Polar Bears Second Grade Lesson

We talked about the weather we had this week and how very snowy and cold it was.  We decided mostly only Polar bears like this kind of weather!  We learned how to draw polar bears in Art and the 2nd graders did a great job.   

We started with blue paper and a black crayon. We drew a rounded edge square about 1/3 of the way up our paper.  We filled it in black and added a mouth line underneath. 
Next we drew the sides of the snout going up from the nose and added the eyes outside those lines.  Last we measured three fingers out from the eyes going diagonally and made the inside of the ears.

 
A white spot on each eye made them look real.  We used white construction paper crayons to draw around the face and then begin making the fur with short or longer strokes.

 Kids added a background of snow, mountains or even the northern lights.

 These bears turned out looking realistic and the 2nd grade artists were very proud of their drawings.

SNOW SHOVELS/SNOWY PICTURES! Kindergarten Lesson

What a week of weather we have had!  Below zero temps, dangerous wind chills, over a foot of snow and lots of snow days.  The kids who actually got to come to Art class this week (during our two days of school) were really in the mood to make pictures about  WINTER.   
I found a picture of this lesson on Pinterest and the Kinders (and teachers) thought it was so much fun.
We started with a 12"x 18" piece of turquoise construction paper and cut away two curved sides on the short edges. Then we used white construction paper crayons to draw a very
                                                                                  snowy picture of a snowman,a tree with

                       

                                                   snow or a house and lots of pretty

                                       snowflakes.

 

Next I showed the Kinders how to fold and the inside out of a small piece of paper to be the handle of their shovel and gave everyone a black or brown 2" x 28" piece of tag board for the long part of the handle.  

 

I stapled their snowy picture to the other end of the tag board strip and we had wonderful shovels with pictures on them!  VERY much an art project about their wintery world right now.  Thanks to the creative person who shared this great idea that the kids just loved!

 

Zentangles For Fifth Graders

Tangling is Fun!  My intern suggested that I do a form of art called Zentangles with the 5th graders to finish up until Christmas break.  After researching the art form I decided I would tackle it the week after she left us when we were all getting used to having only one art teacher in the room.   It is supposed to be relaxing (the ZEN part) and requires only paper and pencil or black marker.  While you are creating the zentangle (doodle) it is called "tangling", which the kids really got into.

I started by giving them a sheet with simple shapes and had them trace a shape onto a 4" x 4" square of white paper. I thought that giving them a shape first would help their confidence in creating their doodles. 

I then used the projector to show them some example doodle designs and some very beautiful finished zentangle designs that I found on Bing images.  There are some zentangle horses that are just amazing! By now they were eager to start tangling inside the shape they had traced.  I also gave them some sheets with doodle design ideas in case they had trouble coming up with their own.  A very fine tip sharpie marker was used and when the zentangle was done all pencil marks from the original tracing were erased.

 

Reindeer Portraits First Grade

This lesson was found on Pinterest and was perfect for the last week of school before Christmas break.  First graders looked at three different types of portraits, one of which was this famous lady!

 

After discussing portraits, students were given step by step directions on how to draw a reindeer up close.  Those who do not celebrate Christmas made it a regular reindeer and others chose to add a red nose or Christmas decorations.  We used crayons to color the background and details and then painted the face with thinned brown tempera. This lesson took just 35 minutes and the kids did a great job!

 

Wire Sculptures 4th grade

This lesson is available on many art blog websites.  The 4th graders really enjoyed working with their hands and basically just had to "learn as they went" how to bend the wire and attach other wires to it. 

 Most of them then chose to add beads....

 




After just finishing a detailed animal drawing with shading, this totally different kind of art seemed to be just what they needed to get us to Christmas break.
Great job 4th graders.

 

 

 

 

Hot Dogs and Cool Cats Kindergarten Lesson

I found this idea on Pinterest and had to try it as a lesson on warm and cool colors.  I don't like to use lessons from Pinterest simply because I often come to school and see the project already done by a class room teacher who also found it!  Then, I have to quickly change my lesson so as not to duplicate. However, with this project I felt confident that no teachers would try it or be interested in teaching warm/cool colors and drawing a dog and cat with their students. All I can say is that THIS LESSON IS AWESOME! 

The materials are simple, the kids went crazy for the dog and cat directed drawing, and picking out the right marker colors was a great deal of fun for them.


First, we used permanent sharpie black markers to draw

the dog, face and paws only on one half of our white paper. 
Then the Kinders were asked what colors were hot:
thinking of fire or sunshine or a hot
stove. The next job was to find all kinds of orange, yellow
and red markers in their box and put them on the table. These
were water based markers, not permanent.
Adding hairy scribbles all over the dog with hot colors was
an easy way to give our dog a body without drawing it.

On the other half of the paper we drew a cat face and paws.
Now all the hot colors were put back into the box and cool colors
were discussed and sorted out. It is amazing how much the students
enjoyed finding the right marker colors for each half of their picture.
So cute!

 
I had them practice their writing by putting the words "HOT" and "COOL" above 
the appropriate pictures.

The final surprising step to this process that the kids thought was
like magic was using plain water and a brush to blend the markers
a bit and add a tail to each animal. Washing brush out
THOROUGHLY between hot and cold color blending is very important.
Not only is this a great lesson on color, but the pictures are
absolutely adorable when drawn by our Kindergarten artists!

"Invisible Man" 5th grade contemporary artist project

This great lesson came from Ms. N, our art education intern.  The 5th graders enjoyed it a lot and many people have noticed these amazing camouflage pictures hanging in the hallway.

First, the 5th graders were introduced to the Chinese artist, Lui Bolin thru a slide show.  They looked at the photographs of various scenery and tried to find where the artist was standing, painted by assistants to match his surroundings exactly! They learned about how the artist used his art to make a political statement about Chinese governmental regulations on artists.

We had collected many landscape photos from old donated calendars and each 5th grader picked out one they wanted for their background.

Students then chose a figure, traced the outline and cut it carefully out of white copy paper.

Ms. N helped the 5th graders decide where the figure should be placed in the landscape and they began using colored pencils to match the background exactly, camouflaging the figure.

When they were finished, the paper figure was glued with glue stick into the composition. These were hung up on a bulletin board where viewers could enjoy searching for the figures in the picture!