Wig Party Portraits

Connecting to 5th grade American History standards and pop art humor/color this project integrates and supports both themes beautifully. Through discussion and observation (hand outs and historic prints) students are introduced to the fashions of 17th century America/England. They develop their own member of royalty through a series of sketches. The final sketch is transferred to  card stock then completed using water color, crayon and sharpie. Artists can include an ornate frame design and or royal title if they want to.

Bedhead

Art work on display at the Spring Open House Student Art Show
May 2012

The 3rd grade artists had a lot of fun
with this one day project. I showed them how to draw a very simple U shaped human face. We reviewed the placement and shape of the features. On sketch paper they made several quick drawings. The last element was the crazy bedhead hair. When the students had a sketch they liked they were given heavy art paper and crayons. They drew the portrait with crayon allowing parts to flow off the page. They had a very limited time to complete this drawing. Then, using liquid watercolors they filled in all of the paper. The result was so very fun and wacky, there was a lot of laughter during this project.

Spring Cherry Blossom

This 2nd grade projects is a wonderful way to welcome spring, introduce water color techniques and explore Japanese ink painting all in one, one day project.

Using handouts and visual supports introduce the students to Japanese ink painting/watercolors and photographs of cherry trees in blossom. If possible share in the classroom a real (or artificial) cherry blossom branch.

The paper is pre-cut students write their name small in the lower corner.  Direct drawing techniques  work well for younger students. Through a series of steps the main branch and side branches are painted with black watercolor. Blossoms are added with red watercolor. Some can be blowing in the wind giving the picture movement.

Fishy Fun

Where is the vase?

I shared this project with 2nd grade artists but it can be adjusted to challenge a variety of age groups. Where is the vase, reinforces the use of foreground, middle ground and background using watercolor and both torn and cut paper collage. Van Gogh's Sunflower paintings and other classic still life pieces are a great visual support element and discussion focus.

This project can also connect to color theory and the elements of art.

Make some Money

This fun project introduced 3rd grades students to art/skill of print making. Using small  pre-cut foam board and wooden stylists they created their own money. A simplified self portrait provided the center piece for this art project.

Connects to 3rd grade standards (money) and supports Art History (Andy Warhol).

Realistic Portraits

 How do you draw a realistic human portrait?

Imagination in 3-D

 This Spring After School series is designed for young artists but can easily be adopted to challenge older students as well. Working with a variety of materials and supplies, students created expandable imaginary animal puppets and a gnome with his/her mushroom home. The gnomes are painted coconut cups (a donation that has rolled around the art room for 2 years) I primed most of them white to give the students a smooth base. Some chose the non primed cups. One coat of tempera was applied as a color foundation to block out body parts (face, dress, hands...) and left to dry.  Details and smaller bits of color where added later and last the cotton beard/hair and pointed hat/cap.

Green Art for the Garden

This Spring After School class focused on the use of recycled materials in the creation of art bird houses.

Where is your Mummy?

Supporting 6th grade World History Standards and Visual Arts skill building/design themes this 3 session mummy projects was both creative and educational (and lots of fun). Starting with a brief discussion of ancient Egyptian life and art supported with hand outs, prints and books students made sketches of their

royal tomb.

To create the coffin students had the option of using preprinted guides or drawing their own. This project used crayons, color pencils, beads, tissue paper and othe small decorative collage elements. Once the drawing was completed and cut out it was mounted on folded black paper (card like) and inside they drew-with white color pencil a mummy and or skeleton (once again with visual support materials)

Warm and Cool folk art landscape

This project was inspired by a post I saw on Pinterest (will find and post later). Students learned about foreground, middleground and background while creationg a very simple and stylized country scene.

Warm and cool oil pastels were used to add color. Last, they could ouline their completed design with a black oil pastel.

Great Birds of North America

Supported by observation and discussion students created several pencil sketches of North American birds. They were provided with table top hands outs and other visual supports to create these drawings and collect them in a sketchbook/portfolio.

This project supports skill building and  connects Early American History themes such as Mr. Audubon (explorer/artist)  and his work regarding the birds and wild life of early North America. These drawing were then transferred to soft printing plates using a wooden pencil. Plates were printed with water base wood block ink. Students learned to sign and number their prints and artist's proofs.

Rainbow City 2012

What is a City? What does it sound like? What does it look like?

Compare and contast city and country. I found art prints of famous paintings very helpful in this discussion.

All of the building rectangles were precut from scraps-great way to use up those bits and pieces at the end of the year.

This kindergarten project connects to shape and color identification and introduces students to using a ruler (to create a horizon line). Crayons, color pencils, metalic crayons and paper scrape details were added later to complete each cityscape and help it come alive!

Impressionist Inspired Landscape

Students in Ms. A's blend class created Impressionist inspired landscapes using tempera paint, tissue paper and lots of hands on fun.

I broke this lesson into 3 sessions, one painting the sky and ground, second adding the brown hand/tree and last tissue paper spring blossoms.