to be very successful with their painting.

 They can draw an owl on a branch, or by making the wings outstretched have a flying owl.
After drawing step by step with me using white crayons, the 2nd graders were given pale yellow paint. The moon, stars, inside of eyes, beak and feet were painted and left to dry until the next art period.

 

This week we painted our owls using brown, tan, white and gray tempera paint.  Some artists followed the photos of owls to paint actual colors of a barn owl, gray owl, snow owl or great horned owl.  As they painted, students listened to an audio recording of the book "Owl Moon", which they really enjoyed.  Some were excited to see that the great horned owl in the book was a lot like their owl. Everyone is excited to see these wonderful paintings hanging in the hallway! 

Some of the owls are so cute and fuzzy, others look very wise!     

   

The Fish that Swallowed My Name! 1st grade project

This lesson uses symbols in artwork, mainly the student's name.  We start by tracing a large fish shape onto 18" x 12" white drawing paper and outlining it with marker.  Students then write their name very large so that it fills the whole fish, the fish swallowed their name!

Next students use markers to create beautiful patterns between each letter  of their name. Coming to a new letter means they start a new pattern.  They leave white background in preparation for the last step of the project, chalk.

 

Children are given colored chalks and a paper towel.  We use just a little chalk on top of the marker pattern and then rub with a towel wrapped around our pointer finger.  Each pattern gets a new color of chalk and because we are rubbing the chalk into the paper it is not messy or dusty.  Great job on your fish, 1st graders!

Beautiful Castles Kindergarten Project

These wonderful castles came from the DEEP SPACE SPARKLE website, where I get so many great projects.  We started by tracing shapes to get the outline of our castle and then used sponges and silver paint to carefully make blocks on the castle walls and towers. The next art period we added doors, window, banners and other details with paper and crayons. For a final touch, a sparkly top for our towers! 

 

 These turned out so well and the Kinders were very proud of their work.

 

A Family Artist (Proud mom post)

Just had to post as a proud mom for one time... then will go back to the Art room!

So proud of my teenager who creates these characters digitally using a hand held game system. This week she will display eight of them in power point on the Art work table at her school talent show.





 She spends several hours on each layer of color for the digital picture.  It can then be posted online where other people with the same program can check out her artwork.

                                      

 

Great job, Kiddo. You have talent and you are MUCH better at technology than your parents!

 
 
 
Please do not use these images
without permission.
 
 
 

 
 
 

DALMATIANS! A Kindergarten Paper Composition

My art education intern did this awesome lesson with Kinders this week. So many concepts in this art project, and many skills were used: cutting, pasting, counting, geometric shape recognition and best of all... how to make a dog!


Another great thing about this project is the simple supplies that are needed...any color background 12 x 18"  construction paper, 3 x 9 " white paper strips, black crayon, glue stick and scissors.

Students were shown how to cut one paper strip in half to make two rectangles. One rectangle is glued down to be the dog's body and then the other half is cut into four leg pieces. Another white piece makes the head. Then students made another dog with another white strip.

When both dogs were created from geometric shapes, students were given a black crayon to add the face, ears, tail and then LOTS OF SPOTS.



The students were very happy with their finished Dalmatian pictures.  Great job Mrs. N and Kindergarten artists!

 

 

 

Realistic Animal Drawings 4th Grade Project

SO proud of our fourth graders working hard on their realistic animal drawings! This is a difficult lesson but their pictures are turning out fabulous.

First they chose a photo of an animal with fur or hair from my huge collection of calendar photos that have been donated through the years.

Then they had two drawing lessons... how to draw an animal using shapes, and how to do a line drawing of their animal.  After they practiced both ways of drawing on manila paper they began their final, best drawing with shading and some hair/fur details.
                    
 The kids are almost done and they seem to be very pleased with their work. Great job fourth grade artists!