Bunny with Glasses art project

This is one of those art projects that went viral on social media but I can't, for the life of me, find the original source. I think it's HERE, but I could be wrong. It's the website TES, which is a British based educational website. 

Nonetheless, you can find variants of this lesson (different backgrounds) all over the internet. 

Some templates are HERE and HERE. 

This would make a great sub lesson if you're going to be out in the Spring as it can be, depending on which media you choose, low mess and low prep!

Some finished artworks by Grade 3 students:

 

Elf drawing and watercolour

Adorable elf watercolours by Grade 3 students.

This is a perfect lesson for that week before Christmas break when teachers are tired and students are high energy! If your school is like mine, art teachers are super busy in December. My school has two winter concerts that I help decorate for and provide artwork for, plus a winter market!

So I definitely try and simplify me lessons during this month for my sanity. Guided drawings are the way to go with younger kids. It helps kids who are not super confident drawers have step by step visuals. And for more advanced or creative students, they can use the handouts and a jumping off point for more creative drawings. 

I found this great step by step handout of an elf drawing HERE on the "Art Projects for Kids" website Kathy has SO many great guided drawing handouts you can print out. Great for days when you need a substitute teacher as well. 

My Grade 3's started by drawing their elf onto heavy white paper.

Then they outline with Sharpie and paint with watercolours. 

Of course you could also use markers or coloured pencils.

They can add, embellish and do whatever they like with their drawings. These would also make cute Christmas cards!

 

Watercolour Leaves with resist

This is a lovely back to school project to inject some colour and pattern into your first bulletin board display. I found the lesson here on the Art Projects for Kids website. 

You'll need: heavy white paper, sharpies, oil pastels, watercolours (we used liquid).

On heavy white paper, Grade 3 students drew a leaf with veins. Fill the page- nice and big!

Outline the leaf in Sharpie. Then fill in the leaf sections using different lines and patterns using oil pastel- press hard for the resist to work!

Draw concentric lines around the leaf with a white oil pastel. 

Then paint everything using watercolours. 

Daffodil Paintings

Even though Spring is nowhere to be found where I live, I figured I'd post these charming daffodil paintings my Grade 3's made last Spring to get me in the mood.

I demonstrated how to draw one daffodil and then how to multiply them to create a bouquet in a vase. I gave my students the choice of drawing simply one (easier) and challenging my stronger students to draw a bouquet. They drew these in pencil on large heavy white paper.

Then they outlined them in Sharpie.

Finally, they painted these using watercolours. A simple two day project :)

Some of the Grade 3 finished paintings:

Torn Paper Insect Collage

If you're looking for a lesson to use up alot of the scrap paper you've accumulated throughout the year, look no further! I found this lesson HERE on the Dickblick website- it has some amazing lesson plans. I did this project with Grade 3, but in future years I think I'll try it with Grade 4 because I wasn't thrilled with the outcomes and quite a few kids struggled with the tearing part and adding more details part.

Below you can see my scrap paper hoarding box- ugh. It usually ends up with garbage in it and tiny pieces of paper even though I tell kids it has to be good paper at least as big as their open palm. 

Anyway, the kids love rummaging though it to see what treasures they might find. 

We started off by reviewing the parts of an insect. I have handouts and book of insects to help them with their ideas. I show them how to find the grain of the paper as well as how to tear an oval and a circle. I give them each a large sheet of black construction paper 12 x 18". They start by ripping the main body, then add the thorax and head and smaller details such as patterns, eyes, antennae, wings, etc. They had to tear everything but then at the end I let them cut the legs with scissors as it became too much of a struggle for them to tear decent straight lines.

Some Grade 3 results: