Animals with Sweaters Art Project

 

Here's a wonderful winter lesson teaching students about implied texture through use of lines. 

It also teaches pattern. I taught this to Grade 4-6 classes.

I used ideas for this project from the lessons posted HERE and HERE.

I do believe the originator of this project (there are various versions posted online, with no attribution given, as usual) by Art Room Britt. 

I started off by showing a slideshow of the animal work by Mexican illustrator and graphic designer Indi Maverick. Then I did a demonstration.

Students chose their animal from handouts I had. Racoons and deer were BY FAR the most popular. 

They drew their animals on tabloid photocopy paper, then did all the line work in sharpie.

They coloured in the sweater only. 

We created a frame for the artwork using kraft paper. 

They drew a pattern along the edges using paint pens. 

Some of the finished artwork- I love how cute and cozy they turned out!

Winter Bird Paper Craft

This is a cute and quick craft if you need a project to finish in one period. I taught these, with the help of the Kindergarten teacher team, in one 40 minute period to a mixed group of Kinder, Grade 1,2 and 3 students. This project is definitely too easy for Grade 3 students but they still seemed to enjoy it.

I found the lesson HERE on the craft website krokotak. They provide templates and everything you need for easy but cute crafts.

To save time, I pre-splattered white paint onto blue construction paper. 

I cut brown construction paper in half and printed off one bird template per student.

For the branch, we talked about tearing the paper to create texture to resemble bark. They did this step first. Tearing the paper into a strip proved challenging for some students for sure. 

But they got the hang of it. 

Then they coloured in the bird using pencil crayons, with accents of markers. I encouraged them to do a pattern on the scarf. Cut out the bird, fold down the wing flap and glue on top of the branch. Draw on legs with a marker. Everyone just managed to finish in the 40 minute period!

 

Faux Stained Glass with Tin Foil & Sharpies

Here's a lovely faux stained glass project I've done for the past few years.

It always yields very pretty results. I usually teach this lesson right before Christmas, so students have a chance to do a Christmas/holiday theme if they want.

See my previous posts and instructions HERE and HERE and HERE.

For the background, we use cereal boxes. I collect these from teachers.

Cut the boxes down using a sturdy paper cutter.

On regular photocopy paper, students draw their chosen stained glass design. My student look up images online. Just type in 'stained glass patterns', etc. I encourage them to include a border. 

Then they slide their drawing into a page protector and outline all their pencil lines with a Sharpie. Then they colour in the design with coloured sharpies. 

Cut away the design and staple it onto the cereal box that has been covered with crumpled up aluminum foil. This year we tried attaching it using double sided tape, but it DID NOT stick at all. 

Stick with stapling, trust me!

Some finished Grade 7-9 artworks:

 

Two friends did a this artwork together.

A few Christmas themed ones:

A group of my girls always does a theme together. For this they did a mash-up of Disney heroines mixed with the villian, lol

A bass playing a bass!