Day of the Dead Masks

This idea as well as many others, was inspired by www.artprojectsforkids.org (a fantastic website for elementary art lesson plans).  We began by learning about the Mexican holiday of Day of the Dead or Dios De Los Muertos.  I explained how it was a holiday that celebrated loved ones who have passed away in a joyous manner.  We created Day of the Dead masks by first drawing the other half of a skull (I gave all students a piece of card stock with half a skull photocopied onto it).  We discussed symmetry and after the skull was drawn drew symmetrical designs on it.  We reviewed cutting skills and how to cut the eyes out by bending the paper and cutting a small slit to put a scissor blade through.  The finishing touch was a taped on popsicle stick so that they could be used as a mask.

Halloween Silhouettes

My new school was very into celebrating Halloween this year so third graders created these Halloween silhouettes.  This is a lesson I have seen on several different blogs.  We looked at images of silhouettes and discussed how they are created- objects that are lit up from behind.  Next we brainstormed different Halloween images and I did a demonstration.  We used a black crayon and 6x18 piece of orange paper.  Students began by drawing a horizon line towards the bottom of the paper and then added silhouetted details making sure to color everything in black.  I stressed the idea of just showing the shape or contour of the objects.

Pattern Pumpkins

This idea came from one of my former colleagues.  After reviewing different types of lines, second graders drew pumpkins with black crayon on orange paper and filled in the pumpkin sections with a variety of lines.  This was completed in one class.

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.

Spooky Silhouette

This is a fun one day halloweenish project. Students began by using a black crayon to draw a silhouette of trees and night creatures such as spiders, bats and owls. They then used watercolor paint to create a wax resist by painting a large yellow circle in the center of the paper as a moon and a purple and blue sky around it.

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 Landscapes

3rd graders made fall landscape wax resist paintings. We reviewed vocabulary and students had to include a horizon line, foreground, middleground and background in their paintings. They used crayon to add textures and painted the rest of their drawings with watercolors. They had to show atmospheric perspective by drawing objects in the distance smaller than objects in the foreground.

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.

Secondary Pumpkins

This lesson was found at www.artsonia.com, a great website of art lessons for all different ages. Kindergarteners learned about primary and secondary colors. We began by reading "Mouse Paint" and discussed the difference between primary and secondary colors. They practiced mixing secondary colors by adding a little of one primary color into a small cup of another primary color. They mixed orange and painted a 9x12 paper with it. Then they mixed purple and green and painted half a sheet of paper with each color. When dry, they drew circles on the orange paper which they cut out and glued onto the other paper with the green on bottom and purple on top. Students were instructed to overlap their pumpkins and were given thin strips of green paper to cut and glue on as stems.