Cherry Blossom Prints

3rd graders made cherry blossom collage/prints inspired by Van Gogh's Cherry Blossom painting.  We discussed his composition- how he doesn't show the whole tree- just a section of branches and flowers.  Students started by drawing and cutting out a branch to glue on a light blue background- this surprisingly took an entire class for most students.  The next week we discussed printmaking and cut a flower shape out of sticky backed foam (thank you yet again Rhode Island Recycling Center) which we stuck onto a piece of cardboard to create our printing plate.  We also used this time to draw and cut out some birds to include on our brances.  The third week students misxed their own shades of pink and painted their printing plates which they used to stamp their flowers.  I saw a similar lesson on a blog where the flowers were also collaged.  My students really enjoyed the printmaking process!

Van Gogh Sunflowers

Kindergarteners looked at images of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  We discussed what shapes and colors we saw.  We started by cutting out symmetrcial vases- students folded their papers in half and were instructed to draw a number 3 starting at the fold.  They cut them out and decorated them with oil pastel creating different patterns and designs.  The next class we glued brown strips to the bottom of our papers and our vases on top of that- we talked about overlapping our vase on the brown paper instead of having it sit right on top of it.  Students then traced and cut out 3 circles using whatever combination of yellow and orange they chose.  they drew dark circles in the center and cut fringes around the edges to simulate petals.  They were glued at different heights about the vase.  The next week THey painted green stems and leaves connecting the flowers to the vases.  This lesson took about 2 and a half classes- my K classes are only 30 min.  If I had longer I could have finished this in 2 classes.

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.

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.

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.

Tree Houses

2nd grade students created tree house collages. They began by painting a green strip at the bottom of their paper and a green cloud shape at the top of their paper. Next they used brown paint to connect the two areas with a "Y" shaped tree trunk. Students folded a brown piece of paper in half with the fold at the top and cut off the upper corners to make their tree house. The glued it onto the tree and used markers to add details to the inside and outside of the tree house as well as to the rest of the picture.

Watering the Garden

Another fun spring lesson from last year, Kindergarteners created gardens after reading Lois Ehlert's "Planting a Rainbow". THey traced, decorated and cut out a watering can. on a 12x18 sheet of paper students drew a garden with various flowers and other details. They glued their watering can onto an upper corner and added blue yarn or tissue paper from the spout.

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.

Positive and Negative Space Designs

5th graders learned about positive and negative space through these black and white collages. They began with a 5x5 square which they drew symmetrical designs on. They cut them out and glued the pieces next to where they had been removed from.

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.

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.

Sign Language Names

5th graders created sign language name designs. We began by discussing what a font was and viewing different fonts. They used oil pastels to write their name in different fonts and sizes all over a 18x18 piece of colored paper. They then traced their hands for however many letters were in their name and cut them out. Using a copy of a sign language alphabet students shaped their cut out hands into the signed letters of their name and glued them onto the background paper. They used sharpie to add details such as finger nails and knuckles.

Winter Birch Trees

Students begin by painting the background using wet on wet watercolor techniques to create a sky and snowy ground. Once the background is dry, students used markers to add details such as fences, animaks, footprints, etc. They then cut and glued white strips of paper which they used sharpie to draw small black lines. They then added shadows by using a very light grey paint on the dies of the tress, under the trees and any other details they added. We talked about where the light source comes from and how all of the shadows should be on the same side.