My winter hat

We had so much fun doing this fun face drawing project. I was inspired by one of my favorite go to art project sites,

Art Projects for Kids : http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2013/01/big-face-painting-tutorial.html

I made a few changes to connect with our winter/seasonal unit.

Student started with a pre-folded piece of long landscape paper. They drew a large U shape. Half way down from the fold they drew a small horizontal line (the start of the nose). Each facial element was drawn together using a red light/green light stopping and starting process.
Once the face was drawn the students could unfold their paper and add a very tall hat. The drawings were colored with crayon and color pencils and a pompom added the finishing touch.

Picturing America

The National Endowment for the Humanities has created a series of 9 short videos to connect with works of art from the classroom series of prints. These films integrate not only art themes but also connect to literature and social studies. Watch, learn and enjoy!

http://www.thirteen.org/picturing-america/

Color heart/color wheel

I find a lot of great art lesson ideas on line. One site that has been so helpful over the years is Art Projects for Kids. Kathy Barbro shares so many wonderful lesson ideas and tips as well as techniques and materials. A recent lesson I did with Ms. McBrides 2nd grade class is directly influenced by Kathy's site. It is a wonderful way to introduce the color wheel and color theory to young students and connect to the upcoming Valentine's Day Holiday.And who doesn't love color?

With older students this would be a fun way to explore the work of artist Jim Dine.

here is the link to Art Projects for Kids:
http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2013/01/color-wheel-heart.html

Winter Day Snowman

Pre-K and Kindergarten classes both enjoyed making this project.

Part I, paint a snowy day. Using white paint, sponges, wooden pencil erasers and little cocktail sticks, the

young artists added white snow ground and falling flakes to blue construction paper.

Part II, cutting out pre-drawn circles (in 3 different sizes) and adding face details to the smallest shape, the students created a snow person. Once it was cut out and glued in place they could added details such as buttons (real buttons), a hat and or scarf.

Love the ear muffs, I'm going to add pom poms and make that a head covering choice too.

Torn Paper Self Portraits

Bird Prints

This is such a fun 4 part project that connects to 5th grade social studies while reinforcing skills and introducing students to print making as an art form.

I use a lot of handouts to support this project and allow a lot of time for students to develop a collect of bird drawings for their portfolio. They are encouraged to make notes and compare the line drawing resources with the color prints provided.

This project also integrates the travels and art work of American Artist James Audubon.

http://web4.audubon.org/bird/BoA/BOA_index.html

Snow People

This is a fun seasonal project that uses gel markers, glitter crayons and construction paper crayons and allows students a lot of creative freedom.

Starry Night Sky

Crayon resist and liquid watercolors inspired by this famous work of art. Two different classes-different grades, and the projects will be completed (in Part II) in different ways.

Teacher sample with Part II torn paper landscape

Watercolor crayon resist and sea salt

Turtle warm Turtle cool

This 3-4 part project connects to classroom themes and builds on art skills and techniques. Through discussion and hand outs students learn about Aboriginal art, explore the color wheel and color related vocabulary such as primary, secondary, warm and cool. Using a variety of painting tools such as sponges and corks they paint either a cool turtle shell or a warm turtle shell. After the shells have dried using brushes they paint the water for their turtle in the opposite color groups from their shell. Tracing around patterns on the back of their painted shell paper students draw then cut out their turtle, adding cut paper for the head (4) legs and optional tail. After the turtle is assembled he is placed in the water and white decorative dots and bubbles are added to complete the composition and connect to Aboriginal Dream painting.

Bear with me...

It's a small cookie world

Cookie people from around the world.

I provide cookie people patterns and show students how to place the entire pattern on the paper "dough" before they begin to trace. Using either regular scissors or "crazy" scissors they cut along their traced form and if time allows color a face .

Part II: time to add the "icing" so I bring out  collage materials such as stickers, bits of yarn and lace, scrapes of solid and printed papers and tissue paper. Students refer to table handout that show cultural costumes from around the world for inspiration. In the end we have very colorful "it's a small world" cookies .