Animal Goes on Vacation Collage & Watercolour

Here in Canada, my province recently emerged from a week long cold spell- we're talking -42 C!!

So this vacation project was the perfect anecdote to visually escape the cold. I found this lesson from an art teacher on a Facebook group, "Art Teacher Life", I belong to.  This teacher is from Perth, Australia so she used an Australian animal (a quokka) for their version. 

See her art projects on Instagram @art__teacher__life

So I bought a bunch of calendars of holiday destinations. 

Buy your calendars in early January to get huge discounts of around 75% off like I did.

Grade 4 - 6 students chose a calendar page. 

Then they carefully cut away the sky.

On a sheet of 12 x 18 heavy white paper, students painted a sky of their choice. 

While the sky is drying, students drew a Canadian animal of their choice 

and coloured it in with coloured pencils.

Once the sky paper is dry, glue the calendar page on top.

Then cut out and glue on the animal. 

Some of the Grade 4 - 6 results!

Personalized Colour Wheel Paintings

This is a beautiful colour theory lesson perfect for the start of the year. This year I didn't manage to get to it until December for some reason though!

Grade7 - 9 students started by filling out a colour wheel- this is to be used as reference for the later steps. 

Then, on a long strip of cardstock, students design a long shape. Cut it out and this is the tracer. They trace this shape 12 times onto heavy white paper. Then they paint/colour each shape, following the colour wheel. Students could use any media they wanted to colour these- most used watercolours but others chose oil pastels, chalk pastel or tempera. 

Once dry, cut them all out. 

I pre-cut large squares of black construction paper. Students put a small circular container in the middle of the paper so they can lay their pieces around this to keep it all even. Getting the pieces spaced out evenly is, by far, the hardest part of this project. I started getting the kids to show me their composition before gluing as many of them had them unevenly spaced out. 

Grade 7 - 9 finished pieces:

Wycinanki Evergreen Tree Paper Cuts-outs

Wycinanki – intricate paper cut-outs – have been a popular folk craft in Poland since the 1900s.  In Poland, the decorative cut-outs are mainly associated with two regions – Łowicz and Kurpie.  The Kurpie cut-outs are made with a single sheet of paper and are thus totally symmetrical and only one colour.  Those from the Łowicz area feature colourful designs built from layering the intricate cut-outs.  Though traditionally hung as decorations in windows, on walls, and from ceiling joints, today the classic designs are found everywhere.

My Grade 6 students made Kurpie style paper cut outs of evergreen trees. This is a perfect winter lesson- you can also do at Christmas and I do this and allow my students the choice of doing a traditional Christmas tree or simply and evergreen tree. I have students from many different religious and cultural backgrounds so giving them this choice is important. I'm also glad that I work in a school that gives teachers the freedom to teach any lessons regardless of religious or holiday overtones. I try to represent many different holidays from different cultures in my art lessons. 

I also like this project before the holidays because it's simply paper, so a low-key, low mess project for when the students and myself are ready for a holiday!

I've posted this lesson previously HERE.

Student start by doing a practice tree. They fold a sheet of 9 x 12" white paper in half vertically and draw half of an evergreen tree. Then they cut it out. They can do inside cuts or use a single hole punch to add dot details. 

Once they've shown me their practice tree, they move on to their good copy. 

This gets glued down, pencil side down, onto 9 x 12" black paper. 

I let these dry about an hour, then I flatten them under a stack of heavy boards. Then I like to glitter the edges- this is optional but looks soooooo pretty!!!!

These look amazing on display!