"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