Pumpkin Observational Still Life Drawings

Here's a quick 40 minute lesson for October- observational drawings of pumpkins. 

I was inspired by THIS lesson. 

I bought all these pumpkins at Dollarama. I was tired of buying real mini pumpkins year after year! I taught this to Grade 4 students.

 

Canadian Animals with Antlers Silhouette Watercolor Painting

This is a watercolor project inspired by a Social Studies teacher I used to work with. He wanted to teach about Canadian animals with antlers. See my more detailed post about this lesson HERE.

Discuss with kids all the different animals we have in Canada with antlers. Don't get confused like me and say 'big horn sheep'- they have horns not antlers!  Antlers are made of true bone, are grown annually, and are dropped and re-grown each year. They are found in the deer family (Cervidae). 

Did you know that the moose is the largest member of the deer family!

Horns (found on animals like Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goats, or Bison) have a bony core covered in a permanent sheath made of keratin, and they are never shed.

We are lucky to live near Banff National Park so most, if not all of my students have seen these animals in the wild!

I changed it up a bit this year. Instead of painting the animal with black paint, we used sharpies. I'm finding the kids joining my classes in Grade 4 are lacking the fine motor skills kids pre-covid had. It's really disheartening to see. Kids are having way too much screen time and art teachers are seeing the consequences of that big time. 

Some Grade 4/5 finished artworks:

 

Glue Line Chalk Leaves

This is a popular fall lesson and a tried and true art technique using glue and chalk pastels on black paper.

Grade 4-6 students looked at a variety of leaves and practiced drawing them. Then they drew a variety on 12 x 18" black construction paper. They outlined them in black pencil crayon so they could see them better. They outlined them using clear glue. Let dry FLAT overnight. The next class, they coloured them in using chalk pastels, after a demonstration from me. Clean off the glue lines using a damp q-tip.

 

Tissue Paper Autumn Collage

This is a super charming tissue paper collage that is sort of reminiscent of 

an Eric Carle illustration.

I found the lesson HERE on the Instagram account: @thelittleartistsroom based in Australia.

Grade 4 - 6 students used scissors, brushes and watered down white glue to cut out simple, stylized shapes for a fall landscape. These were done on 12 x 18" heavy white paper. The biggest challenge was showing student how to use a thin layer of glue. Trees were tricky to cut out as well. Other than that, the kids enjoyed it!

 

Chinese Blue & White Porcelain Scratch Art Vases

This is a fantastic lesson I've incorporated into my "Art of China" unit. 

It's found HERE on one of my all time favorite art blogs: http://arteascuola.com/. She gives all the instructions on her blog.

The only thing we did differently was use white acrylic paint instead of gesso. We also homemade scratching tools and x-acto blades for the scratching part. My kids enjoy this lesson. See my previous post on this lesson HERE. 

I started by showing videos of Chinese porcelain being made and a history of Ming Vases. 

Students start by researching Ming vases and sketching out some shape ideas.

They draw their final design large on heavy white paper. 

Colour it in completely using cobalt blue oil pastels. 

Paint it with one thin coat of white acrylic paint. 

Once dry, students can sketch their designs on top, then scratch it away using a bamboo stick or x-acto blade. My students made their own scratch tools by taping a thumb tack to a pencil. lol.

They loved the precise line this gave!

Some Grade 10-12 results: