Haunted Landscapes

     In true Halloween spirit, I decided to let my 6th graders have a little bit of fun this season.  Usually I save all of the holiday themed projects for my younger kids and keep the older kids working on things like value, perspective, art history, and the like.  Now, don't get me wrong, all of these things are VERY important in an art lesson and some could say that the elements and principles of art are the foundation to everything we do.  I could not agree more.  However, 6th graders are kids, too, and they deserve to make a Halloween project just like the rest of them.
     So, we painted the background first using red, yellow, and orange paint to create the sunset.  Next, I showed them how to cut out the shape of a house and fold the paper to cut out the windows (believe it or not, some kids didn't know this little trick!).  For the details like bats, trees, and so on, we used sharpie markers.  It would have been a tad too tedious to make the kids cut out the tree silhouettes and the small details.  Hope you find some inspiration you can use in your lessons!

Visual & Actual Texture

      This is a great lesson for this time of year!  The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, & the colors are vibrant and warm.  I found this lesson at www.thatartistwoman.org/.  She does an amazing job teaching lessons that involve layers of interesting materials, colors, and themes.  Check it out!

      First, we worked on tagboard because the yarn can be heavy when glued to paper.  The students cut out circles from brown poster board and used long pieces of yarn to glue around the circle.  Since this is a skill that can take a LOT of time, I had them fill the inside of their circle with pre-cut pieces of yarn.  This way, we still get the radial design of the circle with added texture in the middle.  Next, the students cut the tree trunk from pieces of brown poster board in the shape of a letter "Y".  Lastly, I demonstrated how to paint the background to depict visual texture.  This painting technique involves NO BRUSH WASHING, which makes the project move faster.  We started with blue for the sky and added white for contrast.  The colors mix to create a lighter hue and eventually the brush will dry out from making the left-to-right brushstrokes.  Then, they dip the brush in the green, make sideways brushstrokes until their brush is dry and use white again for contrast.  Next, the dip their (dry) brush in the red, then in the orange, yellow, and lastly white again.  Now don't get me wrong, some of the students DID, in fact, end up with a brown ground because their brushes weren't totally dry before they dipped into the red.  But, that's OK... a brown ground is just fine!  Here are some finished 5th grade works of art:

 By Victor 

 By Stephen

By Diamond

Painting & Descriptive Writing

     Well.  I have to admit.  I am a sucker for all things cross-curricular this year.  I was trained under the theory that Art is for Arts Sake.  A painting can stand alone solely on visual interpretation.  As I become an active member of our school 'family' by sitting in on grade-level data teams and see what concepts our kids are struggling with on assessments, I feel the need to support them in any way that I can.  There.  I said it.

    I feel like descriptive writing is a weakness for some of our kiddos.  It takes some 'thinking outside of the box'.  It takes some 'imagination'.  And what better place to use imagination than in the Art Room?  So, I found this painting inspiration on Pinterest (yes, I'm addicted):

Here's the link to the original lesson: 

http://arteascuola-miriampaternoster.blogspot.com/2011/01/paesaggi-in-gradazione-tonale.html

    We started talking about perspective and how objects become smaller as they go farther away from you.  Then, I introduced the students to the concept of Atmospheric Perspective and how the colors of things become less intense the farther you look.  So, I showed the students three different ways to draw their lines to depict either a desert or a meadow landscape (with soft curved lines), a forest landscape (like the one above), or a mountain landscape (using jagged/peaked lines).  Next, I let them select one color for their palette.  I gave them a scoop of white per area they had on their paper (5 hills, 5 scoops of white).  The directions were to paint the foreground with the original color, the second space with one scoop of white mixed in, the third space with another scoop of white, and so on.  

     When the paintings were finished, they were to write a descriptive paragraph telling the viewer where they are, what they feel (temperature or emotion), what they hear, what do they see, etc.  We talked about the moods of color and color temperature.  

     Next class period, I gave them colored pencils and let them add details to their paintings to depict exactly what type of landscape they have.  They were instructed to use visual perspective when drawing their objects.  Here are some stellar examples:

African Landscapes

     With my 2nd graders, we watched this video showing the rich wildlife of the African landscape:

     Next, I introduced them to the concept of silhouettes.  This is a tough one for little ones because you have to explain light direction and shadowing.  Even though they may not totally understand the abstract concept, they can gain an understanding of why the images are all in black.  I emphasized painting their sunsets from light to dark, starting with yellow and ending with red, or the darkest color on their palette.  Here are a few examples:

 by Aaryn J.

 by Brian T.

 by Aaliyah B.

by anonymous 2nd grader