Warm & cool peacocks - grade 2/3

 

This is an amazing project that I found on SmART Class. Ever since I saw it in March, I have been dying to try it out. Here's how we did it.

Day 1: Students were given 2 sheets of paper, one large (11x17) and one small (8.5x11). They had to paint one of the papers with warm colors, and one with cool colors. Students also had to paint their hand (black, with red tips and an orange thumb) and stamp it onto a new sheet of paper. They used black paint to touch up any parts that didn't stamp well, and to draw the neck.

Day 2: Students used a tracer to trace their feathers (5 of them) on their large sheet. The small sheet was cut into circles, which were glued onto the feathers. I made a photo copy of an eye shape, and students got to color it with oil pastels and cut it out.They added white feathers to their peacock hand, and colored a line through the beak with pastels. 

Almost all of the kids were done within the two hour period. 

I LOVE THEM! So hard to believe these were done by 2nd and 3rd grade students!

Sneaky bunnies - grade 2

Ohh, who are the sneakiest little bunnies! I did these with my second graders today, using an idea I saw here. It was a great lesson for teaching foreground and background. They also loved doing the little floppy ear. While these would have been good around Easter, it was really snowy here at that time, and it's definitely a project that is better done when the weather is nice and the grass is green.

We did them on construction paper and colored them in with oil pastels. They took about 40 minutes to do, so with our extra time, we did a bunny hop around the school, showing off our art. Before we went on our bunny hop, I gave them talk about how bunnies are quiet, and how they hop, hop, hop everywhere. As soon as we left, I had 18 kids behind me saying "hop, hop, hop, hop." Sigh.

Such great work by the little 2nd grade bunnies!

Birdhouses - grade 2

This is a one day project that I did with my 2nd graders. The weather was beautiful, and I felt inspired by the birds outside. Working off a lesson I found at Deep Space Sparkle, I guided the students through a drawing lesson and showed them how to paint their birdhouse sticks so that they would appear "3-D".

Students started by drawing the birdhouses on large construction paper, using pencil. They worked hard on certain details, like the little perch for the bird, to make it look 3-D.

When they were done drawing, they painted in the stick, mixing brown with white and black to give a gradient effect.

After, they painted the birdhouse however they wanted! Some took the time to add in clouds and grass, and one student even colored the sky in the background!

When they were finished with that, they used scraps of paper, from a grade 2/3 classes non-objective art projects back in November, to trace cute little birds which they glued onto their artwork.

Giant art mural - grades 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Inspired by this post, I decided to create a large, op art mural in my classroom that all of my art classes could work on. I had a bulletin board space in my room that wasn't being used to it's full potential, so I covered it up and got to work!

I first started with a layer of old construction paper, just to protect my bulletin board from the Sharpie that we would eventually be using. Then, I used large sheets of white paper to create the background, and started the outline of the optical illusion.

 Continue that way until the whole board is covered (I didn't manage to get a picture of it all covered before kids started coloring!)

The next step is to separate the sections checkerboard style. Mark every second section with an X in pencil (I had some grade 6 students do this for me.)

(Again, couldn't get a photo before those coloring hands got in!)

The idea was that kids could color ANY square that was white, in any color. If there was an X, it meant they left it blank. 

There were DEFINITELY some kids that accidentally colored in spaces with an X, but it wasn't really a big deal. Most of the time they realized after a few marker strokes, but also, during the next step, we were able to fix any mistakes.

Once all of the colored parts were colored in, students took Sharpies and colored in the spots with an X. This is where we fixed any mistakes - any of the X spots that had been accidentally colored were now covered in Sharpie, so you couldn't even tell that there had been color there before. And here is the final product!

 Here's a picture of it beside the wall - I did this so you can get a feel for how big it is. The soap dispenser is off to the left of it.

The kids REALLY love it! Every time an art class comes through, the kids always stare and talk about it. Kids have brought their parent in to see it. They all seem to love that they had a part in the completion of this mural. It was great that everyone from 2nd grade students to 6th grade students were able to help.

Has anyone else ever done a large collaborative mural?

Chinese dragons - grade 4/5

In grade 5, students learn about ancient civilizations. Since the grade 4/5 class was currently learning about ancient China, I decided to come up with a lesson where they would draw big, beautiful, coloring Chinese dragons!

We did a little lesson about the significance of dragons in ancient China, and then began our drawing. Drawings were done on construction paper, and colored in using oil pastels. Students had total freedom when it came to colors and details. When they were done, they used a Chinese alphabet I had printed off the internet to create their names in Chinese characters. This activity took between 2 and 3 periods to complete.

I found this wonderful how to at this site, which I have pasted below. This helped me a lot, and outlines the basic steps that I used when showing the kids how to draw the dragon.

Here's a few more finished drawings!

Optical Illusions - grade 5/6

Here's an optical illusion lesson that I did with my grade 5/6 class. I saw this art lesson on the walls of a school when I was voting last year, but I know that it's one that is often done by art teachers. It took me a while to figure it out, so I made some step by steps to make it easier on anyone who wants to try it!

To do the background, just follow the steps to the left. When doing this with a class, I often use terminology like "bumps in" and "bumps out". This is how to do it without the circles. If you want to add in the circles, just do them right after step four, before coloring in your sections in black.

Below are the steps to do the circle (just ignore the grid in the background, I modified these instructions from the how-to I did here):

 Then, they color it in, using a checkerboard style pattern. The parts in grey below should be colored in black. The other sections should be done gradient style using colored pencils.

Hopefully this all makes sense. Here are some of the finished projects!