A Lot of Hot Air!

As the warm weather returns to NJ (finally!), I'm feeling a little of the old wanderlust.  Here are a few hot air balloons from last summer's art camp at the Markeim Arts Center where I teach ages 5-12.  They make me feel like I'm ready to head for the horizon! We used tempera paint on blue paper for the backgrounds, and while they dried students cut balloons from templates and decorated with oil pastels.  Baskets were added and attached, and off they flew!

The BEST artist!

Kindergarten students listened to the story "I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean", by Kevin Sherry.  We then looked at photographs of giant squid, and then students created these colorful versions using a step-by-step method. They traced their pencil lines with oil pastels, and added some fun sea creatures in the background using colored oil pastels.  Then students painted with tempera cakes.  *They went a little nuts with this step, but I let it roll and they turned out amazingly!

More Pop art cows...

Here are a few more of the happiest on the planet from my past post! (At least they make me quite happy).

As long as your umbrella is pretty....

A controlled mess is a good mess.  At least that philosophy worked when I had first grade students create early spring rain umbrellas out of painted paper like the lesson I found at Use Your Coloured Pencils.

On day 1 students painted one 9" x 12" paper in cool colors and one in warm colors, and the students went nuts experimenting with various tools for texture and pattern (plastic cutlery, clay tools, an assortment of paintbrushes, etc).

On day 2 students cut their umbrellas and raindrops and collaged them onto gray paper, and added a big ol' "J" of a handle with black paper.  These could brighten up any rainy day!

Matisse Matisse, we love you!

Second graders absolutely rocked a bunch of principles with these masterpieces inspired by Henri Matisse's "The Goldfish".  First students discussed patterns found when you look at objects, both natural and man made, reeeaaaally close up. We then used these patterns as inspiration to make four of our own. Student employed one color of oil pastel in each section on a 12" x 18" paper, but they could use any shade of that color. (They mostly got that idea).

In week 2 we talked again about complementary colors (I describe it as how you might compliment a friend who has a trait that is very different.  "Ava I love how your red hair is so different from my brown hair, and I am complimenting you about it").  Students then used complementary colors to paint the sections on their papers.

In week 3 we talked a bit more about Matisse, and looked closely at his painting. We talked about how even though he was painting pretty realistically, the way he painted the four corners kind of look like our pieces.  We then drew cylinders, based on a short intro to 3D shapes, and filled them with water and fish and put them on tables.  These were cut and glued in session 4, but we also moved on to a different project that day, because these almost third graders can do that part in a flash!

I know a lot of people do something similar, but I got my inspiration from the fab Kristin Kimmell, one of the best art teachers I know!

Castle and Sun!

First grade students loved revisiting Paul Klee by studying the polygons (they are learning about those in the classrooms) that Klee used to build his castle in "Castle and Sun".  Now I did base this lesson on something similar that I found online earlier this year, but I can't find it again, so please let me know if it is your brainchild.

First we used brown tempera paint on 12" x 18" 80 lb paper to build the outlines of larger shapes with sturdy rectangles of cardboard (I'd say I gave each student a 2" x 4" piece).  Students gently stamped the edges of their cardboard so they didn't damage it.  They then went into the larger shapes to divide into many smaller shapes.  The finishing step this day was to add one circle (toilet paper tube) for a sun.

On day 2 (this took 2 50 minute class sessions) students used chalk pastel to color in their castles, suns, and skies.

They are BEYOND BEAUTIFUL!!!

Hearts for all Seasons!

Okay, okay, I did do these with Kindergarten students around Valentine's Day.  But it got busy there for awhile and I am trying to play catch-up with some posts!

These are just good, old-fashioned toilet paper tube printmaking hearts on 12" x 18" paper.  They loved it! I did experiment with a multi-media kinda thing with another class by having students, in class session 2, collage symmetrical heart onto this.  For that they used newspaper, old sheet music, and assorted scraps of paper.  Totally forgot to take photos, though!

Ice cream!

I introduced first graders, as a FIRST 1st grade project, to overlapping by reading Jack Prelutsky's poem "Bleezer's Ice Cream".  They loved this poem!

We talked about their favorite flavors, and then I demo-ed on the board.  We discussed the notion of pattern, and how you could very simply create the cone pattern by following the lines of the upside-down triangle shape one way, and then reversing the lines to follow the other way.  Overlapping lines made a diamond pattern!

I showed how you could draw one scoop overlapping another, and how you could illustrate that by erasing where the next scoop overlapped.  We also discussed the patterns you could create by making toppings. We drew in pencil, outlined in Sharpie, and painted the background in tempera cake.  Every one was amazing!

Pop Art Cows!

Second grade students listened to the story "The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down", by Paul Brett Johnson, and discussed the cows unexpected and expected behaviors.  This lead to a discussion of expected and unexpected cow colors, which is when I introduced pop art with Andy Warhol's brightly colored cows. 

We then followed a step-by-step approach to cow-ing that I found at the SmArt Teacher, and then modified for my purposes (i.e. my students modified!).

We drew in pencil, traced in black oil pastel, painted with tempera cakes, and then finally, with some classes, traced again (sloowly and carefully for a very bold outline) with black oil pastel.  I decided after all was said and done that I like them better with the final tracing, but they look fabulous either way!

Picasso Hands and Flowers.

I absolutely love Picasso's simple gesture drawings that he produced later in life, and I thought that second grade was an excellent age to focus on his "Hands Holding Flowers".

We talked about how a hand would look when holding something like flower stems, and drew a simple contour drawing of a hand in pencil, and then traced in sharpie.  Flower stems and blossoms were painted without any pencil planning.  Simple, and beautiful!

I saw a lot of projects that were nearly identical to this one so I apologize if it seems like I'm a non-credit-giving project theif, but I just can't remember from where I was originally inspired!