Hot Air Balloons

This is an image from a first grade bulletin board that I hung.  We made hot air balloon drawings.  I gave students a blue paper with four different sized circles on them.  We looked at images of hot air balloons and discussed what shapes we needed to complete our drawings.  Students used different designs, lines and shapes to decorate their balloons.

Me and My Shadow

1st graders drew self-portraits with shadows.  We began by reading Dr. Seuss' The Shape of Me.  We talked about what a silhouette was and how it looks like a shadow.  Students were given a long narrow piece of paper with a lightly photocopied person image on the top half.  The folded the paper in half so that the persons feet were touching the fold.  They then decorated their person to look like themselves using marker.  The next step was to cut them out keeping the paper folded in half.  When they opened it up they had a mirror reflection of their self-portrait which they colored black with a crayon.  They really enjoyed this project and couldn't wait to take them home!

The Lorax

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2nd and the opening of the Lorax movie, 1st graders drew their own version of the Lorax.  We began with a read aloud and then a demonstration of how to draw the Lorax by breaking it down into simple shapes.  I also gave students a How To Draw paper showing them the steps one by one.  The drawings came out great! 

Hot Air Balloons

1st graders drew hot air balloons after looking at various images and discussing how they work.  We talked about how the closer hot air balloons appear larger than the hot air balloons that are further away.  We also discuseed how to draw a basket that looks three dimensional.  Students added other details in the sky, baskets and down below.  This lesson was borrowed from Mrs. Brown's website.

Warhol Inspired Flowers

We looked at Andy Warhols flower prints and discussed how the flowers were abstract based on the colors used and how the lines and color don't exactly match up.  We then created our "backwards" painting- instead of starting with a drawing and then painting, we painted first.  Students were instructed to begin by painting different sized circles with different colors.  They then painted around the circles with green.  The next week they used black sarpie to draw their details.  We talked about several different ways to draw flowers and what other details they could add around them- grass, leaves, bugs, etc.  This lesson takes about 1 1/2 classes.  On the second day we read Lois Ehlerts' "Painting a Rainbow" which is about planting a garden of different colored flowers.

Crouching Tigers

Students looked at the jungle paintings of Henri Rousseau and Pierre Maxo.  I showed them how to draw a tiger step by step (tiger instructions were borrowed from artprojectsforkids.org)  They drew and colored them in one class.  The second week we read "Rumble in the Jungle" and discussed what you might see in a jungle- plants, insects, animals...  On a seperate piece of paper students traced the shape of tall grass.  They then used oil pastels to add jungle details.

Me and My Shadow

First graders made self-portraits including their shadows.  We started by reading Dr. Seuss's "The Shape of Me".  They were given a 6 x 18" piece of paper that they folded in half.  I gave them a generic person shape to trace with the feet touching the fold of the paper.  Then we talked about how to draw different facial features and details to make a drawing that looked like them.  Once their self-portrait was drawn and colored students cut out their people keeping the paper folded.  They then opened their paper and colored their shadows black.  The kids really enjoyed this lesson.

Arts Night

I work at two elementary schools and this month they each had their Arts Night.  It is a lot of work but the results are really worth it.  This year It was artist's choice but in the future I would like to choose one project per class.  I think part of the key to a successful show is large noticeable labels (class, student name).

Legend of the Indian Paint Brush

We read The Legend of the Indian Paint Brush by Tomie DePaola. We brainstormed different images that we saw in Little Gopher's paintings. We began by painting a 12x18 piece of paper in a rainbow pattern of stripes. When that was dry we drew scalloped lines around the edges and cut them out to make it look more like the animal skins we saw in the story. Students then used oil pastels to draw Native American scenes.

Basket of Apples

This was a fall lesson that I did in the beginning of the year with first graders. We began by weaving our baskets and gluing them onto the bottom of a sheet of paper. They then used markers to draw two curved lines to make a handle. The last step was using halved apples to make prints in the baskets. we talked about what colors apples are and painted on the flat side of the apple before pressing onto our papers.

Snow Globes

First graders designed their own snow globes. They traced a snow globe shaped template and drew a winter image inside the globe section and designed the base with decorations and phrases. When their drawings were complete and colored in they added dots of glue which glitter was poured onto.

Bird House Collage

1st grade students were instructed how to draw a birdhouse using crayon before painting their drawings with tempra cakes. Students traced and cut out a bird shape, beak and eyes which they glued together and onto the birdhouse.

Jump Frog Jump!

This was a fun end of the year project I did with 1st graders last year. We read the story "Jump Frog Jump" to begin. Students were given two different shades of green paper. On one they traced a large oval and cut out a triangle shape to create a lily pad. On the other they were to trace a frog pattern. Students used oil pastels to add details to their frogs as well as watery details to a blue piece of construction paper such as waves, fish, plants, etc. They then glued the lily pad in the center and taped their frog onto the lily pad so that it popped up. Red strips were curled around a pencil and taped underneath the frog's face. Model magic was used to make a small fly which they colored with marker to glue onto the tongue.

Bats

1st graders learn about bats in the fall in my school so we made bat collages. We started by tracing out hands two times and drew a small circle with two triangles for a head with ears and a larger oval for the body. Students drew a face using a white crayon- two dots for eyes an a line with two upside dwon triangles for teeth. They then traced a big circle on yellow paper and cut it out and glued it onto a sheet of blue construction paper. They glued their bat overlapping the circle and used white crayon to draw stars. The final steop was gluing on some cotton to add clouds to our night time sky.

Fall Tree Sculptures

I picked up this lesson from my cooperating teacher during student teaching. 1st graders made fall trees out of brown paper bags. We opened the bags and stuffed a small ball of newspaper inside to help them keep their form. We then twisted the center of the bag and tore the top half into strips. Each strip was twisted up. Students then crumpled and glued fall colored tissue paper on to the branches. They love the final project but some have a little trouble with the twisting.

Paul Klee Inspired Self-portrait

Next we moved onto self portraits. 1st graders looked at the work of Paul Klee and created a drawing based on lessons I found on several different websites. I gave them an oval template to trace for the shape of their head. We discussed the proper proportions to use when drawing a portrait and how to draw facial features. Students drew themselves and outlined in sharpie. The next class we began adding tissue paper by wetting our drawing, placing a square of tissue paper down and adding water on top of that. They filled up their drawing with rows of colored tissue paper making sure to use plenty of water. When dry, the tissue paper easily peeled off leaving a stain from the color behind. This was a very easy fun process that the kids enjoyed.

Squiggle Animals

This is a great go to lesson for any grade. It involves minimal materials and can go in a number of directions. Squiggle Animals are inspired by artist Alex Beard. I start by drawing a random squiggle line on my student's paper with a thick black marker. The student is then to turn their paper in all different directiosn to see what kind of animal the squiggle can inspire. They draw details and create a background. I try to discourage students from making snakes- too obvious.