Georgia O'Keeffe lesson ( Cow Skull with Flower) 3rd grade

Found this idea on Pinterest and changed it up a little. Loved the idea of having the 3rd graders draw a cow skull with shading but wanted to also incorporate a flower into the project since flowers were also Georgia's main subject matter.

We heard a meet the artist story of Georgia O'Keeffe and then looked at a photo of her with a cow skull on the projection screen to draw the skull. And yes, the kids were rather surprised when I told them they would be drawing a skull in Art class.

 

I reminded them to look at the outside shape and draw it part by part instead of being overwhelmed by the entire picture at once.

 

The 3rd grade artists added shading where it was needed, then looked at calendar pictures to draw a flower and color it with oil pastels. Problem solving where to glue the cut out skull and flower on their choice of blue background paper and adding a shadow for depth completed the piece.  

 And since Georgia O'Keeffe is one of my favorite artists, I have to say I just love this project! 

 

Colorful Painted Parrots Kindergarten

Our less messy way of painting in Kindergarten resulted in absolutely wonderful painted parrots!

This was one of our visuals for our painting, and my inspiration for the bulletin board displaying the painted parrots on a tree branch.


We painted step by step, doing the head body, eye and wing with different paint colors.

We added the beak and feather details in black paint after our parrots had dried.

The kids are so proud of these lovely projects and I have had MANY positive comments about the work the Kinders did!

 

Tissue paper tail feathers completed the paintings and made them even more colorful.

 

Tree Weaving in a Landscape 4th grade

Found this neat way of weaving with 4th graders on Cassiesblog , an art teachers blog with many great ideas.  Loved that this was part a painting and part a weaving!
 

 

My 3rd graders weave bookmarks and the 4th graders always ask to weave again. This was a new way to weave in to a picture and was a faster weaving to do than the bookmarks.

 

I let them choose spring, summer or autumn colored yarn to weave into their tree in front of the tempera painted landscape.

 

Great job on these very unique projects, 4th graders!

 

 

"Less Messy" Way to do painting with KINDERS

I think I finally discovered a way to do tempera painting with Kindergarteners that is less messy and manageable in a 35 minute Art period! I purchased tall plastic cups at the dollar store and some small square baskets.  The cups are in the baskets tightly with one paintbrush per paint color.  Different baskets have different colors so that half way thru a project table colors can be switched.

The baskets were easily placed on tables and the cups are tall enough to keep brushes from tipping over and spraying paint on tables or projects.  Most students were able to use the paint without messy hands and so clean up at end of class was faster than when using water buckets and towels to clean brushes.  Definitely less stressful for all of us!

Collaborative Painting Fifth Grade

Taking a year off from Painted Ponies because I wanted the next group of 5th graders to be just as creative with their pony ideas as the group last year.  I decided skipping a year would allow for fresh ideas instead of repeats.

This year our 5th grade group painting is a very large size (2" x 3") cardboard which was donated by a teacher's family.  Groups of 3 to 5 students agreed on an object or character to paint from the following choices: a natural item like a feather or leaf, an easily recognizable cultural icon such as a cell phone or cupcake, or an animated character.

After they agreed what they would be painting VERY LARGE, they had to decide on a background that would show the viewer something about the item, or how the group felt about the chosen object.  Ideas were first drawn in sketchbooks and then large on cardboard. 
 
Together they chose paint colors and began painting their projects. I encouraged best 5th grade painting as they used the tempera paint for large areas first and then smaller details.

 

The finished paintings are looking AWESOME! They will be displayed in the hallways for conferences this week, along with a group "Artist's statement".  Very excited for everyone to see our nearly 40 large, bright paintings.  GREAT GROUP WORK 5TH GRADERS!

 

 

Collaborative Group Art Project Fourth Grade

Due to so many snow days I needed a project for four of my 4th grade classes to do while the classes that had missed Art finished their projects.  I decided to let the four classes make a collaborative project.

 Each class worked on parts of the parrot while looking at a photo on the projection screen. The class at the end of the project added all the background pieces!  The kids really enjoyed coming up to the large cardboard and laying their patterned paper pieces down to measure and cut to size.  They worked very well together and we got lots of compliments on the finished project!