Carolers Collage

I've started my 'winter holiday' type lessons this past week as there tends to be so many missed classes and interruptions due to the busy nature of our school in December. 

My Grade 4's created these carolers out of construction paper. I've been wanting to try out this lesson for ages and finally got around to it. I found it HERE on the wonderfully charming Catalonian art blog "Plastiquem".

I laid out my 'multicultural' construction paper (I use Pacon brand)  for the student's faces. 

I also laid out smaller pieces of hair colours (blonde, shades of brown and black).

I made a template for the face shape (simple circle), toque, sweater and two mitts. The kids designed patterns for their own sweater, toque and mitts using markers. They cut out the face template and traced it onto their chosen skin colour and cut that out. Once everything was coloured and carefully cut out, they glued it onto black construction paper (night sky). They added hair under their toque.

Then they drew on their faces (simple, cartoon-y style) using a black marker.

I had small photocopies made of "Jingle Bells" sheet music. They folded that in half and glued it under their mittens. One very perceptive student asked, "Why is the sheet music facing outwards? Shouldn't it be facing inwards so they can read it?" hahaha- good point!

They added a pom- pom on their toque if they wanted.

Once everything was glued down nicely, they added snow in the night sky using 

the end of a thin paintbrush dipped in white tempera paint. 

I think they all look adorable!

Oil Pastel Scratch Art Owls

This is a homemade 'scratch art' type of lesson using oil pastels layered in contrasting colours, 

then scratched with a wooden bamboo stick.

I found THIS photo pinned on Pinterest but couldn't find the original source. Please tell me in the comments section if you know the originator of this project.

Grade 3 students started off by drawing an owl onto smooth cardstock, 

then outlined it using a thick Sharpie.

On scrap paper, they practiced using the oil pastels and decided on 

some contrasting colours to use. 

Colour in one area really thickly with one colour, then add another thick layer of a contrasting colour right on top. Using a bamboo stick/skewer, students scratched out various types of patterns.

Afterwards, we cut these out.You could also paint the background.

Some Grade 3 results:

Remembrance Day Painted Poppy

Every year for our school's Remembrance Day Assembly, I try and have some of my students make poppies for decorations.  See last year's poppies HERE.

This year, I had some students in Grades 4-6 free-hand draw poppies 

on large pieces of poster board and then cut them out. 

I demonstrated how to draw a simple poppy using 5 hearts.

Then students painted them using red tempera paint. 

Once dry a bit, they outlined them in black and painted the center.

Once dry they were cut out and varnished (Modge Podge). The edges curled up nicely 

and gave them a slight 3D effect to the petals.

I used a loop of packing tape on the back of each one and stuck them to the gym wall (painted cinder block- the tape worked well) in a flowing like free-style manner.

A simple but effective decoration.