Royal Dogs

This is the second time I've done this project & it's still a success!  The students just love drawing dogs! I originally borrowed this idea from Deep Space Sparkle,but have since made a few changes of my own! 

Day 1: First students looked at pictures of kings and queens that I have collected.  I asked them some questions to get them to start thinking about royalty and talking with their peers. "Who are these people? How do you know they are kings and queens? What are they wearing? What kind of expression do they have on their face?  What does it mean to be royal?"

After discussion students drew their dogs.  I did 3 different examples on the board, and students chose which one they wanted to follow along with.  

Day 2:  Students painted their dogs.  I set out the neutral colors and students mixed tints and shades to create the fur on their dog.  I also passed out gold paint for the crown. When they were done painting, I had them trace over their pencil lines with black paint.

Day 3:  Students first cut out their dog, and then set it to the side as they worked on the background paper.  For the background, students used texture plates and crayons to crate rubbings.  After their paper was full of rubbings and texture, they chose 1 color of watercolor paint to fill in the rest. Last step, glue the dog on! 

Tree of Life

4th grade students learned about the artist Gustav Klimt.  I used images from the book "Klimt and his cat" as well as "The Tree of Life."  Students discussed the artist's message, symbolism and their own personal interests   After discussing and critiquing the artwork, students drew their own tree of life and used black and bronze paint to fill it in.

The next art day, students brainstormed symbols & designs to include in their own artwork.  I kept asking students, "What do you want your artwork to say? What is important in your life?" They used manila paper and markers to create their symbols.

The last day was just cutting & gluing to put the tree of life together! Check out trees below, some students made a "space tree", "angry birds tree", "my favorite things tree",  a "money tree" ect.

Secondary Colors are a Hoot

Second grade students used owls as subject matter when learning about the secondary colors.  As I demonstrated on the board, students followed along and drew 3 owls on their panoramic paper.  Next, they used crayons to assign each owl a secondary color.  On each owl they used the primary color crayons for that owl to add lines and designs. (Ex, on the Orange owl they were allowed to use Orange, Red and Yellow.)  This part really tested their prior knowledge of primary colors & mixing to make the secondary colors.  After all the owls had designs they added white stars to the sky and painted with water color paints! 

Bald Eagles

1st grade students listened to the story  "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see?" by Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle.  They talked about the Bald Eagle and other American symbols.  Students created painted paper to make their bald eagle collages. 

Folk Art Fish

Second grade students loved this whole class collaboration project! Believe it or not, this was only a 1 day lesson! I used a power point to introduce the artist Karla Gerard.  Students analyzed her artwork and discussed folk art pieces.

I did a short demonstration on how to draw a fish.  Students used crayons and water color to add color to their fish.  While students were working on their own individual fish, I called groups over to a table to work on the background.  I tried different techniques with each class.  Some classes used the cool color tempera paints to paint water and other classes did a chalk-smeared background.  They created the bubbles with white paint and cup printing.  Check out second grades folk art murals below! 

Mexican Mirrors

I borrowed this idea from the painted paper blog.  Fourth grade students learned about art & math connection through radial design and symmetry.  They also experienced metal tooling and it's importance in Mexican art and Colonial Virginia art.  Students used oil pastels to add color in their designs and foil for the middle part of the mirror.  Some students added extra gems and sequins as establishments as well.

Fall Landscapes

Third grade students learned about landscapes and the warm and cool colors.  They drew the background, middle ground and foreground with a pencil first on water color paper.  Next they traced their pencil lines with glue and let them dry overnight.  The last step was to add color with water color paint!