Another handprint project for Mother's Day

Another great use of our little handprints :)  This time, we made a Mother's Day card using our handprints stamped in red paint to make a heart.  We stamped our hands on 8x10" white paper and glued the paper on a colored piece of construction paper that served as the 'picture frame'.  The kids decorated the cards and glued beads on them to make them extra special :)

Papel Picado

We watched a video on Cinco de Mayo to celebrate the Latin American holiday coming up this week.  I like this lesson b/c it's easy, fun, and vibrant.  I also use the decorations for the Fine Arts Fair which works out b/c I don't have to make all of the decorations myself :)  Here's the slideshow I showed my students:

Papel picado

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Pandas!

My Kg. and 2nd grade classes watched this hilarious video this afternoon about animals in Asia.  I don't know why, but all kiddos love animals.  So an animal art project is a no-fail lesson guaranteed!  We drew some adorable pandas using simple shapes, lines, and colors...

Handprint Flowers

Okay, for all of you classroom teachers out there, here is another handprint project that is cute, easy, and foolproof.  I used a lunchroom tray and spread white paint all over it so the colors wouldn't be solid, but would mix in with white for another dimension.  Then I made 'puddles' of colored paint that the students could easily stamp their hand in.  I assisted them, of course, but it was an easy way to access a whole class and let them choose their own color of paint without having to paint each hand.  The grass part took the most amount of time because they had to fill up the bottom of a 12x18 piece of paper with 'blades' of grass.  I like to have lots of cutting in the projects for K-1 because they need the fine motor practice.  For this project, I required them to cut out 'blades' of grass as thin and as long as their fingers.  Some did well, while others struggled getting their triangles thin and long enough.  When they were finished with the grass, they were instructed to make 3-4 stems and that was my signal to assist them with the paint.  It was lots of fun!

Painted Birdhouses

This time of year, I always have my windows open in my classroom to feel the warm breeze, smell the freshly-cut grass, and listen to the chirping birds.  Or, in today's case, smell and hear the Spring rain showers :)  This morning, I decided to change my plans and have the students create their very own birdhouses.  I taught this lesson a few years ago, but like the simplicity of it.  In the past, I have had them draw and paint the birdhouse and leave it at that.  But, this time I wanted to add another element...the wallpaper birds.

Birdhouses

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Rainbow Finger Painting

 

I read this adorable story with  my Kg.-2nd graders today.  Then, we did dot painting with our fingers.  I like to do this with the younger students because they like to get paint on themselves anyway but I show them that they can have fun, create art, and get messy at the same time :)  Believe it or not, when the kiddos are 'allowed' to stick their fingers in the paint, they are much cleaner and controlled when I tell them not to stick their fingers in the paint...go figure.  Here are some of our paintings:

Fly, Fly Butterfly

We began our unit on butterflies by watching a scientific video that explores the difference between butterflies and moths and also shows the life cycle of a butterfly.  The students really liked watching this video and learning about butterflies.  To expand on their learning, I had each student write 4 things that they learned about butterflies, moths, or caterpillars.  This worked well because I was able to assist each student individually on their blotter butterflies while the other students worked on their writing.   They need help with the blotting part because if they try to press the paint themselves, it usually looks like a big blob :)

Here are our blotter butterflies:

Stay tuned for our finished projects next week :>)

Sailing into the Sunset

     This is a great lesson to emphasize warm and cool colors and simple shapes.  I did this lesson with my Kindergartners and my 2nd graders this year.  I love this because it is a no-fail lesson with stunning results.  We first discussed warm and cool color schemes and painted a horizon line across the middle of the paper.  For the water, students were only to use cool paint colors and for the sky, they were only to use warm colors.  For the sailboats, I have three stencils on the table that they can trace onto sheets of wallpaper and cut them out.  Older students can do this without tracing, but my little ones still need the practice tracing and cutting.

      I also utilize this time to teach the students proper use of watercolor paint.  I don't know about your students, but mine need several reminders on how to use this art medium correctly.  They tend to think that paint needs to be dark and heavy and to achieve the best results, they 'scoop' out the paint instead of dabbing their brush into the paint wells.  So, I do a thorough demonstration every time we use watercolors.  Now, don't get me wrong, there are always a few students who don't use enough water, use too much paint, or try to mix all of the colors together.  And for this student, I breath a big sigh, and remind myself to reteach the watercolor lesson yet again. 

Handprint Bunnies

After reading the story, Hopper Hunts for Spring, students came up with a list of words that rhyme with "Hop".  They wrote the words around the frame on the colored sheet of paper.  Next, I came around and helped them make a handprint in the middle of their gray paper for the bunny's head.  We used construction paper crayons to make the bunny's body and background images.

The Bee Tree

This is a great story about finding adventure, excitement, and wisdom through reading.  I read this story to my students and we discussed the main idea of the story before beginning our art lesson.  Students first drew a landscape depicting their very own Bee Tree using crayons.  Next, in an empty space on their paper, they used their pointer finger to stamp yellow bee bodies and their pinky finger to stamp the heads.  When the yellow paint was dry, they drew lines in the bodies, wings, and stingers.  I like the way that their swarms of bees show movement in their artwork.

Splatter Art - Jackson Pollock

I found this great video on the MOMA website showing the techniques of action painting.  http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/123/687.

I decided to go out on a limb and try this with my 2nd and Kindergarten classes.  Am I crazy or what?  Well, Spring Break is next week and I might as well go out with a bang!

Cherry Blossom finger-painting

Every Spring, I do a little lesson to celebrate the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.  The story about the cherry trees is a nice way to encourage the students to think about friendship and emphasize good deeds.  Just research the history of the cherry trees if you are interested in teaching this lesson in your classes.  I have a slideshow that I play showing photographs of the cherry trees around the Capital in D.C. while the students are working.  I vary this lesson depending on grade level - kinders paint the tree and use fingerprint dots as the blossoms, 1st and 2nd graders paint the tree using the Japanese Sumie technique and paint finger dots in an actual blossom (four dots w/ one in the middle), 3rd and 4th graders paint the trees using the Sumie technique and cut small circles out of pink paper to create their blossoms.

Kindergarten example:

 

1st Grade example (close-up branch painting)

Deep Blue Sea Mural - Day 1

We are in the process of creating a school-wide mural project depicting the deep blue sea.  On day 1, students had the opportunity to watch a video titled, Exploring Tropical Oceans created here at our very own Missouri Botanical Gardens.  Here are the Kindergartners working on depicting plant life in the ocean using oil pastels and chalk pastels:

 

The 1st Graders used plastic soda bottles to transform into 3-D fish.  I had the fish bodies prepared for them before class.  The labels had to be removed, the bottom of the soda bottle cut off, the tail stapled and then shaped by cutting the sides of the tail inward.  The students used sharpie markers to add scales, designs, patterns, and eyes to their fish.  I had them come up to the sink, one at a time, to choose two colors of paint to pour into the mouth of the fish and then we tapped it on the side of the sink to allow the colors to mix.  I think they turned out great!

Self-Portraits

I like this book for it's beautiful illustrations and for the message encouraging diversity.  I read the book to my students, encouraging them to notice the illustrations and the gilded frame around each page.  Next, students went to work on creating self-portraits, trying to match their hair and skin color, and all of the important details that make them unique.  They were also encouraged to draw a background that would either represent where they live or what they like to do.  Lastly, students selected a larger piece of colored construction paper to serve as their "frame".  They used metallic crayons to make their frames special and 'fancy' like the frames in the book.