Galaxy forest animals

Although I've been blissfully off on maternity leave for almost a year, every so often I get an idea for an art lesson that I just need to try now.

I was scrolling through Pinterest one night in December and came across this photo. It spoke to me - outer space paired with art? Who did I know that taught grade 6? More importantly, who could watch my kids so I could go play art teacher? I needed to do this lesson, fast. The next afternoon I was in my friend's classroom, armed with an idea and...not much else. Luckily this lesson is very low prep. You'll need:

• black construction paper
• white cardstock
• an assortment of paints (we went with red, blue, green, and white.)
• paintbrushes and sponges

 To start, give your students a sheet of white cardstock (8.5x11 is a good size.) I did a demonstration on the board of how to draw three different animals - a bear, a wolf and a deer. I personally found the deer the easiest to draw, followed by the wolf and the bear. Clearly the kids disagreed with me, as most opted for the wolf . The most important instruction here is to keep your animal BIG and to anchor it to the bottom of the paper. I had to remind some kids not to do floating animal heads.

After the animal is drawn on the white cardstock, cut it out carefully. Then, PUT THE WHITE PAPER AWAY! Oh goodness, put it away. If not, I promise you someone will paint on it or rip it or color on it or SOMETHING and then you'll have to find another white paper and the student will have to restart and then you'll have to stay in at recess while they finish. Or maybe that's just what happens when you haven't taught in a year.

The next part of this super simple activity is painting the galaxy. I actually did a lesson on how to paint nebulas here and the idea is very similar. Students can use big brushes or sponges to sponge color on in circular motions until they're VERY faded, then build on them with more colors until they have a dreamy, cloudlike look to their paper. The most important part is not to oversaturate the paper with color. We're talking light coats of paint, all over the paper until it's covered.

After that, it's splatter time! Kids will love this. Teachers and custodians will not. Use a small brush to gently splatter stars all over the black paper.

Now, put the black paper aside to dry.

*Here's where a bit of planning and perspective comes in. You know what would make more sense? Paint the black paper first, THEN do the drawing and cutting on the white paper. Hindsight, 20/20 and all that.*

Once your black paper is completely dry, glue the white paper over top and you're done! This project could be modified in SO many ways. I plan to try it with my toddler, letting her paint the background paper and I will draw and cut the animal in white. So many possibilities!

Have you tried this project? Please link me in the comments!

Hand dyed paper with chalk pastel solar systems - grade 6

In grade six, we are currently learning about the solar system. Doing science integrated art lessons is so much fun, and I especially enjoy doing projects with outer space themes (see here and  here.)

A while back I learned a great technique for dying paper with chalk pastels, which I have used for my silhouette project, as well as the following year for my spooky silhouettes. I've only ever tried it on white paper, but thought that if it would work on black cardstock, it could make the perfect background for an outer space portrait. Luckily, it worked so well!

I've outlined the steps to dying the paper again, as there are a few things I've learned since the first time I posted about it.

Here's what you need to know to hand dye paper (definitely works with white paper, and black cardstock)

Step 1: Fill a basin with water, about 2 inches deep. Using a pair of scissors (adult) or a popsicle stick (student) scrape off shavings from a piece of chalk, or a piece of chalk pastel, into the basin. 

Note: When I first began doing this project, I would let students shave the chalk themselves. Just for times sake, though, I have started doing this process with them. They come sit with me and tell me what colors to do in what order, and I scrape it into the basin. It speeds everything up so much!

Step 2: Keep going until your water is VERY speckly on top of the water. Make sure that you don't agitate the basin, or all of the flecks will sink to the bottom.

Step 3. Submerge your paper facedown into the basin, for about 5-7 seconds. Make sure to lightly tap all around the paper so that it covers all parts of the paper. Quickly lift your paper up in one motion, and lay it face up to dry (I put them on placemats to dry, as they're soaked!)

Step 4: If you have any white spots left, scrape some more chalk onto the blank spots to cover them up. The paper should dry quickly (in our case, within about 30 minutes.) 

While the paper was drying, students drew their planets onto white paper, and colored them using a combination of chalk and chalk pastels. We did a lesson on identifying the light source, and talked about how shading could make the planets look three dimensional. I let them invent their own planets, so they didn't have to worry about accuracy of shapes and colors.

Once their paper was dry, they glued their planets on, making sure that the light source always came from the same place. They were able to finish this in 2 fifty minute periods.

I hope I accurately portrayed how beautiful these are! Taking pictures of black background is never easy, especially since my camera made these come out a little bit chalkier than they are in person. They're so pretty!