Grade 6 Patterned Tree Designs

6th Grade Patterned Tree Designs

I found inspiration for this lesson on Pinterest. The pictures were by T. R. Mack and Amy Giacomelli. They both have an Etsy shop site. 

    

          T. R. Mack                    Amy Giacomelli 

I first discussed value and demonstrated blending colors. They were to choose monochromatic  or analogous colors for their backgrounds. The darkest of the colors would be at the top slowly changing to the lightest at the bottom. Once painted and dried, they drew a simple stick figure tree in pencil. They then went over their drawing with black tempera paint to create a silhouette of a tree. I demonstrated how to thicken the tree and had them work upside down on this step because it seemed to help them work the trunk into each branch and paint downward with the brush instead of upward. The next step was to do a practice sheet of 2 color designs in oil pastel on white paper; either swirls or circles. They needed at least 5 combinations of colors varying from dark to light. They would then start adding them to their landscape in layers (darkest to lightest) from the top of the sky, middle of the sky, to the bottom of the sky. They chose contrasting color combination for the foreground and tree branches. Last we added gold paint to show what direction light was coming from. Here a the results:

Kindergarten Cardboard Fish, Owls and Turtles

Kindergarten- Cardboard Fish and Owls...and Turtles!

This lesson was borrowed from Deep Space Sparkle. We prepared the pieces of cardboard by using tempera, forks, and sponges. One class did plain colored backgrounds and scraped designs in the wet paint using forks. Another class painted with 2 colors and then sponged in a 3rd color. The last class painted stripes and then stamped designs using circle shaped sponges. I had a 3 day weekend where I cut the shapes. Ugh...After about 20 each of the fish and owl shapes, I decided a new shape was in order so I did ovals for turtles. I also cut several triangles, circles, ovals and rhombuses from all the scraps. They chose their pieces from bins I had organized for each shape. While they were busy wrapping their animal body, I ran around with a glue gun. The glue sticks just wouldn't hold. If they still had time, I had them use oil pastels to add details. Putting up the masterpieces was a challenge. We have bulletin boards but staples couldn't hold the cardboard. I resorted to push pins. Most held but I had to do some mending and re-pinning. The teachers just loved these.

Grade 1 Torn Paper Owls

1st Grade- Torn Paper Owls


The original inspiration for this lesson came from Mrs. Brown's site. The tutorial for drawing an owl was from here.









The lesson went as follows:
Day 1- each child drew an owl with guided instruction on white paper
Day 2- Glue torn paper on owl
Day 3- Cut out circles for eyes. Added feet and log. (I hot glued it after they made the pieces)

We added googly eyes and layered cut tan circles on top of black circles for the eyes. While doing the aftercare program one afternoon, one of my students decided she wanted to add a paper log and pipe cleaner feet. I had her share her ideas with her class. They were all excited to add it to theirs as well. I added their names in gold marker.

4th Grade Moonlit Nights

4th Grade Moonlit Nights

I originally got my idea from Natalie at Elementary Art Fun. She was inspired from Mary at http://marymaking.blogspot.com/.  I pretty much followed Natalie's great lesson with a few changes. We talked about blending colors, highlights on the trees and ground and drawing trees. Students wanted to add other things in their picture so we have some owls, a bat...They also wanted to make it sparkle so we used glitter (Yes I know, but I don't hate it). Some chose to do glitter around their moon. Others did their firefly trails.

This class went on a field trip on the day They were going to add some mist and then I forgot during the next class but I think they came out well.

 

Blogging Backlog

Ok. I've been so busy being a new art teacher that I haven't found a good time to post lately. Guilty. I've got a lot of excuses. It's been 2 months. We've done a lot of really great projects. Really. In any case, I've got to get a routine about posting. I put the artwork up. I take pictures. That's when I drop the ball. Alright, here's the plan for the next month. I'm going to share one lesson I've done each day; well, maybe every other day. I have to be realistic. I really want to share, if for no other reason, to thank you all for the impact you have made in my life. I love my job!