"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!

 

 

 

 

Pop Art Painting Third Grade Lesson

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of an Andy Warhol soup can and asked "Is it Art?"

 

3rd grade artists discussed this question as they began their pop art painting project with my intern, Ms. N.  First, students chose to draw either a soup or pop can by looking at cans I had brought in to school, a still life drawing or drawing from real life.

 

Next, we showed the third graders how to rub graphite over the back of their drawing and then press firmly back over the drawing on the front to make multiples of their can, something Andy Warhol did in his pop art.

 

Students chose 6 crayon colors and traced the lines of their cans by pressing firmly with crayons, bright colors were encouraged!

Next, watercolor paint was applied over the cans in crayon resist technique. After all cans were painted, backgrounds were painted as well.  A final step was to glue black construction paper strips between all the sections to create a cleaner division between cans.

Great job 3rd grade artists! I was told by a parent that one of these paintings (hanging in a relative's hospital room to brighten it up)caused quite a bit of discussion among visitors and hospital staff. Some had never even heard of pop art, and art history in elementary art came up, as well as the colors used and the art techniques.  Super awesome and exciting!

Collaborative Native American Project Kindergarten

The Kindergarten classes that came to Art the week of Thanksgiving had the chance to work in a collaborative group to create a Native American Village. They were divided into groups by drawing popsicle sticks and were given a large sheet of brown kraft paper, oil pastel buckets and pictograph sheets of Native American symbols.
We discussed what tepees were made from, and students felt of a real tanned animal hide which they agreed was very soft and would make nice clothing or blankets.

 
 

We talked about what would be needed around the village in order to survive in the wilderness. Suggestions were: animals, berry bushes, river, fish, a campfire and other items.
Kinders decorated the large ceremonial tepee in the middle first, which my intern and I had drawn before passing out the paper. After the large tepee was finished, students were encouraged to draw their own tepee in the village and then some of the things we had talked about.

The kids really liked working together in the groups and did a great job of making their villages!

Native American Paper Plate Tepee Second Grade

Needed a filler project for my one 2nd grade class that had Art the week of Thanksgiving.  This is a very quick project with simple supplies but the kids LOVED it! 

 

My intern and I cut paper plates in half and each student was given one.  On the tables were crayons, markers and Native American pictograph sheets.  Students looked at the sheets and chose symbols they liked, drawing in marker and following the curve of the paper plate. A tan colored crayon was used to color in the paper plate the color of animal hide. 
My students had the chance to    
feel of an actual tanned hide, courtesy
of my father who is a bow hunter.

Next step was to tape 3 pieces of brown chenille stick to the back of the plate in the middle of the straight edge.  A door was added to other side with black crayon.

 

My intern and I rolled up the plate to form a cone and stapled along the overlapped edge. Some of the 2nd graders chose to color a piece of cardboard to make a base for their tepee to sit on.  They were very pleased with their work and transformation of a paper plate!

 I did this project with my niece at Thanksgiving and she liked it so much that every family member had to make a tepee so we could have an entire village on the kitchen counter.

 

Tie Dye Marker Project First Grade

Not sure where I picked this project up several years ago, but it comes in handy for a holiday week when only a few classes have Art.  First graders enjoyed choosing 3 of their favorite marker colors and following along with my directions to create these colorful tie dye patterns.  We started with 3 wiggly spots about the size of a quarter.  Then students used a different color to go around the spots with short lines that go out from the middle.

 

Kids continued in a pattern of three colors, each color going around and out from the one before it.  The spots grew and grew until they touched in the middle. Lots of elements of art in this simple marker picture!

Patterns kept going until we reached the edge of the paper and then I added a matching frame.  This took one 35 minute art period for most of my 1st graders and was the perfect filler for a week when most of my classes missed Art because of Thanksgiving.

 

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.