Winter Styrofoam Prints

Styrofoam prints are always a sure-fire hit with kids. They're pretty easy to make as well; you just need to set up some effective printing stations.

For these prints created by Grade 2 students, they first drew a winter scene 

into a piece of styrofoam with a dull pencil.

Once the drawing was finished, using a foam brush, students painted over the styro with white acrylic paint. Place a piece of coloured paper on top (choose something darker for contrast) and rub firmly with a brayer, a rolling pin or simply your hand. Peel off carefully and students will be amazed!

Fall Trees

The last of the fall leaves are slowly falling off the trees. Kids drew these Fall trees in pencil first, 

then colored with oil pastels. Color mixing and blending was encouraged. 

I was inspired by these charming trees done my students at Cedar Creek Elementary.

Chalk Pastel Dinosaurs

LOVE the cheeky grin on this guy

Any dinosaur project tends to be a big hit with elementary students. Grade 3 kids had a blast with this project and I was super thrilled with the variety of dinos the kids created.

I was inspired by the wonderful dinosuar project posted on 

one of my favourite blogs: Deep Space Sparkle. 

She did hers with Grade 1 students and they are all adorable.

So, to start, have kids research different dinosaurs (internet, books, posters, whatever you have) and have them choose one to re-create. They loved discussing all they knew about dinos and they really get into it! 

I demonstrated on the board how to draw a simplified dinosaur, to look at it's 

overall shape and pick out the main parts to draw. 

We ideally want these drawings to be bold and fairly simple. Sometimes kids at this age can get too caught up in tiny details and trying to get the drawing 'just right' then it's too small and detailed and tricky to colour with chalk pastels...

So the kids then draw their good copy on large black construction paper. I really model and encourage the kids to 'fill the space' - draw BIG!! If there's large areas of empty space leftover, kids can add a sun, clouds, stuff in the background, whatever they want.

Once drawn in pencil, pass over all the lines with a black wax crayon or black oil pastel.

Once outlined, kids colored them in using chalk pastels. Roll up sleeves- this media is M-E-S-S-Y.

Kids could color these however they wanted- fantasy-like or realistic- it was up to them.

I encourage blending to blend out the colours- fingers work fine but many kids prefer using a tissue.

Ta da!

love the eeevil sun...and scared look on the dinos face...

I believe this is supposed to be a Pterodactyl but it really reminds me of
the winged alien creatures from the movie "Pitch Black"  creeeeepy

Autumnal Fingerprint Trees

Grade 1 students learned how to draw a 'realistic' Autumn tree with falling leaves. 

This is a classic Art Teacher project and most kids can find success with this!

Students practised drawing a bare tree first in their sketchbook. I demonstrated on the board. I have students describe a bare tree and what they see. We talk about the difference between the thick, strong branches and the thinner twigs. We start with the trunk, then add some thick branches and then the thinner twigs last.

For the good copy, students worked on regular construction paper. They drew their grass line and tree first. Then, using oil pastels (you could also use wax crayons), students colored the grass and tree. Once everything was good and colored, I passed out plastic lids with a squirt of yellow, orange and red tempera paint. Students needed to choose one finger only (to minimize mess- which there still was a lot of!) and then they dipped their finger in the paint and created all the leaves. The kids had alot of fun with this!