Spooky Silhouettes-- Kindergarten

We just finished these lovely Halloween pictures today.  I don't really like doing "holiday" art during art class unless I can tie in some solid art concepts.  (That's why I sometimes do the fun crafty afterschool classes.)  For this project, the kindergartners learned a few art vocabulary words:

Silhouette
the outline or general shape of something...  a dark image outlined against a lighter background.

Warm Colors

the yellows and reds of the color spectrum, associated with fire, heat, sun, and warmer temperatures;

	Reds, oranges, and yellows are warm colors.

Step 1:  Talk about the difference between warm and cool colors.  Paint backgrounds with tempera paints using warm colors: reds, oranges, yellows.

Step 2:  During the next class period, pass out black and white paper and black markers.  Show the students how to cut out silhouettes of spooky things.  Brainstorm some things they can include in their pictures.  Use black markers to add extra details.

(I think the person on the right might be holding a chainsaw!)

Simple, yet expressive.

This girl spent awhile cutting the fringe for the shutters on the house.

This girl reminded the class that ghosts aren't white, they are INVISIBLE!  (hence the sketchy lines of the ghost) 

There is also THIS super fun spooky silhouette project I saw on Pinterest.  Googly EYES!!

Mondrian-- Primary Colors lesson plan-- Kindergarten

This is a great beginning of the year project for kindergartners. 

During the first 40 min. class period:

1.  Identify the primary colors:  RED, BLUE and YELLOW.  Show the color wheel and discuss.  (During the next project, we experiment with color mixing.)

2.  Teach about the artist Piet Mondrian.  I use a Powerpoint slideshow to show the artworks and explain about his style.  Discuss the straight lines, shapes and colors.

3.  The children glue pre-cut black strips to the paper.

During the second 40 min. class period:

1.  Review the primary colors and pass out crayons.  (Some of the crayons appear to be blue or red, but then when you color it actually looks pink or purple... so either test on a scrap piece of paper or have the kids test them out.)

2.  Color in the sections.  Admire your artwork.

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Surreal House Collages

The fourth and fifth graders learned about Surrealism for this project.  I started by showing them how to set up their houses using colored construction paper.  These pictures were LARGE.. the size of a posterboard.  The individual colored construction papers were 9x12".  Each child started with 4 sheets of colored construction paper to set up their house.  Then, they flipped through magazines to cut out furniture and items for their houses.  After they had found a bunch of furniture, I introduced Surrealism to them through a slide show of art.  We discussed concepts such as dislocation (placing things were they don't belong), scale and size changes to create unusual relations and metamorphosis (changing things into something new).  They learned about artists such as Magritte, Dali and contemporary artist Sandy Skoglund.

The students had a fantastic time cutting apart magazine imagery and playing with different objects to create an unusual and surreal house.

Some of the detail shots were even more interesting than the entire image as a whole.

For example, this dog with a party hat and corn?  so fun!

Placing a bear head on top of a man?  hilarious!

Some of the students used colored tape to divide up the house into rooms and add stairs or ladders.

 

This student cut up lots of landscape imagery to make a background.

I love this interesting scene.

TIPS:  When I do this next year, I will request some furniture catalogs.. IKEA catalogs would have been perfect for this.  The kids loved to use animal pictures, so I might have requested some animal magazines from families as well. 

Symmetrical Felt Wall Hangings

For this project, the first graders learned about symmetry and fabric arts.  I tied this lesson into quilt making and the children identified symmetry in some pictures of early American quilts and discussed why people would make quilts and why they would use scraps to sew their quilts.

Then, using burlap, felt and fabric scraps, they made their own fabric wall hanging showing symmetry.  We used regular Elmer's glue to  adhere everything.  At the end, I brought out buttons and gems and those were hot glued on.

City Collages- 2nd grade

The second graders had a lot of fun making these recycled city collages.  I got the idea from this project on Pinterest.  The second graders are studying urban and rural communities, so it ties in with their class curriculum.  I precut a whole bunch of squares and rectangles from magazine pages on the cutting board. Then, the students used the shapes (and also paint chip strips) to construct buildings.  Later, they added colorful tape and stickers.

Painting Leaves-- 1st grade

Painted Leaves-- First Grade

 

 These lovely fall leaves were painted with watercolor by the 1st graders!

 

Book Giveaway Winner

I photocopied some leaves on paper for the kids to play with.  This student used colored tape and marker to transform his leaves.  It thought these were fun.

The Alternative Art Journals book giveaway goes to mom2h who said...
"I am just starting to explore art journaling, and in fact, have your art journal blog ( and a couple of others) placed at the top of my bookmarks to remind myself to seek out ideas. I haven't taught it, but we do a loose version of a sketch diary. I'm hoping once I become more personally familiar with art journaling, to incorporate it in our art lessons. I would love to win the book. I've just started an art journal idea file, and it would be so helpful to add fodder to the file. My first "book base" will be made using some old chipboard alphabetical file dividers (faded aqua!) that I found in a set of metal file drawers I bought at a flea market. Thanks for the chance!"

Please send me your postal address!

Quick Tip: Making Time for Art

How do you make time for your own art?  

Do you spend time making your own art?

Quick Tip:  Keep an art journal where you can try out techniques for your teaching. 

I had been trying out all sorts of techniques for Gelli plate printing and I made lots of samples for my 5th/6th grade class.  When I had all of the papers painted, I took some pieces home and arranged them into a collage for my art journal. 

3rd Grade Radial Designs

Radial designs are so much fun to make!
The third graders made these.  Have done these before and the lesson plan directions are on previous posts.  SEE THESE!