Fall scarecrows - grades 2/3

It feels odd to be writing about a grade 2/3 project now that I'm at an intermediate school, but actually, this is a project a friend of mine did with a grade 2/3 class she supply taught for. I thought it was so great that I had to share!

Here's what she told me about the process:

"We used wax crayons with a watercolor wash on top for the sky. It was a grade 2/3 class, and the period was 80 minutes long. It could be a two day project as well. We did a group draw for the scarecrow. I didn't have enough permanent markers, otherwise I would have gotten them to outline their scarecrows before coloring with crayons. Instead, the black outline is crayon."

Aren't they absolutely adorable? Seeing this made me feel a little pang of sadness that I no longer teach elementary art. I really had fun with projects like this!

Thanks to Jules for sharing this!

Grade 1/2 portraits

These are some adorable portraits that I did with grades 1/2, to give to their mothers for mother's day. Portrait drawing is such a good activity for kids of any age. Kids in grade 1/2 reeealllly need all of the direction possible, as it's often one of the first times they've drawn a portrait of themselves. the only thing I'll change next time is to explicitly show them how to make their portraits smile!

Once they had finished their portraits, they cut them out and glued them onto scrapbook paper. Kids with extra time cut out paper hearts and decorations for their portraits.

I love how these turned out - I think they're absolutely beautiful, and really hope the moms love them!

Positive/Negative hearts 1/2

This is an easy, beautiful lesson that I originally saw on artsonia and decided to do with my grade 1/2 classes. I needed something that could be done in only one class, as I won't be seeing some of them again before Valentine's day.

We started off by talking about positive and negative space, and I showed them examples of the hearts that I had cut out (they'll be using these to do the project.) Students were each told that they'd be getting one positive heart shape, and one negative heart shape. This is how they'll use them:

They began by placing the positive heart on the piece of paper, and tracing all around it using chalk pastel. Then, they used a kleenex to pull the color away from the heart, creating a negative imagine of a heart on their page. They did this several times, until they had covered the paper with pastel and white hearts.

Next, they took the negative heart shape, and traced it on the paper, over their other hearts. This time, they pulled the chalk pastel inwards, creating a positive heart shape. They added as many as they wanted to, until they felt their project was finished. They looked beautiful, and were easily finished in one period. Such a great Valentine's project!

Heart collages - grade 1/2

This is a project that was born out of desperation - we had some incredibly cold mornings last week, and on Wednesday, my usually reliable diesel car decided not to start. I was able to call a colleague for a ride, but didn't end up getting to work until 15 minutes before the bell (much later than I usually arrive!)

When I got to work, I desperately scrambled to find something for my 1st graders to do. I finally decided to slice up some tissue paper and dictionary pages, and have them do heart collages! By the end of the 40 minute period, the collages were so beautiful that I decided to extend the project another week. The next time I saw them, we glued the collages to colored paper, and students used a variety of colored Sharpies and metallic Sharpies to draw lines and shapes in the background.

I'm so happy with how these turned out! They look so beautiful all together.

Some students balled up the tissue, and I love the effect it gave - it almost looks like roses.

Heritage self portraits - grade 2

This project, if you can believe it, is from LAST APRIL! I had completely forgotten about it until I was going through old pictures on my iPhone. I chose to do this project because the grade 2 class was studying different countries, and each student was doing a project on a country of their choice (most of which related to their heritage.) I decided that instead of doing the standard cartoony-self portraits that I had planned on doing with them, we would up the ante a little bit by coloring their faces using the colors and design of their country of choice's flag.  I made the example below using Iceland (I have no ties to that country, except I had just returned from my trip there the week before we began this project.)

Here are some of the finished projects! I'll be honest, I really can't remember what countries these flags represent.

They're cute, right? They were a nice tie-in with their country projects. Can't believe I forgot about these until now!

Nutcrackers in golden frames - grade 1/2

 Here's a cute, simple project I did with grade 1/2, in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. I've always loved nutcrackers - something about their boxy faces and giant teeth that I just can't resist. I used the poster from the Nutcracker movie as inspiration for how to draw these simplified nutcrackers.

Students got to pick a frame from the Melissa and Doug picture frame pad (can't recommend this enough!) then sat down to begin their work. We did a group draw to make the exterior of the nutcrackers - students started with the heads, filling in the eyes, mouth, nose and mustache, then traced straight lines down to the edge of the paper to make the bodies.

When they were finished adding in buttons, lapels, and any other details, they traced their drawing with thin Sharpie. Even though we use Sharpies all the time, the thin Sharpies were a big novelty for them. They were so excited to be using what felt like a pen in art class!

The next time they came to my class, they colored in their nutcrackers using markers. Very cute, very simple project!

Fall Owls - grade 1/2

Aren't owls the cutest? I did these back in October/November with my first and second graders, but haven't had a chance to post them until now. I had wanted to do an owl project, so I did some googling and found this one, which I loved. I changed some elements of the project, including not making it about symmetry - I focused more on just working with the oil pastels, which some of the first graders had never used before. They drew using pencil, on black construction paper, then colored in their drawings with oil pastels. This project took them 2 periods of 40 minutes to complete. I really love that they had the persistence to finish coloring them in, including the backgrounds - that can be a daunting task when you're only 6 years old, so they did a fantastic job!

Love the nest on this last one - such great detail with the wispy pieces coming out!

Aren't oil pastels the greatest? Easy cleanup, work perfectly on construction paper, and they produce such great results. What are some of your favorite mediums to work with?