1st Grade Funky Penguins

1st graders created these beautiful pieces in two classes.  On day one of the lesson I mixed up some watered down tempera paints and students were to create a background.  I gave them very little instruction on this step and just let them go.  For the most part students did a very nice job filling the space, not leaving white spaces, and not having colors run together.  It was a great exercise for paint/brush control.  On the first day of the lesson we also talked a little bit about texture. Rather than just using black construction paper students painted a small piece of paper with black and added in the Crayola Mixing Medium "Pearl it" or "Glitter it."  Using texture scrapers, forks, ends of paintbrushes students created texture on their small piece of paper.

On Day 2 we focused on creating our penguin which took the entire class.  Students were given three pieces of paper the painted black piece, a painted orange piece, and a small white piece of paper.  We drew step by step together the parts of our penguin, students cut them out and started assembling the pieces.  If students had time they were able to select from the "funky paper bin" to make a hat, scarf, mittens, or other winter accessory they wanted to make.

2nd Grade "Snowman Scoops"

The inspiration for this lesson came from this ornament I have had hanging on my tree for many years.

As the winter months come around most every grade creates some sort of snowman in their classroom.  I challenged myself to think of a different way students could make their snowman. This year as I was putting up the Christmas tree it came to me.  Let's make snowman scoops!    I did this lesson with 2nd graders and they loved the idea of making their snowman into an ice cream cone.  This was a very simple, successful two day lesson.

On Day 1 we drew three "snowman scoops" and a cone.  Students then watched me demonstrate how to paint in the snowman.  Students talked about how my snowman looked real and we problem solved together why it looked the way.  The answer was shadows and with that we talked a little bit about making drawings and paintings look lifelike by using value and shadow. 

To paint the scoops we used white paint first. Without rinsing paintbrushes we dipped a little bit into the light blue and painted our shadow about 1/4 of the way making a crescent shape. Using dark blue paint we went around the edges of the light blue.   Then, using a paper towel students wiped off any excess paint and dipped it in the brown  for the cone.  To add a highlight they dipped their paintbrush in the white.

On Day 2 using a combination of sharpie marker, oil pastels, and colored pencils students added all details to their snowman.  I drew on the board for them different accessories their snowman might be wearing like hats, mittens, scarves, etc.

They turned out so fun!

Teacher Sample

4th Grade Value Snowmen

I borrowed this lesson from here.  When I saw it I knew I had to try it out! Originally this was a lesson done with 2nd graders, but with my 8 day rotation this would have taken 2nd graders quite a long time to finish up so I tried it out with my 4th graders.  They took us three classes to finish.

Day 1: We discussed tints, shades, and value.  Students painted their background choosing between blue or purple. 

Day 2: Students painted the snowy ground and snowman using white, blue, and silver paints.

Day 3:  Using colored pencils students added all details to their snowmen.

Here are some of the results.  I love the simple elegance of every single one.

Basketball playing snowmen. Love it!

I had to share this one. The middle snowman is holding a taco and wearing a sombrero.  Don't you just love the way kids minds work?

Note the cougar/cheetah.

Seasonal Adaptive Art

Twice on my 8 day rotation I have two Adapted Art classes I teach. For the most part I try to do a lesson that kindergarten or 1st grade students are already doing and adapting it to their needs. As most projects only take these groups one class to finish I have the tendency to do a lot of seasonal projects. It also gives me a chance to try out some new techniques with students. 

Here are just a few of the projects I've done with these students this year. 

This project stemmed from this kindergarten project. With this group I created a negative shape stencil for the snowy ground and snowman than students painted the exposed paper with white paint. We used the same techniques with the cardboard and qtip to finish the painting. Much of the work the students do are in aid of a para using hand over hand techniques. 

This next lesson was somewhat of an experiment. I've seen a lot of classroom teachers do the snow globe snowman project. I wanted to come up with a way for it to look a little more, dare I say "artsy."  

We started with a paper with 4 circles traced on it. 

We used silver paint to paint the snowman balls. With a white oil pastel (mostly hand over hand) students colored in a snowy ground. Using blue, turquoise, and purple liquid watercolors students painted the large circle.  We let the circles dry for a few minutes. As the paint was drying students made pine trees look snowy by adding white oil pastel to a die cut pine tree.  We cut and assembled our snowmen, glue on our trees, added some snow with a white oil pastel, and to finish off we added a little glitter.  I mean what kind of snow globe would it be without glitter?!! I had the black stand and name plates already cut out and we just glued everything onto a piece of paper.

6th Grade Clay Pinch Pot Snowmen

In lieu of the Holidays 6th graders made a pinch pot snowman.  This was really a quite simple lesson for these students as making a pinch pot was a review for them.  Every once in a while it's nice to have a little bit of a "brain break"and just make something fun!  With the simplicity of this lesson I really focused the importance of slipping and scoring so all of their small snowman pieces would stay on.  Using acrylic paints they were able to finish them off!

Notice the icicle hanging from the snowman's nose. I love it!

5th Grade Still Life Realism Vs. Abstraction

For this lesson 5th graders discussed many important art concepts.  The idea for this lesson came from here with a few changes.  We started off the lesson by talking about and looking at different still life examples ending this portion by looking at photorealism.  A great focus for this lesson was on value and how value can give the illusion of 3D objects on a 2D surface to make shapes look real.  Before we started our projects students used this value worksheet to help us understand the concept a little more.  

Together students did a directed drawing of a cone, cube, sphere, and cylinder.  While drawing we discussed composition and how we could arrange the objects to look visually interesting on our page.  I told students that they could keep the forms they way we drew them together or if they would like to change their objects into something else they could.  For instance, I gave the example of changing the sphere into an apple or the cylinder into a soda can.  Most students left the objects as they were or changed just 1-2 objects.  Using drawing pencils and tortillions students shading in the objects using their value worksheet as a reference. 

As a final step students were to create a patterned abstract background using one color of marker.

  I love the results and the change from a traditional still life/shading lesson!

3rd Grade Tint/Shade Ice Cream Cones

This is a lesson that I have seen many different places.  I decided to try it out on third graders to continue on with color theory.   This was a two day lesson.  On day one we discussed these terms:

 Tints=Color + White

Shades=Color + Black

Value=One color going light to dark

Together students drew four ice creams scoops.  They then watched me create color tints using white and my chosen color.  I stressed the importance of each color looking different.  Students experimented with mixing colors and getting four different color tints.  After students finished painting the ice cream scoops they got a piece of paper for their background.  Choosing the complement color students painted their background with texture combs and "mystery colors" (Crayola "Pearl it" or "Glitter It" mixing medium.)

On day two of the lesson we review our terms and they watched a demonstration on how to mix a shade.  They painted their cone, set it aside to dry, and began to cut and glue their ice cream cone together to create a value scale.  When everything was glued students had the option of adding a glitter cherry.

4th Grade Radial Designs

For this lesson 4th Graders learned about radial balance.  Students worked with using a compass to create a circle and I had a template they could use for the pie slice. Students were to come up with a theme when creating their design.  This project was very open ended so there were many different outcomes! To transfer the design students used the trusty window tracing technique. To finish our designs they used colored pencils and markers and mounted it on a piece of paper.

Kindergarten Winter Landscapes

Kindergarteners made these lovely winter landscapes. To start we drew a line from one side of the paper to the other. We then added the three circles for the snowman.  Students then got a mixture of silver paint with Crayola "Texture It" mixing medium to paint the snowy ground and the snowman.  

Students made trees using a small piece of cardboard. Students watched as I made a straight line from the ground up with black paint and added just a few black branches. Students then made their black branches reemphasizing to stamp the cardboard not slide it. I then added green paint to the paint tray and kindergarteners stamped on more branches. White paint was added to the tray  and students stamped a few white lines to make the trees look "snowy."  Cardboard was discarded and kindergarteners received a q-tip using it first to make the white snow on the background. They used the other end to create the details on the snowman. Lastly, using a white oil pastel students outlined their snowmen and added some orange for the nose. We got this all done in one class!

                                           I love how abstracted some of the trees look.