Frogs in a Pond (with Monet) 1st Grade

I love lessons where I can tie in different areas of study, art history and art techniques!  This is a project I developed that incorporates study of frogs, Monet and watercolor painting.


To start this project, we learn about the artist Claude Monet and his paintings of ponds and lilypads.  We read a book about Monet:

(This series is awesome for read-alouds in class.  I love the picture books about art, but I want the pictures in the book to be actual pictures made by that artist.  I don't like picture books that have art created by a different illustrator.  For example, if the book is about Van Gogh and none of the pictures in the book were painted by Van Gogh, the story book can be confusing to kids.  Does that make sense?  There are a lot of picture books out there about artists, but the artwork was done by someone else.  This series of books combines cartoons and ACTUAL artworks by the artist, which I feel is so important.  And this series breaks things down in easy-to-understand concepts for the kids.  I always tell the kids ahead of time that the cartoons about the artist were not drawn by the artist, but by someone else.. otherwise one of the kids will raise their hands and ask, "So did Monet draw these cartoons?")  Anyways......  After we read this book, we also watched the movie "Linnea in Monet's Garden".  As we watch the movie, I again make sure to point out the actual pictures Monet painted. 

 

After we learn a little about the background of Monet's artwork, we paint a watercolor picture of a pond.  I show them how to use the wet-on-wet watercolor technique.  Paint the paper with water first, then add wet colors of paint.  We talk about cool colors and the colors they might see in a pond.

Then, we cut out lilypads from green construction paper and added little fluffs of tissue paper for flowers.

The first graders read a series of books called Frog and Toad in their language arts classroom.  At the same time they study frogs (and other amphibians) in Science class.  In art class, we look at pictures of frogs and observe the details and draw them as realistically as possible. They do some practice sketches first and then I teach them on the whiteboard some steps to draw a frog if they are struggling.  They outline these frogs with green marker and color in with crayons.  Then, they are cut out and glued to the pond.  Some of them glue down the legs and bend them so the frogs pop off the page, and some of the kids glue them down flat. 

Insect Habitat-- Lesson Plan-- 3rd Grade

Third graders worked together to make an insect habitat on large butcher paper.  They had been studying habitats in their Science class.

We used Model Magic, beads, pipe cleaners and corrugated paper to make the insects and oil pastels to color them. 

The kids did a great job, but I'm not sure how I feel about Model Magic... we've been having a tough time getting the pieces to stay together.  Some of the heads and body parts had to be hot glued back together.  If I did this project again, we might just make the insects from painted papers. 

Abstract Oil Pastel Trees-- 4th/5th grade

This is a lesson I teach every year because the results are so beautiful!  Each of the kid's drawings just turns out wonderful.

The 4/5s drew trees to complement their studies in Science class.
How can line be used creatively to make a stylized picture?  How can oil pastels be used effectively?   The students aimed to use line creatively and made stylized art.  A focus of the lesson was color mixing, blending and layering of the oil pastel.

Steps:
Day One-- (40 minutes)
1.  Show images of Piet Mondrian's abstract trees.  I use a powerpoint slideshow to show his art work.  Discuss how he started out with realistic trees, then they became more and more abstract.  Finally, his style progressed to just shapes, lines and colors... the style with primary colors which he is most known for.  

2.  Sketch a stylized tree with pencil.  Make sure the trees branches create sections for coloring in.  These lines should touch the edges of the page.  Tell the students that they can draw their tree with creative lines, but to avoid drawing lots and lots of tiny branches.

3.  Paint over the tree lines with black tempera paint.  You might need two coats to make it nice and solid.  At this point, many of the children are done with this step and can move on next period.  Others will need to finish painting the next class period.

Day Two, Three and maybe Four-- (40 minutes) 

4.  After the paint is dry, color thickly with oil pastels in each of the white sections (negative space).  Layer colors on top of each other to mix colors.  Then, use your finger to smudge and blend.  Show the students how they can make a color lighter by adding white or darker by adding black.  Show them how to make gradations or color changes within the sections (for example blending purple and blue from one side to the other).

Robots and Chicks

I just wanted to show you one more very cool picture.. it was another parody of American Gothic.  This student was absent and had to catch up on this project. 

Here are the baby chicks our school hatched, which are now growing into chickens!  They grow so fast!

I realized that I did not show you the pictures of the chicks when they were first hatched:

First Grade Bird Paintings-- Audubon

These beautiful bird paintings were drawn and painted by first graders.  The students learned about the artist John James Audubon and we read a book about his life.


I love this book about Audubon, because it has beautiful pictures and ties science and art together nicely.


The students looked at pictures of birds and drew them with crayons.  Then we painted the background with tempera cakes. 

This is a lovely picture.. too bad we didn't use thicker paper, it wrinkled a bit.  Lesson learned!

Clouds in Art

The fifth/sixth grade class painted watercolor clouds.  I have blogged about this project before here.

 

 

3rd grade Animal Habitats..

Frogs on a Lilypad with Monet-- 1st grade

       In Art class, the 1st graders looked at Claude Monet’s artwork, especially his paintings of ponds.  Using a variety of painting techniques the 1st graders painted a pond with watercolors.  Frogs were drawn with crayons and markers. Lilypads were added with construction paper and tissue paper.  The children were studying frogs and toads in their Science class and read about them in LA/SS/D.

Clouds Watercolor Painting

 

I am taking a watercolor class this summer at the local recreation and parks department.  Our first real painting assignment was to paint a picture of clouds.  No, it couldn't be just a white cloud on white paper.  This was a great assignment, because it is actually one that I do with my 5th and 6th grade students.  Now I will know some new tips and techniques to share with them. 

You can see their beautiful pictures at this blog post.

I'm pleased with how the clouds turned out, but I might go back in and define the tree/grass area.

Pointillist Trees

 

The 3/4s painted Pointillist Trees.  They have studied trees in Science.  We learned about the artist Georges Seurat by reading Scholastic Art magazine.  Students identified and described Pointillist paintings.   They created a Pointillist painting of trees showing dimension and form by color mixing.  Tips:  use the back end of the paintbrush, a q-tip or a small brush.  Keep the size of the paper small (9x12" is plenty).