Grade 2/3 Underwater Hippos

Love this project!! I pinned this photo a while ago, hoping to come up with an art project related to it. Luckily for me, a few months later, Deep Space Sparkle posted this lesson inspired by the same image! I loved it, and had to try it. This project took way less than 2 classes - within the second class, kids also had time to make a father's day card and do an art survey!

1st class: To begin, we did a guided drawing of the hippos. I showed them how to add in the ground so it didn't look like the hippos were floating. Then, they used oil pastels to color in the hippos. Once they were finished coloring them in, they used brown or grey pencil crayons to outline the again (TIP - pencil crayons are PERFECT to outline oil pastels - so much better than Sharpie, or black oil pastel!) If they had time, they added in seaweed using green pastel. This basically took the entire period.

2nd class: During this class, they added the water. This was done with liquid watercolors, which were the perfect thing to use. It covered the hippo bodies enough, but left them still visible. While they waited about 10 minuets for the paint to dry, they worked on their father's day cards. Once the paint was dry, they used tempera pucks to make a sunset sky (since a blue sky would mix too much with the water) and to add bubbles using more oil pastels. So CUTE!!

School is winding down!! This was my last class with this group. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to this year!

Titanic paintings - grade 2

I really wanted to come up with a lesson related to the Titanic, because it is quite relevant right now. With the anniversary of the ships voyage, and the films re-release, students probably have more knowledge about the Titanic now than in previous years.

I attempted this lesson with grade 2's, and it went perfectly. We finished it in well under an hour, everything from drawing to painting to making the chalk sky (using a technique for the clouds that I found at Smart Class).

Materials used:
Sharpie
Chalk pastel (sky, smoke coming from chimneys)
Liquid watercolor (red, black)
Tempera pucks (yellow, blue)
Metallic gold paint (windows on boat)

Here's a photo how-to for these simple Titanic boats!

Below, some photos of my students working on them, and some of their finished results!