Things that Fly

1st graders last projects of the school year were all about balance and symmetry.  We started off by talking about the asymmetry of kites when it comes to the patterns and designs.  

 The borders around our kites were just a combination of leftover scraps from the year--never let anything go to waste!  You can tell the students who just threw on random colors and those that took the time to sort through all the colors to create a pattern.

Next up we talked about the symmetry of butterflies and created these simple crayon, watercolor & salt, compositions.

Speaking of others things that fly, as of late I've become quite the birdwatcher.  If you follow me on twitter you might have noticed my obsession as of late with ornithology.  Well guys, it's real.  This bird just HAD TO make a nest on the wreath on the door and torment me.  

I almost died taking this picture.  In order to make this picture a reality I 007-ed and Mission Impossibled this like there was no tomorrow.

Check ya, later peeps. Only 9 more days of summer school and REAL summer begins!

Artist Studies-The Floral Kind

Spring=Flowers, am I right?  After winter we're all ready for a little bloom and pop of color, and the idea that summer is so very near (I heard there's only 31 day of school left).  

1st graders took on Van Gogh's,  Red Poppies and Daisies.  I think they darn well rocked it.  This two day lesson certainly blew my socks off.  The students loved making their textured and patterned backgrounds using foam rollers and funky brushes.  And who knew saying the word "poppies" over and over in 1st grade is soooo fun?!!?

3rd graders explored the world of Georgia O'Keeffe, I was inspired by this lesson.  Before I go any further, let's talk about "analogous" colors....and how painful it is for students to try and remember what (and how to pronounce) the word.  As long as they can tell me what they are and how to find them on the color wheel--we're golden! 

Anywho, if your school happens to have access to BrainPop there is a pretty awesome one on Georgia O'Keeffe and the kids will pretty much BEG you to take the quiz at the end.   

  

All right, this lesson here I WAS SO EXCITED about, but it kind of seemed to be a bust.  We win some, we lose some I guess...but boy do I hate losing.

We started by looking at this painting by Renoir: 

Students drew beautiful tulips in their vase and we outlined them with glue.  I'm kind of over oil pastels for the year--I'm just sick of using them for this school year, and for pete's sake who keeps taking all the black's and white's???!!  So I experimented with soaking chalks in sugar water and absolutely loved it, but the result didn't really transfer over that well with the 2nd graders.  I probably should have stuck with the oil pastels, but if this lesson wouldn't have flopped I would have never known! The more you know.  

I have two classes that are a little behind on this project so I think I'll go ahead and try out the oil pastels...I'll share those results later.

I'm yet to see the sun in the sky this week.  I know the clouds are doing their job to bring us our pretty spring flowers, but I need a little sunshine.  The second I see the sun, you'll know where to find me.

It's a Winter Wonderland

CAUTION: WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE MAY OVERLOAD YOU WITH IMAGERY

This winter (starting in November) has really brought in some cool temperatures for us.  The little snow that we've had is long gone because of a couple of 60 degree January days--weather man when is the next big snow storm?  But really when I was a kid growing up in the 90s snow forts, sledding, and snowmen were a regular phenomenon.  And when I say snow I MEAN SNOW. Nebraska hasn't seen a real snow fall (over a foot) since 2009.  I wear my snow boots with pride, even without snow, but every once in awhile they like to meet up with an old friend too (so bring back that 90s snow).   

Anywho, here are a few of the winter themed projects done by the primary grade students throughout the season.  

This is a lesson I did last year with kindergarten.  But instead of just using blue construction paper students made some painted paper to use instead. And WOWSER I love this version! There is just something about that added texture and dimension the background gives.

And who doesn't love a good snowman massacre?  I also had another one that I didn't get a picture of, but let's just stay my buddy P got a little heavy handed with the red oil pastel--there was quite a scene.

Kindergarteners made these fun little penguins too:

1st graders had a lot going in.  It seemed like whenever there was an early out, "cold day," assembly, or I had a sub a 1st grade was hit.  So each class had about a zillion things going on and ALL OF THEM were different.  

With this lesson, that most started, we explored how you could create space.

The idea for this lesson was sparked by another elementary art teacher in the district.  Using the primary colors students mixed colors to create a rainbow.  The teacher I got the lesson from then had her students draw snowmen on top of the background, I wasn't really feeling the snowmen vibes so I went with a polar bear instead.

and to finish it off this group was just out of wack with our schedule so why not draw OLAF????

But really 1st graders drew these.  Are you amazed? Because I am

Here's another lesson I did last year and again this year with 2nd grade, it's quite popular in the Pinterest community and brings a lot of traffic my way.  I really enjoy doing this lesson, it gives a fresh take to the snowman or as I like to call him the SNOWcone.  

Maybe one day I'll have so much free time on my hands that I'll be able to illustrate and write a children's book--I think this guy would be my main character.  Have any good character names?

Dinosaurs Love Underpants

Have you ever seen this book?

There are several of these books and when I saw this book at the bookstore I immediately sat done and read through it.  (Yes, in the children's section...I'm the type that doesn't look for a chair, the floor will do as I'm perusing the shelves). I had many laugh out loud moments while flipping through the pages, and I'm pretty sure the 7 year old boy next to me thought I had some serious problems.  But any who, this book gives us a different side on how the dinosaurs became extinct.  Ultimately, the dinosaurs kept stealing the cavemen's undies so there was a massive war that wiped those stealing dinos out.  Yeah totally silly, but awesome.  I just had to do a project about it and let me tell you talking about underpants with 1st graders was so funny, I'd suggest trying it if you haven't.  After they got over the fact that we were talking about underwear, we started in on this fun project.  

To start the project we painted massive amounts of beautiful painted paper,  this also gave us a wonderful opportunity to explore texture with out texture tools.

As the focus wasn't on the actual drawing of the dinosaur, I gave 1st graders the choice between a Triceratops and T-Rex stencil to use.  To make our underpants  1st graders used funkified colors and PATTERNS.

Did Someone Say Fall? The Fall Art Edition

Halloween is over...all the tricks and treats have been upon us AND even though I'm not even mad that every store now has their Christmas stuff up (I may or may not be a winter-loving, Christmas-ite) it still is fall.  As I am finally getting around to sharing some of the projects that were started in September, I hope you're excited too see them.

I'm not really a save the best for last type of girl so let's start off with my favorite fall themed project of the season.

I bring you these beautifully done painting by 3rd graders.  This lesson was super simple, we covered some terminology looking at composition and value.

Day 1: draw pumpkins, paint pumpkins, paint background.
Day 2: oil pastels on pumpkin........AND the dreaded

glitter sky that just needed to be done.

(Oh, you say I still have glitter all over my body from weeks ago? Let me tell you it was worth it.)

Without further adieu:

I'm going to keep the rest of this simple and let the artwork (almost) speak for itself.

Here we have 4th grade patterned pumpkin beauties in their zentangle pumpkin patch.

The 2nd grade pumpkin patch has creatures and some fantastical complement colors:

With all these pumpkin patches the 1st graders came in to save the day and brought us some scarecrows.  Notice some of the silly faces brought by inspiration from The Little Scarecrow Boy

The 1st graders also wanted the scarecrows to have something nice to look at during the nighttime hours.