A 5th Grade Frenzy of Art Lessons

I seem to be talking a lot about weather lately, but it seems a little odd to be posting these on a day in January when it is 60 degrees!  I made a quick trip to Alabama this weekend, looking forward to a little warmer weather.  Naturally, it was warmer in Nebraska then in Alabama.  With the Blizzard of 2015 (whats up Juno) hitting the Northeast I thought it appropriate to share these.  

As I was doing this project with 4th grade, I decided to give the 5th graders a shot at it too.  Since I already had everything set up it made it pretty easy.  So while 5th graders were waiting to make their print with me, they created their own snowflake stencil.  Eventually, students used the snowflake stencil they made and created a focal point.  I also had some giant foam snowflake stamps that students could add to their print To finish them off students added more detail to their stencil created snowflake with oil pastels and some even used a little glitter glue to accent it.  

I love the layers and layers of snowflakes these projects have, it gives the eye so much to look at!

5th Graders also completed these winter Ice Skating Rinks.  Not all of the classes did this one, it started out as a very independent sub lesson.  I love the variety of characters and winter villages.

Here is a Picasso lesson that got lost within my posts and I forgot about...it happens right? It didn't seem to be as successful of a lesson compared to this one from a few years ago.  I'll have to work out the kinks for next time. 

Also, a huge thank you to those that voted for me.  1st Place in the Rising Star category, feels pretty awesome.  So thank you all for reading with me!  You're all an awesome community of educators.

1st Grade Whimsical Flowers

I'm just now getting around to posting some of the first finished art projects of the year.  So expect to see some exciting projects--there are some I have been super anxious to share!

This was 1st grades first project of the school year.  We started out in full force to get these babies done.  The walls in the school are so long and white we needed to get something bright and colorful up ASAP.  This was a two day lesson: Day 1 was spent painting the background with neon orange and pink, students also used blue, green, and purple liquid watercolors to create the centers.
Day 2 was all about cutting and gluing.  I forgot what a challenge this could be for 1st graders.  I used leftover scraps of any type of yellow paper to create the petals.

3rd Grade Analogous Color Monsters

3rd Graders continued discussing the color wheel.  Building from our previous project discussing primary and secondary colors students explored analogous colors.  Analogous colors are 3 to 4 colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. By using these three analogous color schemes:

1. red, orange, yellow  
2. blue, violet, red
3. blue, green, yellow

Students picked an analogous color scheme and using the straw watercolor blowing technique students made monsters.  Students used the collage technique to add features to their monsters and to give them a background. 

Teacher Example:

Student Examples