Antique treasure maps - grades 4-8

Ok I am being worse than usual at updating! Summer has just been toooo appealing - we've been working like crazy on the house, and I have been busily getting ready to teach a new grade, in a new division, at a new school!

This is probably my favorite project that we did during my Summer art camp. I actually just came up with it while we were at the park one day, as the kids were playing in the sand, digging and hiding treasure. I asked if they wanted to try drawing treasure maps, and they were all really excited!

To create the maps, I first had my students research antique treasure maps. They looked at a variety of compasses, and decided on the style they wanted. They sectioned out islands, which they outlined using Sharpie, and then colored the edges using pencil to make them stand out more. The next step was details - students used thin Sharpie to add mountains, trees, monsters, pretty much anything they wanted! When everyone was finished, we used brown liquid watercolor to dye the paper brown. The next day, my camp volunteers helped to burn the edges of the paper, giving them an aged look.

They were soo proud of these, and I don't blame them - I LOVE them!!

This last one was done by a student of mine that is just such a talented artist. She had to leave before we got around to burning the edges, but the finished product is still beautiful. I'd hang this on my wall!

 Tomorrow is my first day at my new school - wish me luck!!

Art camp - Sharpie doodle art!

Here's another quick update from the world of art camp. I am three weeks in and it's going so well! Only six days left.

There's an artist I really love, over at ihopethismakesyouhappy.com, who does incredible Sharpie paint drawings (see some here.) I just love them, and thought they would make excellent inspiration for an art camp project!

We do this project on Friday mornings, as it's really simple, calming, and takes up a good chunk of the morning. Kids are always really happy with the results!

To get them looking their best, I have students research the original artist, and talk about what makes his artwork so appealing (the variety in shapes, the thick black contrasted against color, etc.) Then, they divide their paper into shapes, and color them in using a pallet of 5-6 colors. After that, they use a combination of thick and thin Sharpies to make their doodles. Beauty!

You really should check out this artist's work. I have no clue who he is, but his style is awesome and there's so much to inspire art projects!

Another art camp goodie - hand lettered quotes!

Hand lettering is one of my favorite things to do. As someone that can't really draw, it's always been something that I am able to fine tune and feel a moderate amount of success with. I decided to try a hand lettering project with students for the first time today, and I will definitely be doing it again!

The first thing we did was look at hand lettered quotes on google. We studied them, and talked about the features (most of them are written into a square shape, and feature different styles of text for teach line.) We also talked about how certain words were larger, implying that they're a more important part of the quote.

Campers then chose their own quotes, and did a rough draft into a square shape. When they were confident with their writing, they lightly traced the squares onto good paper, and copied down their quote. Using a fine Sharpie, they hand lettered using a variety of styles of writing.

The last magic part of the equation was hand dying the paper using the ol' shaving cream and liquid watercolor technique (do you know this one? If not, I will post a tutorial.) Since we had taped the papers down to our placemats using painters tape,  the shaving cream went around the tape, leaving  a beautiful crisp, white border when they were done. Many kids voted this their favorite project so far!

Roosters inspired by roosters inspired by Le Coq

The title isn't a mistake - these roosters aren't inspired by Picasso's Le Coq - they are inspired by a project another teacher did inspired by Picasso's Le Coq. Make sense? I saw this project here, and fell in love with the last little rooster - the simply colored one giving the thumbs up. The original poster did this project with grades 5/6, but I figured it would work well with my grade 3/4s. It was a great project because it let them draw something adorable and creative, and they had the freedom to put their own twist on it. Pastels on black paper were the perfect medium for this project. Love it!

Unity/collaborative art - snakes! Grades 4/5

One of my favorite projects so far this year was the collaborative crayon art that I did with my grade 5/6 class. They were a huge success, and I really wanted to do something similar with my grade 4/5 group. I thought about what shape would work for a long, collaborative piece and finally came up with... snakes!w

I followed the exact same procedure as I did last time, except for this project, I gave students a tracer for the head only. With the crayons, it was more important that the shapes all be consistent, but since Snakes come in many different shapes and sizes, I figured the students would be fine to create the body shapes on their own.

These projects are unfortunately impossible to photograph, but rest assured, it looks absolutely beautiful in the classroom!

I have many, many updates I am going to try and get underway this weekend.. I'm so behind, and have so much I'd like to share!

Chinese Lion Dancers - grade 4/5

This is a project that I did with my grade 4/5 class. We began the project back in January, if you can believe it, and it took four or five class periods for them to finish (much longer than I had anticipated!) We just had an unfortunate run of interruptions during our art block that made this project take so much longer than I would have guessed.

I originally saw this project on SmartClass. She has great directions for how to draw the lion, so I would encourage you to check them out!

With me, students drew in Sharpie, and then added fireworks using pastels during the first class. The next three classes were painting - students used watercolors for most of the painting, then used gold and silver tempera paint to add in details. They turned out beautifully!

Our March break is ending, back tomorrow after a week off. Yikes! Better start planning!

Ugly holiday sweaters - grade 4/5

 This is kind of the project that never was. We started it with three Mondays left to go before Holidays. Students were given an outline of a sweater, predrawn, that they got to decorate using bold patterns, drawings, and lines, a la Ugly Christmas Sweater. By the end of the first period, most students had finished the drawing, which meant they could paint them with watercolor the next week, leaving us a final week to do a Christmas card or something for their parents.

Fast forward a week later - our first snow day of the year! Most students weren't there that day, and the ones that were sort of staggered in late. Anyone who came worked on their painting, but most of the drawings sat untouched on my art shelf. I recalculated in my head - the next Monday, the last week before break, the rest of the students could finish up their paintings and at least have those to bring home for Christmas.

The following Monday, guess what...ANOTHER snow day! Most of the same students were there, so they finished up their paintings and glued them on cute paper, but really, all told, maybe 6 or 7 kids finished? The rest are, still, sitting in a pile on my art shelf. *Sigh.* I do really love the ones that were finished, though!