Silhouette Cut-Outs--4th/5th grades

Sometimes while teaching art, I need a quick filler lesson.  This was one such lesson!  I have this cool silhouette of my son's head from when he was in kindergarten, and I thought that this could be a cool thing to do with other things!

First, I checked out several books, mostly on wild birds, from the public library.  I brought these into class for my 4th and 5th graders to peruse at each table.  My older students are well-acquainted with contour drawing and what I expect of them with this, namely, drawing while looking more at the object rather than from what they perceive in their heads!  We discussed this briefly, while I showed them my example.

The students were given 9 x 12" pieces of black construction paper.  I use Tru-Ray brand, as it is a much deeper shade of black than some cheaper brands.  They found an animal they admired in the books and took off drawing what they saw.  While they draw, I walk around making certain they are indeed drawing what they see.  It's fairly easy to tell when they are hurrying and drawing from their heads.

After drawing the animal, they cut out the forms very carefully.  Some were more detailed than others.  I then told them to flip the black paper over to glue the drawn side down to get rid of pencil marks.  The students glued their silhouettes to brightly shaded paper in different sizes.  This is a good way to conserve paper, especially at the end of the year and supplies are diminishing!

I think these look especially nice in a grouping and would be lovely framed!

Stamped Van Gogh Sunflowers--K4/K5

For our very first kindergarten project this year, students learned about Vincent Van Gogh and Impressionism.  We read the book, Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt.  Using the story of a boy named Camille, this book described part of the life of Van Gogh and contained images of many of his paintings--especially of his sunflowers.  This is what we focused on.

Students began with a small purple piece of paper--about 5 x 9".  We folded this in half and I showed them how to make a symmetrical vase by drawing a line parallel to the fold.  Depending on the skill level of the student, they had the option of drawing a straight line, slanted line, or wiggly/curvy line.  You can see the diversity of vase shapes in the photos! 

They then glued this on the bottom half of a white 9 x 12" piece of construction paper. 

Next I brought out the tempera paint in brown, green, orange and yellow.  I had the children paint 3 brown circles above the vase--not too far apart.  They need room for the stamped flowers.  I had them next paint a green stem going from the brown circle into the vase.  For this age group, you need to be sure to demonstrate this, or you could have stems going over the vase or off the page!

We let these dry.  For the flowers, I had prepped flower petal stamps made from styrofoam petals I had cut out in different lengths, glued to cardboard squares in fan shapes.  Fruit and veggie trays from the supermarket work wonderfully for this!   I showed the students how to brush on the paint to the stamps and then stamp around the brown circles to form flowers.  We shared the yellow and orange stamps, swapping with our neighbors.  It is OK for the stamps to go off the page and overlap each other.

For the most part, this was a successful project, and the kids learned about Van Gogh's gorgeous sunflowers!

Van Gogh's Sunflowers--K4/K5

This was the first lesson K4 and K5 at Harvest Community School learned last year.  I read a book about Van Gogh called Camille and the Sunflowers.  This contained several of Vincent's works along with a story.  We discussed Vincent Van Gogh's life in general as well as Impressionism.

Symmetrical Vases with Pussywillows--K4/K5

 

This was another great lesson for my kinders.  I snagged this idea from several different sources, one being my son's preschool teacher.  He had brought home a large pale blue piece of construction paper with a die-cut yellow vase glued on.  Then my son had drawn stems with a brown crayon and stamped pussywillow blossoms with his finger dipped in white paint.  

For my class, I decided to take this a step further and teach some symmetrical cutting as well!  I taught them what the word symmetrical meant and then demonstrated how to cut a vase this way.  

Day 1: Each child received a 9 x 12" piece of white construction paper.  I had pre-cut squares of multi-colored tissue paper.  I also put out containers of glue mixed with a little bit of water.  I use large yogurt containers for this.  I showed them how to paint the glue on with acrylic paint brushes to make the tissue squares stick to the construction paper.  This can be a bit tricky for them.  They must use a clean finger to hold the square in place while they paint with the other hand from the inside out onto the white paper.  They glued as many squares as they liked in various colors all over the paper.  This took the entire 35 minute class period.  They were set out to dry.

Day 2: I showed the kids how to fold the paper in half (tissue-covered side folded in) and how to draw a line from top to bottom on the plain side (with fold to one side).  To make this work for all skill levels it is important to show three types of lines.  I told them they could draw a straight line--up and down, a slanted line, or a curvy line.  You can see from the pictures the different wonderful results that came from this.

After the line was drawn, the kids were able to cut.  Some of them needed help with this, especially if their line was particularly wavy!  They loved opening up their vases seeing how they "matched" on each side!

We then glued our vases to a 12 x 18" colorful piece of construction paper making sure they glued it near the bottom of the paper.  This left room at the top for our willows.

I showed the kids an artificial pussywillow branch first and showed them how there is a long brown stem with white, soft blossoms coming off the sides.  With a brown crayon, they drew long branches coming from inside the vase.  You do need to remind them that the branches are coming from inside the vase.  Then came the fun part of dipping one finger into a plate of white tempera and printing our "blossoms".

This was such a terrific spring lesson--bright colors, blossoms, and so many things to learn wrapped up in one beautiful piece of artwork!

 

Winter Snowmen--K4/K5

Not many things are cuter than a kinder, but a kinder's snowman comes pretty close!  Before Christmas, our Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten classes were introduced to snow...and the playful snow people that come with it.

Most, of course, have not had the pleasure of building a real snowman, so we made our own in art class!

We began with the concept of small, medium and large. I demonstrated the concept on the chalkboard putting the circles one on top of another with large at the bottom, medium in the middle, and small on top.

The children used a 9 x 12" construction paper in blue or brown, which was a nice background for the white paint.  We began with a horizon line with the white tempera.  I had to be sure the kids did not paint this too high up, or there would be no room for Mr. or Ms. Snowman.  They painted the bottom part of the line entirely white. 

Next, the students followed the large, medium, small concept to paint the snowman on the horizon.  One student had hers hovering above.  I just said her snowman was flying!  After this, the kids painted snowflakes using a q-tip to dot.  I had to be sure to demonstrate how to dot the paint and not scribble, although this still happened on some.

The second day of this lesson was adding collage using my scrap paper box.  It was fun to show students how to cut out little mittens, scarves, hats and buttons from construction paper and painted paper (from previous lessons).  I told them to do their best cutting out shapes--triangles or squares for hats, circle-type shapes for buttons, rectangles put together and fringed for scarves, etc.  Some get frustrated with this process, but I try to explain that it doesn't have to be perfect.

Last, I showed them how to tear out a fir tree from green construction paper.  This proved to be difficult for many, so not all have one on their finished picture.  Over all, this lesson was a success, and something of which the kids were proud!

Winter Trees--1st grade

Most Floridian kids have an itch to see winter snow...to roll in it, make snow angels, build snowmen, etc.  The closest thing we have is the white, sandy beaches, which are anything but chilly!  So this lesson is a fun one to do with kids who, for the most part, have yet to experience the thrill of a white winter.

I began this lesson (another borrowed from my mom!)  by discussing what trees really and truly look like.  I drew a "lollipop tree" on the white board along with the "lollipop flower" most kids (and adults) are acquainted with.  Yes, one can see and recognize these as trees and flowers, but is this what they really look like?  The kids could see the difference right away, especially as I held up a long, slender branch for them to observe.

"See how God made the branches grow up toward the sun? They grow out of a main branch." They do not, however, grow into right angles or geometric shapes.  It is important for the kids to understand that the trees reach up toward the sun.  To demonstrate this point, I had the students stand up and stretch out their arms.  I had a volunteer come up and I showed how trees have armpits too! 

We began using black crayon on 12 x 18" colorful construction paper.  I demonstrated how to draw lightly  creating either one trunk (with paper vertical) or two (paper horizontal).   Students created branches reaching up and roots like fingers reaching down into the soil where water and nutrients are.  I demonstrated this using my fingers spread out reaching down.

After sketching these out and checking each student's work for following directions, I had them color in each trunk and branch.  I had to be sure the kids colored in darkly and fully for a nice finish.

For the second day of this lesson, I brought out the white tempera.  We began with a horizon line behind the trees.  Carefully painting around the bottom of the trees, each student mounded the "snow" in drifts around the trunk and in the "armpits" of each tree.  We had to discuss how snow might mound on the "arms" of each tree, again using a volunteer for example.

For a final touch, we used q-tips to dot snowflakes into gentle flurries or heavy blizzard, according to each child's preference.

Red, Yellow, Blue--K4/K5

Teaching the little guys, as I fondly call my kinders, is best done using music or movement.  I'm still learning in this area, as I've been used to teaching middle school students in the past.  It is also particularly challenging teaching this age group because each lesson, while teaching the ideas of true art, must also be simple enough for four and five year olds to grasp and the art itself not above their skill levels.

Fine motor skills are being developed at this age, so things that are fairly simple to an older elementary student, such as drawing shapes or cutting with scissors, is something still being learned in the kindergarten classroom.  This is especially true for our Junior Kindergarten class.  This year has been one of learning for me as well!

For this project, which I gleaned from my talented art teacher mother, is a perfect lesson for teaching the primary colors to the youngest Harvest students.  "Red", "Yellow", and "Blue", as our three mice are called come to life while singing a song to the tune of "Three Blind Mice".  Red, Yellow, Blue, how do you do?  We discuss primary colors and how they are the base colors for every other color.  In another lesson later (Secondary Color Balloons) students will see how these base colors can mix into secondary colors, Purple, Orange, and Green.

I pre-cut the triangle shapes for the mice bodies since we did this lesson toward the beginning of the school year.  The students were to paste (using glue sticks) each triangle in order facing in one direction.  One corner of the triangle is the nose.

Next, students were to take a black crayon and follow my direction on the board to draw two circles (colored in) for ears (in perspective--one front, one back), a black nose, eyes, whiskers, and four little feet.  Most followed direction fairly well.  Of course a few have a mind of their own.  Finally, the assistants and I drew a glue line for a tail and the student placed snippets of yarn carefully on the glue.

At the end of the year, it is amazing how these projects teaching art basics can stick with young children, especially if a song is attached!

Kandinsky--4th and 5th grades

The great Kandinsky...this where 4th and 5th grades began for our last quarter of 2011 with our focus on the masters of modern art.

We began as usual by discussing the artist, where he was from, and the idea of abstract art in general.  We took a look at several examples of his artwork.  For this lesson we used some of my husband's nicer art poster paper. It is a better quality and heavier than normal construction paper.  Starting with the basics of composition layout and balance of both line and color, it was interesting to see how each student took this idea in a different direction in the end--creativity at its best!

I had each student use a ruler as a straight edge and draw with pencil lightly to begin.  Learning to draw lightly so erasing is easier or perhaps not even necessary is something our classes have been working on all year.  Some employed protractors as well for a diversity of shape.  For the circles and curved shapes, yogurt containers work nicely.  The student was required to use a balance of lines--both long and short--and several shapes.  During the application of color in the form of oil pastel, I was looking to see that they balanced it by using like colors on both sides of the paper.  Like Kandinsky, they could blend colors as they swim into each other across the page.  The last touch required the student to draw carefully over each original pencil line in black oil pastel to make it pop!

Watercolor Leaves--4th and 5th grades

For the fall, what better to draw and paint than leaves?  Well, 4th and 5th grades did just that!
Using real leaves, of course, the students employed contour drawing for this project.  Having had class with me last year, most of them remembered what this meant and realized that I knew when they were "cheating" and drawing from their heads instead of really looking at the leaves.

The challenge here is to create a well-balanced composition, drawing large (which can be a challenge in itself), and drawing the leaves as if they just fell onto the students' papers.  I had to continually remind them to not have all the leaves with stems down.  It looks too planned.

After carefully drawing what they saw as a pleasing arrangement, the student traced over their pencil drawings with crayon.  We discussed cool and warm colors and using them for contrast.  The students also used white crayon to draw snowflakes here and there on the composition for a wax-resist effect as we added the watercolor.  Originally I told the kids to paint the leaves with warm hues and the background in a patchwork of cool ones.  As you can see, the students did mix this up a bit, but for the most part managed to still keep warm colors behind cool and vice versa.  This was the most important part for contrast anyway.

Here are some of their displays!

"In Monet's Garden"--2nd and 3rd grades

Following the first quarter's theme of Impressionist artists, the second and third graders worked on a piece following Impressionistic techniques while learning about Claude Monet.

We began the lesson by reading Linnea in Monet's Garden, which tells the story of Claude Monet with pictures of him, his family, and his work.

I was inspired to do this lesson from another art teacher's blog.  It may have been "Merrymaking", but I'm not entirely sure.
I took each child's picture so they could picture themselves in Monet's garden on his Japanese footbridge like Linnea in the story.
Each child began with a white 12 x 18" sheet of construction paper.  Using natural hair brushes and watercolors, the kids were to create the "fuzzy" impression of the lilypond and the foliage around it.  I pre-cut strips of white paper for the foot bridge, which they also painted in the dabbed-on Impressionistic method after gluing them onto the large paper.  Finally, the students were to use very thin brushes to paint red v-shaped lilies.

Linnea in Monet's Garden

Cezanne's Pears--1st grade

The beginning of the 2010-2011 school year proved to be quite a fun and busy one as I began teaching weekly elementary art at Harvest Community School.

I wanted to open the year teaching my students about several well-known Impressionist artists.  The first grade class learned about Paul Cezanne.  Cezanne painted several still-life examples of fruits including peaches, pears, apples and grapes.  I had them imitate his style and his work Three Pears (1878-1879) using a still-life of fresh pears from the grocery store.
http://www.oil-paintings-art.com/Arts/C/Cezanne/CE064.html

After discussing Paul Cezanne and Impressionism in general, I taught about still-life and what that means.  I told the students the difference in drawing with our heads and drawing with our eyes.  We discussed contour drawing.  I demonstrated on the white board how to really look at the subject and draw what is seen instead of looking only at the paper and drawing what we think we see. 

Although students usually want to start with pencil to erase all their mistakes, I had the kids begin with oil pastel very lightly.  They were able to choose almost any color they liked instead of remaining with the realistic green pear color.  They only catch was they had to choose a contrasting color to really make the pears "pop".  Unlike Cezanne's work, our art piece has a horizon line.  I also taught them what this meant and how the fruit should appear to be set on the table and not on the very edge--about to topple off! 

After sketching out the still life, the students worked on filling in color in the manner of Cezanne, using a darker shade for shadow areas and lighter tints for where the light would naturally hit the fruit.  They learned how to blend the pastel using their fingers.

I was really pleased with the results of our very first project of the year for first grade!  I think they really captured the essence of the artist Paul Cezanne.