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!

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!

Corny portraits - grade 3

Spring has sprung, and I am feeling inspired to start Spring-ing up my projects! I saw this drawing on ffffound.com, and used it as inspiration for a grade 3 Spring art project.

I love doing different types of self portraits, and with the success of my snowflake project (the kids loved them) i thought it would be fun to do a Spring version.

I find these absolutely adorable. I thought for a while about what medium to use for them, and I'm happy that I went with watercolors. They have a nice, soft look to them that's perfect for the season.

The only problem with this post is that I took the pictures with my phone instead of my good camera. If I have time this week, I'll swap out these photos with some good ones - the colors are much brighter in person!

I find these so adorable, probably one of the cuter projects I've ever done!

Catching Snowflakes - grade 3

As you may have noticed, my past few projects have been decidedly winter themed, but I can't help it - today it was close to minus 40 with the windchill! I feel like I am just completely surrounded by winter and cold and snow right now, and it's definitely affecting my choice of art projects.

I originally saw this idea as a collage on artsonia but decided to have my grade 3's do them with pastels instead, just to get them drawing and coloring. They began by drawing the face (with the little button nose on top) then drew the scarf and body. Following that, they added in more details, such as the mouth, the hair, and the sweater pattern.

It just kills me how cute these are. I love the scraggly hair, I love the patterned sweaters, and I love the little teeth. They're just adorable.

 

Watercolor Marker/Chalk Pastel Scarecrows - grade 3/4

This must be an indication of how busy I was during the move - these projects are from early October! I just found these photos while clearing out my camera, and they were too cute not to share.We did a group draw to make the basic form of the scarecrow, then they were free to add details, change anything they wanted, etc. They drew first in pencil, then traced in Sharpie.

The next week, they began coloring in their scarecrows using the watercolor marker technique, which I explained in a bit more detail here. I'm such a fan of this technique! When they were finished coloring the scarecrows, they used chalk pastels to make swirly, sunset-y backgrounds for their pictures. LOVE these!!

Surprisingly, I have a few more projects I never posted -I'll get them up soon!!

While you're here, don't forget to please vote for me for Art Ed Blog of the Year, which you can do by clicking this link and voting for Artisan Des Arts! Thanks so much, guys!!

Blended gradiant snowmen - grade 3

Snowmen make for fantastic drawing projects, because they're relatively easy for children to draw, and they lend themselves really well to gradient blending. I originally did a project similar to this last year with grade 5/6, but I decided to give it a try with grade 3 this year, and I'm really pleased with the results!!

I began by giving students a demonstration of how to blend using chalk pastels:

It took them 2 periods of about 40 minutes to finish, although some finished much quicker. They're so proud of how real their snowmen look!

Only two more weeks until Winter break!

Grade 3 sock monkeys!

Here's an adorable art project I did with my grade 3's! I found this photo on Pinterest, naturally, which I used as inspiration to do the project.

First, I showed students how to draw the monkey. They used Sharpies to draw onto old dictionary pages (I'd like to say this was purely a stylistic choice, but the reality is, I've run out of drawing paper in my classroom.) Once they were finished, they used tempera pucks to paint in the bodies. Finally, they were allowed to use buttons, scrap paper, crepe paper, and anything else they could find to decorate their little monkeys! Once they were done that, they glued their monkeys to a sheet of red paper, and colored in a background. Very cute results! Took 2 40 minute periods.