a faithful attempt: June 2015

ABOUT THIS BLOG

"A Faithful Attempt" is designed to showcase a variety of K-12 art lessons, the work of my art students, as well as other art-related topics. Projects shown are my take on other art teacher's lessons, lessons found in books or else designed by myself. Thanks for visiting!
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I acknowledge, with deep respect, that I am gathered on Treaty 7 territory. I acknowledge the many First Nations, Métis and Inuit whose footsteps have marked these lands for generations. I respect the histories, languages and cultures of all the Indigenous peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our community.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Super Cute Ladybugs

I found this super adorable ladybug project HERE on the Georgetown Elementary Art Blog. I also did it with my Grade 1 class- I have a big 'insects in art' unit I do with them, so this fit in nicely.

Day 1: I pre-cut 12 x 18" white paper into squares. They drew a border and painted it using tempera pucks. I love the convenience of these. I encouraged them to use a light colour for the center part (like yellow). That way, the ladybug that is glued on will really show up.

The next class, students made their ladybugs out of red and black construction paper. They glued the body down frist, then an oval head on top. We used reinforcements for the eyes. The legs and antennae were drawn on using a black marker.

They're so cute!

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Glue Line Chalk Pastel Landscapes

This is a chalk pastel landscape lesson I did in conjunction with the Grade 4 Social Studies teacher at my school. They study geographical regions in our province as part of their curriculum. In art, students chose a region to develop into a landscape. They needed to include a background, middle ground and foreground. We used one of my favourite techniques: clear glue on black construction paper. Students needed about 4-40 minute periods to complete these.

On day one, students chose a landscape region- I printed out reference photos for them from the Internet.

I also projected a slideshow of different landscape photos onto my flat screen tv (which I looooove).

Students drew their landscape, in pencil, on 12 x 18" black construction paper.

Then they outlined all their pencil lines using Elmer's clear glue. I prefer clear glue, as opposed to white glue, for this technique. I will say, though, that these glue bottles are tough for little hands to squeeze- they're quite rigid, at least mine are.

Let these dry flat overnight.

Then students coloured them in using chalk pastels. My students either LOVE or HATE chalk pastels!! I love how you can blend with them and easily go over any 'mistakes'. I hate how messy they are!! I demonstrated how to mix colours and use white to create highlights and extra realism.

Grade 4 results: